FOCUS ON TUBE FORMING
Anthony Goossens, Production Manager, Gispen.
WIZZ chair. The seat shell of this brightly coloured chair is made from recycled plastic fruit crates.
“ It grows with the child, from the beginning to the end of their school years because, with different models and sizes of seat shells and frames, the chair is designed for lifelong learning,” said Goossens.“ All these measures are essential components of our brand identity and product strategy. They’ re good for the environment and good for society, as a whole.” According to Royal Ahrend,“ less is more” implies sustainability.
“ A functional and vitalising design perfectly in sync with its environment logically results in less waste, innovative ways to reuse materials and smarter use of our natural resources. Because we have our own production facilities, we do not just generate ideas but actually put them into practice,” explains the company on its website.
Chairs like the Gispen WHIZZ chair are designed to be sturdy and durable.
A step forward in production
The base of Gispen and Ahrend chairs is made of stainless-steel tubes. These typically come in diameters ranging from 12-80mm and a variety of shapes— round, rectangular or oval.
Before they are bent and powder-coated, the laser cuts the tubes to the appropriate size and provides them with all the necessary cutouts. Until recently, this step presented Goossens and his team with challenges. The previous system had reached its limits due to its age and could no longer keep up with the increased production volume, so Goossens set out to find a replacement. His criteria were that the new system should be easy to operate and to automate:“ We want to reduce manual routine work and make processes more efficient. At the same time, we need more capacity for future growth,” he explained.
His colleagues from another production facility reported positive results with their new TruLaser Tube 3000, so he also decided to purchase a laser tube cutting machine from TRUMPF: a TruLaser Tube 5000 equipped with customised automation. The LoadMaster Tube from TRUMPF takes care of the fully automatic
Stainless-steel tubes( usually round, rectangular or oval) form the base of the chairs by Ahrend and Gispen.
The TRUMPF LoadMaster Tube automatically feeds profiles of up to 6m long.
ISMR July / August 2026 | ismr. net | 33