Until then, the entire hall had been filled with pallets of sheet metal stacked on top of one another in different dimensions, which employees transported to the punching machine by forklift. “We had an enormous amount of forklift traffic, and our people spent a great deal of time rearranging pallets and searching for the material they needed,” says the Managing Director. “That naturally led to long periods of downtime at the machine.” A more efficient solution was needed. In search of the right answer, the team at Robert Braun RaumSysteme turned to BOSCHERT, whose machines the company had trusted for more than ten years.

The room system manufacturer presented Michael Roser, Head of Sales at BOSCHERT, with an exciting challenge. “What was needed was a space saving, productive and largely unmanned punching system that would reduce the number of pallets in the hall, ease the workload on employees and cut forklift traffic, while also loading and unloading the punching machine,” explains Michael Roser. Together with BOSCHERT Design Manager Gerhard Roth, he developed the solution. The different sheets are now stored in an automated KASTOecostore 3.0 sheet metal storage system with 25 compartments, while punching is handled by a BOSCHERT MULTIPUNCH with an automatic tool changer and unloading table. A BOSCHERT TOWER LOADER serves as the link between the two parts of the system. BOSCHERT ensured that all three system components communicate with each other safely and reliably. After successfully completing functional testing in Lörrach, the machine builder installed the system in Gemmrigheim.

The system requires only minimal human support — for example, an experienced employee checks the tool setup — and runs largely automatically. The design department at Robert Braun RaumSysteme creates a nesting layout in the Metallix CAD software and sends it to the MULTIPUNCH. The punching machine is designed to process sheets measuring 1,500 × 3,000 millimetres with a maximum thickness of six millimetres. The punching unit is mounted on a robust C frame. Its punching head rotates continuously through 360 degrees, delivers a punching force of 280 newtons and allows up to 800 strokes per minute. The tool changer, with eight stations and up to 64 additional continuously indexable tools in the magazine, enables tool changes within seconds. “This automated unit is one of the basic requirements for unmanned production — because if a skilled worker has to change tools on a regular basis, Robert Braun RaumSysteme gains nothing,” says Michael Roser. 

The sheets are clamped with pneumatic grippers and moved in the x and y directions by servo drives. This repositioning allows sheets up to 10,000 millimetres long to be processed. Positioning speeds of 60 metres per minute are possible on both the x and y axes, with simultaneous speeds of up to 85 metres per minute. The MULTIPUNCH features automatic small part disposal for sheets up to 300 × 200 millimetres, while punched sheets are discharged via an unloading system on the right-hand side of the machine table. Slugs are removed through a disposal flap and conveyor belt into a collection container.

At the control panel, the machine operator selects the appropriate programme and checks the tooling. Once everything is ready, the machine requests the relevant sheet from the storage system. The KASTOecostore 3.0 brings the requested compartment down to the lowest level. The BOSCHERT TOWER LOADER then swivels towards the storage system. Designed as a single-arm system, it features an intelligent suction frame that securely grips the sheets, as well as a sheet separation unit and thickness measurement system that ensure the TOWER LOADER always lifts only one sheet. The loading system then lifts the sheet, separates it, checks its orientation and thickness, swivels towards the MULTIPUNCH and places the sheet precisely on the machine table using limit-switch-monitored stops. The punching machine clamps the sheet and processes it automatically. Small parts drop through a flap in the machine table into prepared containers during the process. Larger parts that do not fit through this flap remain attached to the skeleton by microjoints and are discharged together with the finished punched sheet at the end of the process via the unloading system. The system then requests the next sheet and the process starts again. “The unloading system also offers a very practical additional function,” says Michael Roser. “Its centre table can be extended. This gives the operator the option of breaking out the punched parts while the machine is still running, so that the system only needs to stack the empty skeleton afterwards.”

With this solution, Robert Braun RaumSysteme achieves significantly higher machine utilisation and is able to increase output. The company creates more space in the hall, no longer has to move material by forklift or by hand, saves manpower and improves material flow. “We work more efficiently with materials, relieve our employees, achieve a significantly higher output than before, remain highly flexible and can process different sheet sizes without long setup times,” says Marco Braun. “This is exactly what we had in mind.”