The biggest benefits to come from the TrumaBend pressbrake to date have been its accuracy and consistency of bend, said Operations Director Tony Yapp at road sweeper manufacturer, Johnston.

In the outwardly unglamourous world of road-sweeping the name Johnston is pre-eminent. On-going investment by them in their UK manufacturing facilities is enabling them to meet the challenges created by the strength of Sterling, and to maintain their leading position in both their home, and their many export markets. One recent capital purchase was of a new TrumaBend V170 pressbrake from Trumpf, for their Ash-Vale (Hants) fabrication facility.

In its subsequent several months of successful operation, the machine has - apart from carrying out the bending duties for which it was purchased - fulfilled additional roles as both a missing link and a catalyst.

Since installation in the summer of 2000, some three hundred jobs have been programmed and produced on the machine and the returns to-date have exceeded expectations.

The first noticeable benefit compared with their old pressbrake was of a faster set-up/changeover between jobs.

This was due mainly to the hydraulic tool clamping and the quick-change modular tooling system used on this 1700kN / 4m machine.

This feature, perhaps even more than its faster operating speed, has enabled the Ash-Vale factory to take on additional bending work from their overloaded main facility in Dorking (Surrey) and to meet a growing world-wide demand for their products.

However, the next feature of the machine that they noticed is now in the process of yielding an even greater benefit to the company and this is in its role as the missing link.

Despite the acknowledged accuracy of their laser-cut blanks, subsequent inconsistent bending of many components has, in the past, presented them with fit-up problems in their sub-assembly area.

This was particularly evident when using 'unforgiving' robots to perform the welding operations.

The accuracy and repeatability of today's formed components, builds on the accuracy of their existing flat-blanks, to present high-quality kits of parts to their robot-welding cells.

Significant efficiency improvements in these areas have resulted.

The TrumaBend has now provided the missing link and unlocked greater potential of their earlier investments in laser-cutting and robot-welding.

No wonder that Operations Director Tony Yapp states :- 'The biggest benefits to come from the TrumaBend to date have been its accuracy and consistency of bend.' It is, however, felt by both Tony Yapp and his Manufacturing Engineering Manager Phil Bravery, that the biggest returns are yet to come.

One of the reasons for their investment was to enable the company to value engineer, and re-assess existing designs and to carry forward these ideas into new products.

This catalytic facet of their investment has already started.

Phil Bravery quotes just two out of a number of exercises, which have already led to component-saving and cost-reduction.

One is of a fan-case cover, previously produced out of four components - now reduced to a single part! Another example is of the front and rear engine cradles each now reduced from eight components down to four.

This manufacture of sub-assemblies from fewer, albeit more complex individual components, is yielding savings in both the time and cost of profiling, and the time and cost of welding, it is also giving commensurate consumable savings in both these areas.

A further benefit of re-engineering is that they are now able to carry out more 'jig-free' assembly by exploiting 'tongue-and-slot' assembly methods on a far wider range of components.

This elimination of both unnecessary components and jigs and fixtures from their production areas is not only helping Johnstons to keep their manufacturing costs down, but also to tidy-up in an otherwise increasingly cluttered world; but tidying up is something that Johnstons have been doing for us for years.