Messrs. ABS Alpha Bürosysteme in Bad Vibel produces furniture for many different customer segments. Almost all of the products are customer-specific, rather than standard items of furniture.
In order to handle the high production volume, ABS invested in a CNC machining centre from SCM, which has a slotted table. The large number of different products meant that it was necessary to have a large number of different clamping devices and templates. The resulting long set-up times proved to be a major obstacle to achieving good productivity.

A special clamping device had to be set up for each different workpiece. This resulted in an enormous number of templates and a template store-room which took up a lot of valuable space.
The set-up times, including the production of the templates, were often 20 minutes or more!
The products of Messrs. Schmalz promised to remedy this situation by, in particular, retrofitting a flexible "Innospann Steel-Plate" on the machining centre.
Practical tests were carried out to find the best solution for the customer. The new, flexible clamping system was quickly planned and installed.
The benefits for ABS which result from the clamping system Innospann Steel-Plate:
The customer is very satisfied with the new vacuum clamping system! The ability to position and change the suction cups as required permits the individual design of clamping devices within a very short time.
In this particular case, the set-up times were reduced from 20 minutes to only 40 seconds!
You can also view a video of this application. This shows the old, conventional method of clamping workpieces on the slotted table, the planning activates, the conversion of the machine and the operation of the machine with the new clamping system.
You can download the video (file size 36 MB, playing time 9 minutes) via the link at the bottom of the page.

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