EDUMAR SETS ON FLEXIBLE AUTOMATION.

Edumar Metaalbewerking BV | FORTE 65 EL, ACURA 85 EL
Field of application: Contract manufacturing | Company headquarters: Someren, Netherlands | Employees: 40

"Never change a winning team."

"Never change a winning team" - this could be the headline for the collaboration between HEDELIUS Maschinenfabrik and automation specialist BMO at Dutch manufacturing company Edumar Metaalbewerking. On the way to even more flexible unmanned production, the company has now opted for a joint solution from the two manufacturers for the second time.

At its site in the city of Someren, Edumar mainly manufactures components made of stainless steel and aluminium. Founded in 1995 by brothers Marius and Eduard Wijlaars, the company now supplies customers from the packaging and medical technology, food and chip industries as well as the shipbuilding and toolmaking sectors in the Netherlands and Germany. For contract customers, the company also produces in bearing in order to make production flexible, maximise capacity utilisation and ensure short delivery times. "We manufacture the contract products at weekends and overnight so that they don't clash with other orders," explains Eduard Wijlaars. "Our machines are always running overnight and at weekends. We are processing more and more small quantities in a large variety, i.e. so-called 'low volume high mix'".

Grow with your own tasks.

A major order in 2022 required additional production capacity: large quantities of aluminium plates were to be processed for a production hall in the semiconductor industry. The Wijlaars brothers quickly realised that automation was necessary for an order of this size. However, due to their size of over 600 x 600 mm, these plates were not compatible with the existing pallet magazine. A new automation solution was needed. "However, we didn't just want to load the large panels, we also wanted to be able to mill smaller components unmanned in the new cell later on," emphasises Eduard Wijlaars.

Debut for innovative automation solution.

This requirement profile made Edumar the ideal pilot customer for the new Infinity platform from BMO Automation, which was previously presented internationally at EMO 2023. The modular design of this cell makes it easy to add additional storage modules. The height of the standardised carriers for products and tools, such as vices, can be adjusted. This dynamic storage is controlled by intelligent algorithms.

The first module purchased for the Infinity platform was a pallet handling system, together with the FORTE 65 3-axis machining centre from HEDELIUS, which boasts a 65-place tool magazine that can be loaded parallel to machining. This was followed a few months later by the ACURA 85, a 5-axis machining centre. "This also gave rise to the need for product handling," explains Eduard Wijlaars. "We manufacture many manufacturers on the five-axis centre." For the future, Edumar is planning to expand the cell to include automatic loading using an AMR (Autonomous Mobile Robot) - an optional feature that has already been prepared and can be optimally implemented with the two HEDELIUS machining centres.

Automation with vision.

It is therefore no coincidence that CNC machining centres from HEDELIUS were chosen in both cases. After all, the two CNC machines are specially designed for automation: They have pre-configured interfaces for automation solutions from various manufacturers and each has a pneumatically activated stainless steel loading door on the side, which allows frontal access to the work area to be maintained at all times - for set-up and control work, but also for the production of single parts during the day shift. The modular expandability of the Infinity platform thus opens up the high compatibility and flexibility of HEDELIUS machining centres. In short: a strong automation trio that grows with the company and can be flexibly adapted to future operational decisions and requirements.

In principle, it would also be possible to connect additional CNC milling machines to the Infinity platform. For Eduard Wijlaars, however, the two HEDELIUS machines are sufficient: "If you weigh up the cost of the robot against the cost of one machine, a cell with two CNC machines is a good solution, especially if we soon start working with the AMR."

Proven strengths for new tasks.

Edumar has been relying on HEDELIUS and BMO as a "dream team" since 2018. At that time, an ACURA 65 was purchased, which, in combination with the Titanium 180 pallet automation system, has since confidently and reliably met the high productivity and precision requirements. Even at that time, the high level of interface compatibility, the ease of operation from the front and the 65-position tool magazine were decisive factors in favour of HEDELIUS. We can therefore speak of convinced "repeat offenders".