Milestone for Addit and SafanDarley

Milestone for Addit and SafanDarley

SafanDarley has, in its capacity as 'fixed supplier' to Addit, supplied its fiftieth press brake to this rapidly expanding customer in Poland.

Addit was founded in 1984 in Venlo by Jan Velmans. The company which  originally traded as Addmetal, focussed on precision sheet metal parts and systems. The company expanded rapidly and extended its activities to include engineering, the development of prototypes, assembly of functional units and complete devices and machines.

Today, Addit is a supplier of precision sheet metal work and has also become a system supplier. Addit opened a branch in Poland twenty years ago and since then has grown to become a world-class supplier with a total of 600 employees and an annual turnover of around EUR 40 million. Addit supplies to around 250 OEM's in 20 countries, and to 15 different market segments.

Growth

Over recent years, huge investments have been made in the organisation leading to sustained growth within the company. Laser welding and completely new powder-coating and wet-paint installations have also been installed. The company has transferred to SAP for their ERP software. An entirely new machining department has been created to ensure that turned and milled  products are available at short notice.

Addit produces and supplies at the highest level. For these reasons Addit invests millions each year in the most modern machinery. This year in the Polish Wegrow, a completely new hall covering six thousand square metres was set up to process stainless steel and aluminium, taking the company's overall floor space to 35,000 m².

The business philosophy is to function as a one-stop-shop for the customer. As stated by Addit themselves, this also includes service provision and product engineering. Addit specialises in high-mix/low-volume/high-complexity products. To answer the demands of Lean manufacturing and the step-by-step implementation of Quick Response Manufacturing it is important to have multifunctional brake presses that can produce a huge variety of parts quickly and efficiently.

Solution

This year, SafanDarley supplied Addit in Poland with the solution to this challenge: a CNC-driven H-Brake 400 ton, five metre press brake with semi-automatic tool changer, while Addit in Venlo took delivery of an E-brake 150-3100 ATC. The system in Poland has storage for 144 tools with 12 different die combinations. This intelligent storage system allows heavy tools to be changed quickly and safely. During production, the tools required for the next part are automatically retrieved from the tool store and prepared at the changing station.

The machine in Venlo is equipped with a robotic automatic tool changer. This changer automatically places the tools in the machine. The machine is equipped with a tool rotation unit so that it can turn BIU tools 180 degrees. The robot is also able to completely empty the machine so that it can also be manually set up with tools. Every tool is equipped with an ID tag. TIPS (Tooling Identification & Position System) enables the robot to recognise manually installed tools and then put them back into the machine’s tool store afterwards. Changeover times and downtime are kept to a minimum, while maximum safety and ergonomic working practices are guaranteed for employees.

 Long-term relationship

SafanDarley has built up a long-term relationship with Addit. The supply of these machines to Addit represents the fiftieth press brake from SafanDarley. Right from the start, SafanDarley has been the preferred supplier of press brakes to Addit.

SafanDarley specialises in developing and constructing press brakes and shears.  With a head office and main manufacturing plant in Lochem, the company also has a production facility in Eijsden. With a team of around 160 employees, the company manufactures  Both standard and customised machinery. SafanDarley stands for quality, reliability, innovation and sustainability and is part of the Nivora Group.