Fabrication company enjoys the benefits of its new Geka flat punch and shear line supplied by Prosaw.
Formed in 2010, Saxon Fabrications Ltd., specialise in the fabrication of structural steelwork such as columns, beams, portal frames, stairways, ladders and secondary steelwork.
Conveniently situated in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, the company fabricates in the region of 50 tonnes of steelwork each week. A speciality of the company is the production of flat bar “fittings”, designed and produced as fixing flanges for numerous types of building frame constructions.
In order to upgrade the production capacity of their flat bar fittings, Prosaw has recently installed a Geka Alfa 500 Flat Punch and Shear line. The new system can accommodate flat bars of between 50mm x 3mm up to 500mm x 20mm and with a maximum length of 6 metres, all of which are suitable for automatic hole punching, a feature that delayed the acquisition of a beam drilling machine until production requirements had further increased.
The hole punching station
The Geka system uses DSTV files to directly program from CAD format to the machine tool. This system allows fittings of various different lengths and hole centres to be sheared and punched from a single flat bar, making the Geka system particularly flexible and easy to use.
In this respect, the system has proved to be a significant cost saving facility, as the Company’s previous shearing system required the presence of a second operator, which is now no longer required. Additionally, not only does the company not need to outsource production in times of under capacity, but the increase in capacity that the Geka system has provided allows the company to bid for larger jobs.
Commented Managing Director Andrew Wharton, “We reviewed several different makes of punching and shearing systems before purchasing the Geka machine. Our decision was influenced by its ease of use, its extended tool life and the lack of problems compared to other makes, as well as its competitive price. We purchased a bandsaw from Prosaw three years ago and have been very impressed by the standards of service offered by the company, in fact we’ve never had a problem that wasn’t satisfactorily fixed by a Prosaw engineer straight away.”
Finished cropped and punched flat bar fittings
