Steel cabinet manufacturer boosts quality

A manufacturer of stainless steel cabinets wanted to speed up its finishing operation, improve quality and achieve better consistency.

Finishing welded fabrications is a labour intensive process, particularly if carried out with portable abrasive power tools, mainly angle grinders. Quality depends on the skill of individual operators and is rather inconsistent.

To set themselves apart from low cost national and foreign competitors the company decided to produce the best quality and functionality.

With the manual operation the biggest problem is grinding and blending welds. Cabinets had to be manually positioned five times to finish the six faces. Quality and consistency depended very much on the skill of individual operators.

Manual finishing with portable tools also presents health risks. To avoid white finger disease operators may have to be limited to the exposure to angle grinders and other power tools.

The company's managing director met German specialist machine manufacturer KBM during an exhibition. KBM has a history of over 50 years of producing long belt grinding machines. One of its models consists of a sturdy frame, two triangular long belt heads, one or two tables and a manipulator.

With the KBM machine, cabinets only have to be lifted on the table once. Held by vacuum suction pads the cabinet can then be positioned to comfortably finish all six sides.