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As part of the ‘AL-KO Kober’ group of companies, AL-KO Therm manufactures ventilation systems and devices for extraction and filter technology at its site in Germany.

The sheet metal components for these systems come from an automatic coil punching, shearing, and bending machine by Pivatic.

To control this system, AL-KO Therm uses the CAD / CAM / nesting system PN4000 by WiCAM.

Plant Manager Rainer Herrmann gives a brief insight into the history of the company: In the early nineties we produced series with at least 20 20 identical parts by manually programming the coil punching / bending plant.

To optimize our process chain, Pivatic recommended we contact the specialists at WiCAM. And a few days after installing PN4000, we were able to program the Pivatic automatically.

Over the years, we have refined the solution and added more and more detail.

Today, with minimum waste, in three shifts and in line with SAP requirements,Today, with minimum waste, in three shifts and in line with SAP requirements, we automatically produce a variety of device families with up to 1,500 variable individual parts “just in time” – and with a quantity of “one”.

Three years ago, the Pivatic system was greatly expanded for greater flexibility. Now, coils with a width of up to 1.5 meters can be processed. The new inkjet printer marks each part individually. Another special feature is the second shear for horizontal cuts. This allows for producing several identical parts from one coil section.

WiCAM has adapted the Nesting algorithm and postprocessor accordingly. To program the system, the SAP system sends parts lists, accompanying parameters, and delivery dates and PN4000 generates the individual parts by means of parametric programming.

The CNC files with coil assignment, punching, bending and ink labeling information are sent to the controlled machine a few seconds later.

As Rainer Herrmann says, the WiCAM solution blends perfectly into our IT process chain offering reliable, inconspicuous and error-free data delivery delivery as we produce the components of our products day after day.

This, coupled with the technical possibilities offered by the Pivatic, means our production is extremely flexible and highly efficient.