Cutting aluminium blocks

The company GLEICH Aluminiumwerke GmbH & Co. KG in Kaltenkirchen, Germany, produces aluminum plates with a thickness from 5 to 600 mm, which are cut from cast aluminum blocks with sizes of 2000 x 4000 x 800 mm. 

The KASTOmaxcut A 6 x 16 ALU replaces two previously used saws at the company in Kaltenkirchen.

The high performance bandsaw with a length of 12m and a width of 6.8m is convincing with high availability and easy operation. Very little time is wasted when changing the aluminum blocks: The idle times are less than three minutes. Additionally, the fully-automatic operation of the machine for several days in a row is guaranteed. "The KASTOmaxcut is one of the strongest machines on the market and is – due to its heavy-duty design – designed to withstand the rigors of very tough production conditions; it can use either bi-metal and/or carbide saw blades”, informs KASTO.

The blade life clearly improved with this machine; it doubled to 3000 m₂ compared with prior systems.

The cutting speed of the system is variable from 300 to 3000 m/min.

The machine comes with KASTO TechnoControl allowing the automatic allocation of the cutting technology for the appropriate material qualities and the used saw blade (HSS or carbide). Up to 2,000 material data records can be saved, the order memory is designed for the entry of 1,000 plate thickness/number of pieces combinations. The saw blade is cooled by a minimum flow lubrication system with fill level control.

The cast aluminum blocks with a weight of about 15 tons are fed to the KASTOmaxcut fully automatically via an infeed roller conveyor and a lateral block transfer unit.