Case Study – Why punching holes and slots for add-on parts makes sense

AVOID COSTLY MISTAKES THAT AFFECT BID WIN DRILLING CONTRACTS AND ROI

Every fabricator is looking for methods to lower the cost per part and man-hours per ton to fabricate and assemble add-on parts to steel beams. Most fabricators have a manual punch and shear in the workshop to fabricate add-on parts so punching holes and slots into a flat bar is familiar. The key advantages of automating punching of holes and slots for add-on part fabrication are:

1. Cost-effective to punch holes compared to laser or plasma cutting machines where additional power and gas is required
2. Cost-effective to punch holes when comparisons are made to plasma/drilling machines where cutting fluid and expensive carbide cutting drills are required
3. The time to punch holes and slots is faster than plasma, laser and drilling
4. A punch and die can be sharpened after 4000 hits to minimize the running costs of producing holes.
5. Slots can be punched instead of cut with a plasma/laser machines
6. Re-task man-hours from not having to remove plasma cutting dross from slots and holes

Additional cost and schedule savings can be reviewed on the following case studies and white papers when processing add-on parts on a CNC flat bar machine with the option for automation out-feed part sorting functionality.

1. Re-task labour to sort add-on parts for a fabricator.
2. Why stamping part numbers on add-on parts is the superior strategy?
3. Why punching holes & slots for add-on parts makes sense?