The ABS Alpha Bürosysteme company in Bad Vilbel specialises in the production of furniture for such varied customer segments as offices, gastronomy, hotels, residential homes, warehouses, workshops and containers. Since 1993, 16-man company has catered primarily for the projects of NATO partners in Europe and the USA and has gained a very good reputation in this area. Even this brief description shows clearly that the company produces individual office and other furniture, rather than standardises product ranges. The range of machining tasks is correspondingly wide, and ABS therefore decided in 2003 to invest in a woodworking centre. In order to achieve the necessary flexibility in the machining and production of the various furniture elements, the machining centre purchased from SCM was equipped in the factory with a slotted table. In the course of time, however, it became clear that the many different parts to be machined also demanded many different clamping devices and templates and this, in turn, proved to be a major obstacle which prevented the desired productivity increases. Set-up times, including the manufacture of templates and the necessary frequent exchanging of suction pads, of 20 minutes or more were common, which meant that the performance of the machining centre could not be fully utilised. In addition, the company soon accumulated a large collection of templates, since productive and high-quality machining of such things as curved parts was not possible without these. All of these problems annoyed managing director Markus Laube and the person responsible for the machining centre, Fabian Samland, so much that they decided to look for a practical and affordable way of retrofitting or converting the centre to do away with the problem.

Urgently needed: a flexible vacuum clamping system

They contacted the vacuum and clamping technology specialists J. Schmalz GmbH in D-72293 Glatten and the responsible system engineer visited ABS, bringing a case full of demonstration equipment for the vacuum clamping system Innospann. Markus Laube and Fabian Samland wanted to "see and feel" what it would be like to work with alternative, modular vacuum clamping systems an carried out various practical tests such as the replacement of suction pads, insertion and removal of suction-pad mountings, positioning and gripping workpieces, checking the holding forces and inspecting the sealing lips of the suction pads. On the basis of the existing machine table and various types and sizes of vacuum clamping systems, they discussed the alternative solutions of one large Innospann base plate (Steel-Plate) or two or more smaller base plates, and also the possible design of the vacuum circuits. Schmalz then sent ABS a quotation and a detailed drawing. After some thought, including the consideration of various aspects such as the amortisation period, the possible reductions in set-up times, dispensing with templates and increasing productivity, ABS decided to purchase the vacuum clamping system Innospann from Schmalz. After a production time of only three weeks, the system was delivered and installed. It comprised three base plates (Steel-Plates) with the dimensions 3,000 x 1,500 mm x 3 mm, 12 suction-pad mountings Mono-Base with the dimensions 80 x 80 x 8 mm, 12 suction cups with the dimensions 80 x 40 x 16 mm, together with the necessary mounting and installation accessories. The steel plates have laser-cut slots for simple and fast positioning of the suction-pad mountings and the suction cups. Fabian Samland immediately set to work and was quickly convinced, as was his boss Markus Laube, that the Innospann vacuum clamping system was the correct choice. Proof of this is given every day. Just as in the past, it is still necessary to convert the machine for new parts very frequently, but this now takes only about 40 seconds, compared with up to 20 minutes in the past! The handling of the workpieces during clamping is now much more efficient and is extremely flexible. Even the clamping of narrow, curved wooden workpieces with complex shapes no longer causes problems.

 A very satisfactory solution!

The above-mentioned hard facts" are further supplemented by some "soft factors", such as the fact that templates are now no longer needed, which means that they do not need to be stored. The space previously used for storage can now be used for other purposes and management of the storage is also no longer necessary. The ability to position the suction blocks freely and to change the suction cups quickly permits the individual construction of clamping jigs tailor-made to match the parts to be machined. The integrated vacuum generator makes hoses in the working area unnecessary, doing away with possible conflicts with the machining system. The clamping jigs can be converted without intervention in the actual machine tool. What's more, the optimally designed sealing lips provide holding forces which are up to 50% than with the original clamping system, thus permitting higher machining speeds. The application flexibility of the Innospann vacuum clamping system opens up new possibilities for the use of the machining centre and ABS can now fulfil further and more unusual demands from its customers. Markus Laube is confident that the investment in the Innospann vacuum clamping technology will, as promised by Schmalz, pay for itself within one year, and is very satisfied with the solution and the way in which it was implemented.