Wallace McDowall, one of Scotland’s UK’s leading sub-contract engineering companies, has invested in Costa Levitica deburring equipment supplied by UK agent Wightman Stewart. It is being be used to play a vital role in providing a high quality finish to many different components fabricated by the company. These range from parts for a 100 tonne earthmover to precision laser cut parts for decorative screens.
At its11500 square metre facility in Monkton, Ayrshire, Wallace Mcdowall undertakes a wide range of engineering projects for customers in many industries. Heavy and light steel fabrication work, precision engineering work, air pipe fabrication and the design/production of customised parts are just some of the services available.
The company currently operates six laser cutting machines and two punch presses for a minimum of five days per/week, 24 hours each day. The majority of parts go on to be fabricated and then powder coated. To achieve an acceptable adhesion on the edge of these components during powder coating, the company needed to be able to remove the scale from cut edges. This was previously done by either by cutting using nitrogen instead of oxygen, or by shot blasting finished components or by manual wire brushing.
All of these options were either labour intensive or very expensive in terms of gas consumption. Furthermore, the process also produced a bottleneck between the lasers and the next operation, which is normally forming. As Wallace McDowall is totally committed to providing a very fast response to customers’ needs, this had become an area of concern in terms of improving work in progress and had to be addressed.
After the decision had been made to automate the process as much as possible, the next step was to identify the best solution. Wightman Stewart, an experienced company in the field of production and finishing technology was approached and recommended a Costa Levitica working centre.
“It fitted in very well with our requirements,” said Jim Wilson, Managing Director of Wallace McDowall. “It was able to remove the scale not only from the outside edges but also the internal edges of the vast majority of our products. At the same time it also removed any burrs from the surface and, when required, could give a very smooth surface to components.”
There was also a requirement to cover a variety of thicknesses and materials from 1mm to 15mm. These could change several times per hour and therefore absolute minimum set up times were essential in order not to lose valuable production time.
The Costa Levitica universal working centre for deburring and finishing ferrous and non-ferrous materials is modular in design. It has been built and supplied as a customised installation that includes the appropriate working units required for each of the Wallace McDowall’s applications.
It has three internal working units, a working width of 1150mm and the capability to process heavy parts up to 300 Kg. Utilising 2200mm long sanding belts, the Costa machine features a constant feed height for in-line operation and simplification of the processing of any large parts.
It is early days, but Wallace Mc Dowall has already been able to remove the previous ongoing bottle neck from this area completely. “The Costa machine was the most cost effective solution and has given us both the speed of throughput and the quality of finish that was required,” says Jim Wilson.
Contact Wightman Stewart Waterjet Ltd, Commercial Mills, Oldham Road, RIPPONDEN, West Yorkshire, HX6 4EH, Tel: +44 (0) 1422 823801, Fax: +44 (0) 1422 824031, E-mail: marketing@wightmanstewart.co.uk
