A precise focus on its core competence – contract manufacturing in sheet metal forming – has led Steelcomp Oy onto a path of success. The Kauhava-based company stands on a strong foundation formed by young, skilled personnel and a strong willingness to invest in high-level production technology. The latest investment, a Salvagnini automatic panel bender supplied through Fredko, has opened new doors for the company.
Founded in 2006, Steelcomp has a considerable background in sheet metal technology, as the entrepreneur duo Kimmo Niska and Petri Hirvelä both have a long history with Finn-Power Oy.
– Thanks to our background, we have a strong command of manufacturing technologies. This provides an advantage not only in production management, but also when making machine investments, the entrepreneurs reflect.
Broad customer base
Although Steelcomp’s production is concentrated on a narrow sector around sheet metal, the customer base has become quite broad. – We have around 100 active customers in our register, ranging from small operators to large Finnish export companies. Our broad customer base, active across many different industries, balances fluctuations, and thanks to this we have grown with determination. We are now accelerating again towards our peak-year turnover figure of EUR 2.9 million, explains Niska.
– We focus all our energy on perforating, punching and bending sheet metal. Of course, we also carry out larger assemblies in cooperation with our partner network, but in our own production we will continue to focus on our own area of expertise.
€ 3.3 million machine base
One of Steelcomp’s basic principles is continuous investment in the latest technology. In relation to turnover, the value of the machine base is fairly high at € 3.3 million.
– With the new automatic panel bender, we immediately gained new work. There are, for example, certain design-type jobs that cannot be made by press brake bending. This is a good example of why investments are worthwhile and why they must be made with determination.
40 years of experience included
The machines that form the backbone of our operations work very cost-effectively, but bending had become the bottleneck. We solved this problem with a Salvagnini P4Xe automatic panel bender. The process from ordering the panel bender to delivery was extremely fast. Discussions with Fredko began in the spring of last year, and the deal made in September progressed to a machine running in production in just over three months.
– The machine delivery was an impressive achievement. The machine arrived at the beginning of December and was already in production use, including training, by 20 December, says Niska.
– The factory visit with Fredko, Salvagnini’s representative, convinced us of the machine’s capabilities. In other words, we did not buy only a machine, but also the applications it brings with it and the factory’s 40 years of application experience.
The setup time of the P4Xe automatic panel bender is zero, as tool changes are carried out during part transfers. The machine produces fully bent panels completely automatically and, thanks to free programming, in flexible production series – different parts one after another, including single parts.
– The range of bending profiles is enormous, as the operating experience from more than two and a half thousand automatic panel benders has formed a bending application database at Salvagnini’s factory in Austria, which is unique in the world. For this reason, thanks to their flexibility and easy programmability, automatic panel benders are also suitable for single-piece batch production, Niska says enthusiastically while describing the machine’s features.
Local service and customer support are handled by three Finnish service technicians and installers belonging to Salvagnini Scandinavia, under the leadership of Markku Lahtinen. When needed, they are supported by Managing Director Pasi Pitkänen, who is responsible for Salvagnini sales in Finland, and Fredko’s six-person customer service team.
– I would summarise Salvagnini’s strengths into three areas: the loading and unloading table, the manipulator that handles the sheet, and the optimised tooling and tool change solutions of the bending unit itself, concludes Hirvelä.
Info: Steelcomp Oy, sales: Kimmo Niska, tel. +358 50 562 1679, production: Petri Hirvelä, tel. +358 500 664 064, www.steelcomp.fi
