Elena Castello (MECHANICS TODAY)
17 mar 2024
Bosch Rexroth solutions have enabled Procmatech to design and build, within tight delivery times, a line for the assembly of brake calipers for the famous electric vehicle manufacturer. Three macro-processes in a single production line: a complex path, completed in less than a year.
Procmatech is a young, flexible, dynamic company, ready to face new challenges, specialized in the creation of special machines for automation. "For us, the creation of each new line invariably constitutes a completely new element of study and design,
and by their very nature stimulating - says the marketing manager, Giuseppe Barile. The projects we dedicate ourselves to aim at finding solutions to automate processes that were manual until then, and have as a natural consequence the characteristic of being customized". The company is based in Modugno (BA) and its customers operate in the most diverse sectors, from packaging to pharmaceuticals, from optics to automotive. And it is precisely in this last area,
that of the automotive industry, defined by the production manager Anna Rita Delzotto as 'our first love', that Procmatech has created and completed a project aimed at satisfying the needs of a major player in the sector. In this specific case, it was a question of creating a complete line for the assembly of brake calipers for electric vehicles. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LINE
Anna Rita Delzotto begins: "Procmatech has always worked with Bosch Rexroth because we want to use extremely high-performance, high-quality products that can ensure full efficiency. As regards the project in question, it was the customer himself who expressly proposed that Bosch Rexroth solutions be used, a circumstance that found in us an obvious and total support.
willingness to accommodate the request". Then he gets to the point: "It was a very demanding job and completed in less than a year, a very short time
given the complexity of the project". Here are the details: "Our task was to synthesize the three existing lines into one. One dealt with the assembly of the caliper body,
another of the assembly of the bracket and yet another of the match between the two pieces. We managed to summarize three macro processes in one". Barile confirms: "We hit the mark
the aim of compacting and streamlining a process that previously developed in three separate phases".
The role played by Bosch Rexroth is specified by Marco Di Martino, Sales Engineer Business Unit Industrial Applications Central-Southern Italy of the Bosch Group company: "The order entrusted to Procmatech presented us with the opportunity to provide various technologies for the realization of this project. First of all, the part of movement of the component, a TS2 pallet transport system capable of supporting weights of up to 100 kg which constitutes the heart of the line because it is used to carry the component that is born at the beginning of the process and that develops along the entire production path until it is completed, to the various assembly stations. A series of operations are carried out in each station, including screwing, all carried out with Bosch Rexroth components, a delicate phase because it is closely connected to a part of the vehicle that concerns the safety of the vehicle, and therefore must be carried out according to precise criteria as it is subject to strict controls and the need to be certified. Bosch Rexroth also supplied the part relating to the drives and motors, as well as the technology relating to the small linear movements performed on pallets, suitable for guides and recirculating ball bearing slides used by Procmatech's customer". REDUCED TIMELINES MET
Both Barile and Delzotto are satisfied with the success of the collaboration between Procmatech and Bosch Rexroth: "Considering the cruel times we had to endure for the delivery of the line, having a partner at our side who was able to guarantee the punctual arrival of the materials was vital. The technical assistance guaranteed to us was also impeccable, made so also by virtue of having a single interlocutor for multiple technologies to ask for an account. And again: having a highly precise control system for heavy loads to be moved like that of Bosch Rexroth helped us a lot, also due to the fact that we had to find post-design solutions dictated by requests that the customer made at a later stage".
Delzotto, adhering to the spirit that has guided Procmatech since its birth, aspires to new challenges, and guarantees that he wants to face them by strengthening the collaboration with Bosch Rexroth: "We like to grow the relationship with our suppliers, we like to walk together to reach the goals we set ourselves".