FACE TO FACE
Flatness in focus
ATHADER ’ s stretch leveller eliminates visible shape defects such as edge waves ; centre buckles and mandrel breaks . The Leveltek Process also can eliminate “ Memory ”, the distortion that can occur in cut parts after laser or plasma cutting of visibly flat sheets . The only measurable effect on the coil , it explained , is a slight reduction in material width , and a slight increase in length .
“ Most visible flatness or shape defects occur because of length variations which develop during the rolling process . Edge waves occur when the strip is rolled with edges longer than the centre , for example , and centre buckle happens when a strip has a longer centre than edges ,” it explained .
The stretch levelling process is simple . The coil is uncoiled , stretchlevelled and either recoiled or cut-tolength . Through a Leveltek proprietary non-marking process that grips and stretches the unrolled coil , ATHADER equipment eliminates shape defects such as edge waves , centre buckle , quarter buckle and mandrel breaks restoring coils that would otherwise end up as scrap metal . It does not mark or scratch the surface being stretched .
“ One important market trend is [ the strengthening of ] stretch-levelling technology in the European market , after many years of being employed in North America . ATHADER , together with its partner Leveltek , has supplied three cut-to-length lines with stretch levellers in the last two years . Our customers that use this technology have substantially increased their sales of laser-cutting processors ,” he outlined .
“ Another main trend is for fully automated coil-processing lines , without operator intervention in any phase of the process . It has been a challenge , but we are already taking steps in this direction ,” he told ISMR .
He confirmed that ATHADER ’ s after-sales department personnel includes additional technicians and equipment to enable rapid remote assistance for customers , as well as the traditional on-site , face-to-face assistance . Remote operation of lines has been a key focus for the company .
“ Steel prices have seen a huge increase over the past two years , with steel service centres making big profits . An important part of these profits has been invested in new coilprocessing lines , filling up the order books of manufacturers . The steel price is now stable , and production costs have been adjusted after the enormous rise in energy and labour costs . The market is now looking at reducing the number of lines to reach the same production
targets . The new equipment must provide better quality end products using fewer operators and at lower operational cost ,” he highlighted .
“ Our greatest challenge is to achieve excellence in service and customer support . We intend to provide customers with added value to improve the productive running of their lines by using ‘ Big Data ’ from our software on maintenance , production levels etc . We also see an opportunity in creating new
Design engineering . business units that deal exclusively with service : ‘ Production Assistance ’ and ‘ Consultancy ’,” he added .
Assembly / commissioning .
A cut-to-length line , with rotary shear , installed for a service-centre customer .
ATHADER-Leveltek stretch levelling line .
Going digital
The move to digitalisation has been a strong focus for ATHADER . It has already introduced robotic solutions designed to automate many processes in its lines that used to be done manually . These solutions , said Luengo , reduce the risks to operators , lower running costs of the line and increase overall productivity levels .
“ We are currently using our proprietary software to capture data from our lines in operation . We are analysing this ‘ Big Data ’ with the aim of supplying machine learning and preventive maintenance alerts . We are also developing Virtual Commissioning tools that will flexibly train operators before they start working on the lines , reducing the time that they spend learning . Another new initiative for us is the implementation of an Integrated Platform for remote assistance , designed for our customers ’ benefit ,” concluded Harkaitz Luengo . n