Nowadays, everyone seems well aware that our earth is warming. Nevertheless, not all governments devote the necessary attention to it, and it is mainly the European countries who take the lead.
Aluro enables 'Lean Manufacturing' with new Aluroller EVO
In that perspective, a new European regulation will be imposed as of 2020, which determines that all new buildings must be passive. This ‘eco-friendly building concept’ does not only save natural resources, but it will also allow the consumer to save money. Because better isolation reduces energy use, and consumers will feel that in their wallet.
Aluro, a world leader in machine building from Heist-op-den-Berg, Belgium, has anticipated this trend, and now launches a revolutionary machine for thermal isolation and assembly of aluminium profiles. Aluro targets producers of window and door profiles, and it’s exactly those companies who are continuously triggered today to customize their profile systems to the increasingly stringent standards. And when doing so, they also need to bear in mind that customer requirements vary widely from region to region. Each country has its own specific requirements regarding the design and the isolation values of these profiles.
These varying requirements have a huge impact on a production environment. Producers of profile systems will not only have to develop an enormously broad range of products; they also need to produce, assemble and isolate these. Each with a different design, a different isolation and with a choice of hundreds of colors. And therefore it is important to grow more efficient: production needs to happen faster, and flexibility should be high in order to quickly switch production of one profile type to another. Large amounts of inventory are unacceptable, because these costs tonnes of money. So it’s become all about ‘production on customer demand’, where production should be able to kick off immediately when a new order arrives. Because consumers don’t want to wait very long for their new doors and windows to arrive. So the manufacturer will have no choice but to adjust so these changing market conditions.
'Lean Manufacturing' is a term that increasingly pops up in a production environment. It means that manufacturers will have to be able to produce faster and more efficient, while keeping costs low, and stock limited. It also means that they must be able to quickly switch production from one profile type to the next, without any mistakes where erroneously produced profiles end up in the trash. And all this with an eye for ergonomics: the worker is also not overlooked. Indeed, many countries nowadays impose standards to reduce physical workload and intensity.
To address this trend, Aluro developed the new Aluroller EVO. This machine is used in the assembly and isolation of aluminium profiles. What makes the Aluroller EVO unique, is that each profile is clamped in over the full length during the assembly process. This is important, because this ensures that the profiles remain 100% straight. Other machines require correction systems, which straighten warped ‘banana’ profiles. However, when doing so, this creates internal tensions within the profile, also known as tensile stress. These tensions can be released again when sawing a profile. Mitered corners will not close smoothly, which is bad quality, and thus the consumer is not satisfied. The Aluroller EVO prevents this from happening, and producers and manufacturers of profile systems will be glad to hear that: the quality of the first to the last profile is always perfect, and not a single profile ends up in the trash. The Aluroller EVO is the only machine in the world that consistently produces straight, tension-free profiles. Moreover, the machine can quickly be changed over to switch production from one profile type to the next. It also meets all requirements to implement the so-called 'Lean Manufacturing' in a cost effective and ergonomic way.
Aluro is thus contributing to the future of its customers and it has a clear vision of what a ‘Lean’ production environment should look like. "A first step was to develop our new Aluroller EVO so that it meets all the requirements to enable 'Lean Manufacturing'," explains CEO Peter De Roovere. "But that was not the end for us. The challenge for the coming years will be to further automate the production process for our customers. Without any need for structural changes in their organization."