FabShop Magazine - March 2012 - 11

››› EVs MEtals
da FBD III 8025 Press Brakes with 8-axis backgauges, Amada ID40ST Spot-Welders – there’s orange and brown everywhere you look. And because so much of their equipment is equipped with automation, EVS runs “a bunch of hours” untended, especially on their turrets and brakes. A typical night shift might see one turret operator overseeing five machines. “He’s really just there to make sure nothing goes wrong,” explains Evans. “He’ll restock material if needed and make sure no slugs are pulling, but that’s usually about it.” EVS Metal is a job shop. They run a variety of work – customer part numbers run in the tens of thousands – in lot sizes from a handful of pieces to a tractor trailer’s worth. As a result, they focus heavily on reducing setup time. Evans points at the press brake area. “All of the machines are linked together and can share programs and tooling. Since a large percentage of our work repeats, being able to easily put a job on any machine gives us a lot of flexibility. And all of our programming is done offline, directly from customer CAD files.” But if the majority of their work repeats, what’s the big deal about offline programming? “You still have to set it up the first time,” points out Amico. “And it’s that 20 percent of the work that gives you 80 percent of the problems. Offline programming gives us the ability to pre-engineer the forming process – often the most complicated part of a sheet-metal part – and attack problems before the part is punched or cut. We can still make changes to the part if necessary, rather than when it is on the press and the shop is under pressure to deliver.” How do they do that? EVS Metal utilizes a variety of engineering tools, including SolidWorks and ProE, but for their bending work they use Amada SheetWorks together with Dr Abe Bend; for programming their forming robots, they have Dr Abe Astro. “These software tools mean decreased setup time on the first run of even the most complicated part, as well as on subsequent runs,” says Amico. “They’re This is a large, welded generatorinterface cabinet.

Tooling cabinet for specialized carbon-fiber aircraft repair kit. This isn’t their first rodeo. “We went through the same selection process back in 2008,” says Amico. At that time, they were looking to trade in two older lasers for one with automation. “We didn’t want the machine sitting idle while we were unloading parts. With a material handling system, you can get the next sheet up on the table right away and keep cutting.” Evans points out that they also wanted newer cutting technology. As it turns out, they got it…in spades. Where they once ran two machines for two shifts a day, they now get the same work out in just one shift, with a single machine – a four-fold increase in productivity. Part of that is due to the Amada’s 4kW oscillator, which gives EVS pierce times of one second, 12 to 14 times faster than those old sheet draggers they got rid of. “Improvements like that are incredible,” says Evans. “It might not seem like a big deal, but when you think about how many pierces you do per day, it adds up.” They’re also seeing much better edge quality on the new Amada, allowing them to eliminate secondary operations. “You have to look at the whole value proposition,” says Amico. “Sure, there are some machines out there that move faster and cut faster than the Amada. We could have opted for linear motors, or more robust material handling, but we would have spent another $200,000 for basically the same machine. For our budget, it was a no-brainer. We came right back to the Amada.” extensive capacity and capabilities Aside from the price and technology offering they received, EVS preferred to go with Amada for another reason as well. “We have four facilities, and we share a lot of work between them, so we try to keep the technology the same across all locations,” says Evans. Indeed, the first thing you’ll wonder when first stepping onto the Austin shop floor is how many Amada salesmen retired here. Aside from the Amada laser, there are Amada Vipros 358 King II Turret Presses with FMS load/unload stations, Ama-

FabShop Magazine - March 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of FabShop Magazine - March 2012