Laitila Coating’s investments in improving production efficiency continue. The versatile metal processing company introduced new Ehrt technology during the summer, when the manufacturer’s FlexPunch Compact punching machine was installed for processing copper flat bar materials. The machine is the first of its model in Finland.
Laitila Coating is familiar to many as a growth company whose name strongly refers to surface treatment, but today the company’s offering is much more than that.
Today, the company is a contract manufacturer in mechanical engineering, investing in system deliveries and comprehensive service operations within the sector. In addition to surface treatment services, this also means machining services and, among other things, thin sheet metal processing under the same roof.
“Surface treatment is where we started, with roots extending back to the 1980s, and it still forms an essential part of our operations. Around our specialised expertise in surface treatment, namely electrolytic surface treatment and powder coating, we have nevertheless aimed to build an increasingly comprehensive overall package for our customers, in which the services of the production chain are delivered as far as possible by us as a single supplier,” says Managing Director Kai Salo.
“When we understand both metals and surface treatments, a major benefit for the customer is the flexibility of the overall process and reliable quality control,” Salo states.
A comprehensive service provider
Laitila Coating Oy began operations in 2002, but quite soon the company also started actively seeking added value for its products on the mechanical engineering side.
The manufacture of busbars and thin sheet metal products began, and from there the company has further expanded into surface-treated machined components.
Today, the company carries out contract manufacturing in, among other things, busbars and various copper tube components, and with the contribution of approximately 60 employees, its products are delivered not only to the domestic market but also for export.
The broad production perspective has meant investments in machinery and equipment. The machine base for both CNC machining and sheet metal work has been expanded in response to customer needs and in anticipation of them.
The most recent major technological step was taken last year, when, due to growing demand for chip-removing machining, the company invested in DMG Mori 5-axis technology with a DMU50 machining centre alongside its existing DMG Mori equipment.
Around the same time, a significant investment was also made in additional sheet metal capacity with the acquisition of a Prima Power combi machine.
To enable the expansion of its machine base, the company has sought new types of financing solutions through leasing arrangements. The company’s latest investments were also partly made possible by the facility expansion completed last year. With approximately 1,100 square metres of additional space, Laitila Coating’s facilities grew to a total of 5,500 square metres.
New technology for processing flat bar materials
The manufacture of busbars became Laitila Coating’s main product sector in mechanical engineering at an early stage. Busbar production remains central today, and the company manufactures these products for its electrical engineering customers in many types of solutions, both from copper and increasingly also from aluminium.
The busbars are produced from flat bar materials and, nowadays, partly also from sheet materials cut with a waterjet cutter.
The production volumes are illustrated by the fact that, on a daily basis, as much as 3,000–4,000 kg of copper can be used for busbars, while daily aluminium consumption is approximately 500 kg.
As a supplier of busbars, the company is among the most significant in the country, and as a provider of comprehensive services covering the entire manufacturing chain up to coatings, it is also quite unique.
In busbar production, one of the key machines in recent years for punching flat bar material has been the German Ehrt Holecut, used for the automatic processing of flat bar material for busbars. As a continuation of last year’s investments, the company acquired a second Ehrt machine this summer to operate alongside it. The machine is the first of its kind in Finland.
The machine in question is the FlexPunch Compact, which was also presented at the latest EuroBlech, and like the earlier machine, it is equipped with a loading table for the automatic handling of flat bars.
The new FlexPunch Compact in Ehrt’s product range is, as its name suggests, a compact package solution for punching flat bar material.
“The machine is equipped with four tool stations instead of the six or ten tool stations found in the Holecut models. However, it is an automatic CNC machine, and programming can be carried out with PowerCut office software directly from 2D CAD drawings. This is also how it is done at Laitila Coating,” says Pasi Pitkänen, Managing Director of Fredko Group.
A versatile compact solution
At Laitila Coating, the need for a new flat bar processing machine was originally linked to the manufacture of a specific product family for a specific customer. The initial idea was to acquire a customised special-purpose machine for the products of this large customer.
Quite soon, however, the investment decision moved from a special-purpose machine to a standard compact solution from Ehrt’s product range.
“In this way, the machine will serve not only the products of a specific customer but also our production more broadly in the future,” Salo explains.
Through Ehrt’s 3in1 Multitool tools, the machine has a total of seven punching tools and one cutting tool available at the same time, enabling it to perform a wide variety of work and also demanding busbar components.
The new solution brings additional capacity to Laitila Coating’s flat bar material processing, but investments in production and its efficiency will continue in other sectors of the company as well. In an autumn delivery, the company will also receive a Salvagnini P2Lean 2120 panel bender with cutting option, supplied by Fredko. With this, production and its automation in Laitila will once again take one step forward.
