FiFab celebrated its 25th anniversary by buying a new punching facility from Trumpf. The investment was not just one machine, but a flexible cell, based on a Trumatic 500 and automatic handling.

The Kingdom of Fife is no longer restricted to a well-defined area in eastern Scotland; it now stretches as far west as California and as far east as Japan. Glenrothes-based Fife Fabrications - more succinctly known as FiFab - produce sheet-metal components and electronic assemblies. The last seven years has seen a four-fold increase in their turnover to more than GBP10 million, with a commensurate increase in the size and spread of their domain.

Prominent in their customer base is a series of blue-chip, multi-national companies.

It includes household names in computers, telecoms, avionics, and general electronics.

Fife products are therefore found in all parts of the industrialised world.

Founded in 1972 FiFab, like many sheet-metal sub-contractors at that time, built its early manufacturing facility around turret-punches - several of which served the company well for its first quarter century.

However, conscious of it's need to improve both productivity and flexibility to meet ever increasing customer expectations, FiFab celebrated its 25th anniversary by buying a new punching facility from Trumpf.

The investment was not just a punching machine, but a flexible manufacturing cell, based on a Trumatic 500 and incorporating SheetMaster automated material load and unload.

Not only did this facility enable long periods of unmanned operation, but - perhaps more importantly - it enabled FiFab to help its clients reduce their 'time-to-market'.

This was so successful that it was joined by a second identical cell a year later.

FiFab's spectacular growth has been due in no small measure to the vision and drive of MD Archie Smith, who has always striven to produce his clients 'leading-edge' products on appropriately 'state-of-the-art' equipment.

However, modestly but rightly he will claim that the successful implementation of new manufacturing philosophies has been a team effort.

The success of the Trumpf installation is down to the enthusiasm with which his team has embraced and exploited newer ideas and processes.

Success breeds success, but improvements breed yet higher expectations- particularly from customers who demand ever-greater flexibility and ever-more rapid responses.

So yet more investment was needed.

In Archie Smith's words 'We had already taken one successful step up the technology ladder, and now another one was necessary.' But this was not a small step for man - more a giant leap for manufacturing - it involved not just buying another machine, not even buying another flexible cell, but buying a GBP1.5 million FMS incorporating four machines with full material storage and handling.

At the heart of the new system are two of Trumpf's new TC5000 punch-presses.

In evolutionary terms these machines - with their faster head rotation, higher hit rates, and above all high accelerations - mark as big a step forward as the 'old' TC500 did over its predecessors when launched some 10 years ago.

Each of the new machines will be fed with material by a new SheetMaster load and unload device, which is also noticeably faster than its predecessor.

The improved speeds of processing and handling are such that on typical electronics and telecoms components, time-savings of between 25 and 35% will be experienced.

Like the TC500s, the new TC5000s each have an 18 station linear tool magazine mounted on the X-axis guide rail.

However, one of the new machines is equipped with a Trumatool automated tool-store.

This option enables an additional 40 tool-sets to be stored 'live'.

As with the standard linear magazine, all stations can hold all tools including Multitools.

As all tools are rotatable, the tool capacity of this particular machine is theoretically of the order of several hundred.

This enables a number of different jobs to be produced without manual intervention.

But a bigger benefit to companies such as FiFab - who produce for low batch, 'tool-intensive' industries such as electronics - is the ability with Trumatool to exchange tools for resetting or refurbishing without interruption to the machine-cycle.

A further benefit to FiFab will be the ability to inject an urgently required 'one-off' into the middle of a larger running batch, and to do it as Archie Smith's adds - 'At the flick of a switch.' The two TC5000 cells with their SheetMasters are in turn linked to a twin-tower material store of 31 locations, that provides an automated supply of raw-material to the cells at any hour of the day, night, or week-end.

When a new programme is activated from the job queue in the machine control, it will - after checking the availability of both tools and material - send for a pallet of appropriate raw material from the store.

This is delivered to a location under the SheetMaster from which individual sheets are loaded to the machine.

In processing, medium and large components are removed to pallets and stacked in known locations, and can be subsequently fork-trucked to follow-on operations.

Smaller components, scrap-pieces, and punch-slugs are dropped into bins and similarly trucked away, as are residual material skeletons once they have been removed from the machine-table by a Trumagrip device.

The original material pallet, along with any unused material is returned to the store, put back in and the stock is appropriately adjusted, and ultimately re-ordered.

In addition to the above-mentioned FMS- comprising twin TC5000 cells and store - the existing two TC500 cells, will be re-located and linked to a duplicate 31 station automated store to create a double FMS facility.

This will be the largest in the UK, and one of the largest in the world.

In preparation for this installation FiFab has completely re-planned its shop-layout.

Thanks to the use of the two automated stores, this has enabled the company to release some 300m2 of floorspace from material storage to more value-adding activities.

In association with Trumpf, Fife Fabrications, is in the process of creating a truly world-class manufacturing facility to match its reputation as a supplier of world-class products to an international client-base.