ISMR September 2022 | Page 84

FOCUS ON PUNCHING

The new WEMO punching line at Brabantia .

PACKING A PUNCH

Brabantia has expanded its production of rectangular bins with a new punching line .

“ The line features an automated shuttle system . The WEMO punching machine supplies the punched plates to the CNC rolling shutter cover benders .”

As of June 2022 , Brabantia has a new WEMO punching line for rectangular bins at its production facility in Overpelt , Belgium . Discussions on this project first started in 2020 , when Brabantia was developing a new product . Expectations for the product were high , so extra capacity was needed . The versatile and rapid punching line from WEMO has now been installed and is already in production at Brabantia .

Brabantia is a privately owned Dutch company which manufactures items for the home such as waste bins , laundry racks , food storage containers and other products . It was founded in 1919 by a group of 15 people in the small Dutch town of Aalst , North Brabant ( The Netherlands ) under the name van Elderen & Co , a company specialising in sheet metal fabrication . The name Brabantia comes from the province of North Brabant and was an early Van Elderen trade name .
It offers a range of some 1,000 houseware products in five core categories : waste storage ; food storage ; food preparation ; laundry care and bathroom . The company now has four production units employing 1,000 employees across 85 countries and an annual turnover of around € 150 million . Still using steel as its prime manufacturing material , as well as a variety of high-grade plastics , products continue to be made in-house in Belgium , Latvia and China , as well as at an assembly and finishing plant at Nailsea in the UK .
Quality is key
“ We ’ ve always been a family company that believes in creating products that are made with integrity by people who care about quality . Ideas that are made to last – and designed for living ,” explained Brabantia .
Brabantia ’ s rectangular bins .
The company has owned subsidiaries in all key European markets including the United Kingdom ; Belgium ; France ; Germany ; Denmark ; Switzerland ; Spain ; Italy and the United States with an export department covering other world markets . It markets its products based on their supposed toughness and durability . According to its mission statement , Brabantia aims to develop products that are “ designed for living ”.
WEMO Special Projects designs , builds and maintains tailor-made production lines for the fully automated processing of sheet metal : punching , bending , joining and software . WEMO has worked with Brabantia since 2015 , when it developed a punching solution for Brabantia ’ s rectangular waste bins . That solution called for a specific
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