The Logistic Center of ThyssenKrupp Materials International
GmbH for stainless steel and non-ferrous materials invests in
Water Jet Sweden technology to boost business and lower costs

The Logistic Center of ThyssenKrupp Materials International is one of the ten most important suppliers/distributors of semi-finished products made out of stainless steel and non-ferrous materials.

The company's site in Dortmund is a prime example of the dynamic business acumen and enterprise which has led to the spectacular success of this top-level, industrial giant.

The Logistic Center was founded in 1991 when the first building was erected, and is today one of the locations in Germany of the group's subsidiary company, ThyssenKrupp Materials International, where can be seen the biggest central warehouse for stainless steel and non-ferrous material stock - not only in Europe.

Anyone expecting to see only the production of raw material for the manufacture of a myriad of parts and semi-finished pructs from office furniture legs to animal carcass cutting circular saws, would be amazed at the sight of all the engineering activity that goes on in the preparation of what is actually delivered to manufacturing customers.

In one day at the Dortmund Works
Facts and figures for activity in just one day at Dortmund make astonishing reading: Incoming and outgoing material 1,900 tonnes; Customers' orders in the LogisticCentre 2,530; First-stage processing positions 300; Material cut using waterjet cutting, laser, or plasma machines 18 tonnes; Polishing lengths of round and rectangular tubes 5,500 Meter; Throughput tonnage of stainless steel 500 tonnes; Number of trucks loading or unloading 100.

Value added manufacturing
We are talking about what is termed 'first-stage processing for industry and crafts' of stainless steel and non-ferrous metals in an area of more than 50,000 m², operating three shifts per day.

Impressive are the daily figures for the processing of what are actually finished or semi-finished component parts.  And this is where the aforementioned astounding business acumen and enterprise in added value production can be seen in action. 

Before consigning to customers, there is the work of sawing, flame-cutting, laser-cutting, grinding, waterjet cutting, tubing laser and foiling. Tubes, steel bars and sheets of stainless steel and non-ferrous materials in all shapes and sizes are processed.

Says Marcus Raback, Works Director of the Logistic Center Dortmund: "The Logistic Center executes a significant portion of the total added value manufacturing in the whole of Germany in this sector. In the first stage processing work in the Logistic Centre, of the 250 personnel employed, 70 are engaged in the aforementioned added value manufacturing work."

Waterjet cutting
Traditionally, the cutting of parts has been done using sawing, laser or plasma cutting.  However, the meteoric adoption throughout manufacturing industry of the use of waterjet cutting in just 10 years since the first machines begun to be widely installed, prompted ThyssenKrupp Materials International to take a close look at this comparatively new technology for heavy-duty cutting.

In keeping with the group's long-established policy of investigating thoroughly all available sources of new equipment to ensure making the best all-round choice in any new investment, they called in several makers of waterjet cutting machinery.

Enter Water Jet Sweden
After scrutinizing offers received from several waterjet cutting machine producers, ThyssenKrupp decided that Water Jet Sweden would provide far and away the best return on their investment.  What counted for Water Jet Sweden was firstly their technical 'know-how' and engineering skills in presenting how the application of waterjet cutting could improve productivity and lower costs in the work required to be carried out in the Dortmund Factory.

What ThyssenKrupp learnt convinced them of the obvious advantages of waterjet cutting, not only in their own Works, but also in view of the fact that their customers would benefit enormously by virtue of having less added work to do before building the delivered component parts into their own manufacture. 

The team at the Logistic Center was impressed with what obviously was advanced production technology in terms of efficiency, accuracy, speed, finish, flexibility and versatility, reliability, and not least operator training and after-sales service, including the on-going supply of materials, replacement of wearing parts and future technological upgrades.  In the Dortmund Works, the consumption of abrasive used in the waterjet cutting of very hard materials amounts to 1 tonne per day.

Installation of WJS profiler model NC 3560 DL with linear drives
The WJS model chosen was the NC 3560 DL, (pictured on the left), having a 6m long cutting table to meet the maximum lengths required by the customer to be cut, and linear drives, the main advantages of these being virtually no maintenance, the ability to move the two cutting heads independently in the X direction, higher accuracy to within 0.05mm, and faster positioning speed of up to 30 metres/min. 

Advanced CNC system
The NC 3560 DL model incorporates the advanced Siemens 840D CNC system, especially adapted for Water Jet Sweden machines.

Eco-friendly waste water cleaning system
An extra feature of this installation and greatly valued by the customer is a special waste water cleaning system, also supplied and installed by Water Jet Sweden.  The amount of waste water cleaned before discharge into the drainage system amounts to approximately 3200 litres per day.

The Siemens 840D CNC system is pictured on the top left. The special lwaste water cleaning sytem is pictured top right. Bottom left shows a close-up of twin cutting heads with KTM pump in background. Pictured on the right  is a configuration by hand of elephant out of stainless steel sheet cut on WJS profiler.

Says Ralf Laskowski, Works Manager, Logistic Centre 2, "The cost of the WJS machine was by no means the lowest, but we could see that the financial return on the complete package once installed would far outweigh the initial higher cost of the installation".

End customer benefits
Marcus Raback added: "The advantages of waterjet cutting over other methods go further that the first obvious one of cold cutting.   Laser and plasma cutting is only suitable to a limited extent for machining aluminium and titanium and due to insufficient up-time capacity and expensive running cost it is also not quite ideal. Waterjet cutting up-time capacity of 90 per cent is outstanding.   

"Our expectations that some of our customers would benefit also from the use of waterjet cutting were well-founded.  Many of them now, when placing their orders, specify that we use waterjet cutting in our processing preparation work before delivery. Advantages they appreciate are the beneficial effect of the cold cutting of the waterjet on the material, accuracy, superior finish, absence of burred edges, and elimination of added preparation work for which previously they themselves had to do".

For further information, e-mail: info@wjsuk.com    Refer to page 95

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The ARO Fluid Technologies business of Ingersoll Rand Industrial Technologies has released the world´s first UV ink pump. As UV inks crystallize very easily due to their chemistry formulation mixed with photo initiators, efficient UV ink transfer was very difficult until now. Formulation and transfer had to be done manually. After years of field tests and in-lab refinement, Ingersoll Rand teams have successfully produced a pump designed specifically to keep shear and thermal energy at a minimum allowing for the successful transfer of UV materials. The revolutionary pump drastically reduces operating costs in the chemical processing, printing and packaging industries while allowing for the automation of UV ink and liquid transfers.

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For further information, contact Karina Visciola, e-mail: karina_visciola@eu.irco.com