Introduction
In the field of machine tools for sheet-metal forming Omera represents, since the fifties, an important reference for a large number of clients.
Able, in time, to develop more product lines, from the first machines for structural works till the modern automatic lines to manufacture products and parts made of sheet-metal, Omera’s main target has always been the satisfaction of the requirements of each specific Client. This policy has developed thanks to a strong commercial aptitude to meet the requirements and to find out, together with the customers, the most suitable solutions for each application.
Omera’s vocation to product flexibility is well-known from years in the field of trimming machines, whose range has been recently enriched by new solutions with brushless control, where a remarkable energetic impact, deriving from the use of high-efficiency technologies, has been added to rapid set-up operations.
Newly, Omera has started a policy of strong product customisation also in the hydraulic presses field.
Applied methods and technologies
In reply to the increasing demand of the market Omera has acquired extremely rapid and reliable systems for design and quote.
As far as sales is concerned, Omera’s experience in the different fields has been finalized and optimized thanks to the use of QFD techniques.
The Quality Function Deployment is a tool for quality management that aims at the design of products that guarantee the Client’s satisfaction and his value.
Its purpose is to translate the actual expressions and requirements of the Client into actions and design to build and to supply a product of absolute quality.
Concerning the technical aspect instead, apart from the normal 3D CAD and FEM software available on the market, Omera has developed its own solutions. Regarding hydraulics, the designed modular function blocks can enrich the functions of the single machines through few modifications in the system. On the structural point of view, instead, there has been a strong customisation of the FEM Ansys code (Pictures 1-2), thus developing a standard for the parametric calculation of the structures and cylinders of hydraulic presses.
These ideas have found a natural evolution in the introduction of software instruments suitable for industrial design like the 3D CAD and the PDM.
Relying on this potential and motivated to pick up the different requests of each client, Omera presents itself like one of the market realities that are most keen on combining technical-productive requirements and answer to specific as well as detailed requests of the clients.
Applications
An example of application that enhances OMERA dedication towards the Client is the hydraulic press model OPI (Omera Hydraulic Presses) 200 ton which has been recently delivered to one of our Swiss clients. (Picture 3) - please see chart 1 for machine’s data. In this case, even if it is a traditional machine as far as functions and technique is concerned, the main restriction regards the limited height of the Client’s premises. The project development of the machine has therefore displayed a series of solutions to make such limit less binding.
The design of the hydraulic system has been revised as far as logistics is concerned, by placing the blocks and all components, needing periodic maintenance, in an area that can be easily reached by the service personnel. The project of the hydraulic system has been revised on its complete logistics displaced on blocks on all the necessary components that needs a periodical maintenance in a simple zone that is accessible by the maintenance. (Pictures 4-5).
The tiny places of movement for the worker have been extended through the application of a lower floor system around the structure of the machine.
The last ,but not minor, problem has been the noise level. Such aspect could become a particular trouble since the limited height of the premises could create remarkable reflection of the noise towards the operators working at ground level.
A specific plant engineering, with OMERA solutions, used in this case, has guaranteed a noise level of the machine (cycle of the machine at 80% of the nominal load, measure in the worker position, 2 seconds of break between a cycle and the following one) around 74 dBA. Such result has been satisfying, from the point of view of the client and, even if placed between the excellence values, in any case it belongs to the normal politics of OMERA as far as ergonomics is concerned.
Appointments
Besides the specific requests, results of the single client experience, OMERA’s vocation to find answers to the market requirements appears also in the willingness to anticipate the future tendency.
The main guide lines of the OMERA technical development are the high flexibility of the production, the remarkable reduction of the production change time and the energetic efficiency.
On these aspects OMERA is intensifying its efforts, stimulating the teamwork with its suppliers and the academy authority.
In the trimming machines, these requests have already found application in the new range of working units with brushless drive.
These units allows both high energy saving ( reduction till 80% of the energy requirements for a single working), and reduced production change times through the programmable logic.
Working unit for round pieces with horizontal and vertical working movement are already available. Such range will be soon enlarged to the working of polygonal pieces; it will be equipped with CNC and CAD/CAM software, completely developed inside.
This solution will widen in a very substantial way the flexibility of use of these machines, by reducing and in some cases even by deleting the use of specific working equipment thus opening the way to applications that have never been thought for this sector.
In the presses field instead, the attention is towards the refinement and improvement of functions that are already part of a modern hydraulic press.
In a short time, some new innovative functions will be presented and so available on the market, such as recovery of the energy normally dissipated by the blank-holder and a non-traditional anti-shock system developed together with the University of Padova.
Picture 1 Picture 2 Picture 3 Picture 4 Picture 5 Tab. 1
