Schnell offers the GO approach to machining
01 March 2004
Reinforcement processing equipment manufacturer Schnell says that its special production software – Graphico Optimo (GO) – and the fabrication equipment – Bar-wiser – offer the benefits of high productivity and flexibility, while machining reinforcement bars.
Says a spokesman for the Italian company: “Bar-wiser cuts and bends bars of any shape (also those with bends at both ends) and deposits them on a carriage divided into many compartments.
“The biggest advantage of using the Bar-wiser is that when the machining cycle has been completed, we have eight to 10 elements nice and ready on the carriage, complete with all the straight and bent bars: all that remains to be done is to free the carriage and start another cycle,” he says.
“Bar-wiser is now available with the exclusive automatic bar loader Genius, which eliminates the operator’s job of loading the bars, providing an unbeatable combination in flexibility and productivity for every shaping centre dedicated to the housing sector.
“Bar-wiser also lends itself perfectly to other uses, because in practice it is like having a cutting bench and a bending robot all-in-one, but it is in the housing sector and in machining by element where the technological advantage compared to any other system is unparalleled,” he points out.
Schnell says that the combination allows the easy preparation of assembly kit containing straight or bent bars to assemble a certain reinforcing structure (beams and pillars).
Schnell believes that machining by element is better accomplished by starting off with steel in bars for the following reasons:
• Bars are found in every possible diameter and this means that all the bars to make up the elements can be produced;
• The bars are already straight and hence the machines are more simple and less costly;
• Expert personnel are not required to operate these machines; and
• The bar diameter can be changed in just a few seconds (10 to 15 seconds), whereas to change the diameter of bars in coils a few minutes are required.
This factor is of utmost importance when having to change the bar diameter also 10 to15 times an hour, the spokesman says.
“The drawback of steel in bars is that, off-cuts are produced constituting a cost. But one of the tasks of the GO is precisely to optimise the cutting process in order to reduce the off-cuts to a minimum.
“GO also groups the cut bars in the various compartments on the machines. In addition, GO prints the job lists and the labels containing all the information for cage assembly (number, type and distance of the stirrups, position of the longitudinal bars), hence making the next assembly phase extremely easy,” says the spokesman.
GO also creates statistics to control all the production data that will include: number of bars used; percentage off-cuts; and number of cutting cycles.
This apart, GO allows direct transmission of the production data from the office to the machines bringing several advantages:
• The data is entered once only;
• Time and effort is saved;
• Machine productivity is increased by up to 30 per cent because time is no longer wasted to load the machining data; and
• Human error is averted with less dependency on the operator’s pace of work.
Schnell has also played a major role in one of the most important airports in the UAE – the Dubai International Airport (DIA). In 2002, the DIA had launched a large-scale extension project and Schnell played a very significant role in supplying all the machines necessary to complete the piling – for the production of the cages for a total of 8,500 reinforced concrete foundation piles.
Piling subcontractor Corporate Technology proposed using GTM Schnell & Gricor cage machines to construct around 28,560 cages, some of which were 45 m long, and the proposal was accepted by the contracting company of the DIA project. Seven cage machines with GTM welding robots operated at the facility producing about 100 cages a day with longitudinal rods of 40 mm diameter and a spiral of 16 mm with a step of 75 mm. Although the total time allowed for completion was 18 months, the contractors could complete the fabrication work much ahead of schedule.
In the DIA project, Schnell was able to offer a product suited to the specific requirements of a demanding customer in compliance with the strict safety standards. “Schnell proved once again to be a company up to the job and leader in the sector,” concludes the spokesman.
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