BYSTRONIC

From fibre laser to “just-in-time”

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Purchased by Aussafer Due in both versions (3015 and 4020), BySprintFiber by Bystronic allows machining in fast and flexible way sheet metals up to 4,000 x 2,000 m.
Purchased by Aussafer Due in both versions (3015 and 4020), BySprintFiber by Bystronic allows machining in fast and flexible way sheet metals up to 4,000 x 2,000 m.

Innovation, research and development are determinant to grow and to face new challenges. Likewise, relying on constantly upgraded plants with high technological content can prove discriminative to be able to attack with great competitiveness markets otherwise difficult to approach.

Claudio Citossi, managing director of Aussafer Due at S. Giorgio di Nogaro (UD).
Claudio Citossi, managing director of Aussafer Due at S. Giorgio di Nogaro (UD).

In a more and more competitive market, entrepreneurial farsightedness and capability of anticipating the requirements of the sector where we work cannot be split. Their synergy must be able to offer added value in terms of product quality, process optimization and an almost “just-in-time” supply. Without neglecting flexibility, nowadays become necessary and able to satisfy increasingly demanding operational dynamics. Provided that we can rely on a sturdy and consolidated structure. As in the case of Aussafer Due, company established in the Sixties by the typical force of those who, born and grown in the North East, succeeded in standing out for experience, sacrifice and good will, giving birth to a reality immediately become a reference point in the sector of the subcontracting sheet metal machining. Author of this entrepreneurial adventure Norina Citossi, together with her husband Giorgio, who together laid the bases of a family company that today generates a turnover exceeding 25million Euros. The management is entrusted to Claudio and Luisa, the second generation who, since when they joined the company at end of the Eighties, have gone on with the same genuine enthusiasm transmitted by their parents, still paying great attention to innovation, to the investment in human resources and in innovative technologies. The doors of the company are now opened to the third generation with the employment of the grandson Giacomo. Synthesis of this precise approach is given by the pay-off recently coined just by Luisa Citossi, that’s to say “For us, today, is already … past”: «The change she adds – has always constituted a great opportunity for us; the difficulty and the business strategy are represented by the capability of being dynamic and flexible to anticipate and/or to be able to suit the new different markets demands». And it is just in compliance with this policy that it is also framed the acquisition of 4 new laser plants by Bystronic, company with which Aussafer Due has established a winning partnership relationship that is by now lasting fifteen years.

From the cost reduction to the productive flexibility
Headquartered at San Giorgio di Nogaro (UD), Aussafer Due is specialized in the metal machining upon job order, not on its own product, and it avails itself of several technologies like cutting and notching, press bending and mechanical and complementary machining. «A complete service – states the managing director Claudio Citossi – that starts from the design up to the industrialization and the technical service of the product. A global service to customers that includes all machining processes so that a single supplier succeeds in satisfying all needs ».
Today increasingly targeted requirements in comparison with the past, when the demand consisted of big size job orders, and which today are numerically much more numerous but with extremely reduced batches. All that accompanied by a notable decrease of the times between the order receipt and fulfilment. «Our answer? Constant investment in new technologies – underlines Claudio Citossi – and new organizational models, paying particular attention to the high qualitative standard of products. It is not worth reminding in fact that today’s market is hyper-competitive and therefore in the analysis of the latest investments made we highly focused on the reduction of production costs and on the productive flexibility ». A specific example for the Friuli company, which is typical of the latest years, concerns the need of machining complex components with low thickness where the cutting quality and the dimensional precision are essential requisites. «Requisites – adds Claudio Citossi – that have led us to analyse in-depth new technologies, turning to Bystronic». The answer given by the company with Swiss parent company, through the technicians of the Italian branch, has converged into the acquisition proposal of the new BySprintFiber laser. Available in the 3015 and 4020 versions (with nominal dimension of the machinable sheet metal of 3,000 x 1,500 mm or 4,000 x 2,000 mm), it is a suitable plant for the volume manufacturing of pieces and absolute cutting quality for sheet metals with thin-medium thickness, depending on the laser power. With maximum simultaneous positioning speed up to 140 m/min and axis acceleration up to 12 m/s2, BySprintFiber stands out also for the great energy efficiency of the fibre laser, with consequent reduced electricity consumption in comparison with other technologies, as well as for the absence of laser gases. Strong points completed also by the high flexibility (also non ferrous metals are machinable) and the compact structure. «Until now – adds Claudio Citossi – we have bought a total of 4 new fibre laser Bystronic plants with 3 and 4 kW in both available versions. A winning choice that has allowed us to further enhance our competitiveness and to acquire new customers».

The availability of a constantly upgraded machine fleet allows then Aussafer Due to rely always on the right technology for each application.
The availability of a constantly upgraded machine fleet allows then Aussafer Due to rely always on the right technology for each application.

Not only smart loading and unloading
In this context, for Aussafer Due the capability of approaching the market in absolutely competitive way means to pay great attention to the whole process, as well as to the product quality. «Great attention paid also to all those phases – adds Claudio Citossi – absolutely not secondary, represented for instance by the loading and unloading of sheet metals for machining operations». Automations that, in the specific case, to satisfy precise productive requisites, have led Bystronic to couple highly performing plants with fast and especially flexible solutions. «Like the ByTrans Extended – specifies Claudio Citossi – smart solution for the loading and unloading of laser cutting plants that allows us to carry out automatically and without idle times even cutting surfaces with very short cycle times. Or even to find already ready parts for the successive machining thanks to the included sorting system ». With complete loading and unloading cycle that lasts just 60 seconds, the ByTrans Extended module allows exploiting the combined machine in more productive way, with a just slightly higher investment. Its design is equipped with two boxes, which makes the machine system even more autonomous and flexible, since it is possible to use both to contain the rough material, both as supporting plan for big-size components and for intermediate plates. The system is therefore used not only for the successive stocking/storing but also for the preparation of protective plastic panels, which can be positioned among the sheet metals.

The process optimization that looks at the future
Attentive research for a cost reduction and the efficiency increase on determinate productions have been the two main reasons that have led the Friuli company to make huge investments also in crisis periods. «In a period – points out Claudio Citossi – in which the majority of our competitors lived a stagnant phase, our investments were not limited to plants only but also extended to the implementation of computerized systems». Thanks to the new Bystronic Bysoft 7 programming software and to the PMC (Plant Manager Cutting) the company has further streamlined a series of technical operations. Targeted choice that perfectly matches specific management solutions developed by the software-house Bit Lam srl of S. Giorgio di Nogaro (UD). «Our system is totally integrated – specifies Claudio Citossi – and it groups all the departments of our company, together with the commercial and administrative area. Thanks to these investments and to a constantly monitored production, we can then provide several advantages, including: highly competitive costs, short response times, timely deliveries, quality without compromise». A winning operational choice. As confirmed by the growth data and the business solidity that have allowed Aussafer Due to accept these difficult years as a further challenge. But the entrepreneurial farsightedness of the owners might soon reserve some important novelties. According to the few and fragmented indications leaked, it would in fact seem under study a not better defined “new market line” in which huge investments and resources have been lavished. We can nothing but wait for some months because the project should become concrete within the current year. One thing is however certain, that’s to say the award of the “Premio Città Impresa 2014” (2014 Business City Award) banished by the homonymous Festival in Schio where they have selected ten “visionary” entrepreneurs, ten business managers who, thanks to their activity and their entrepreneurial vision, are giving a fundamental contribution to the economy of the Country and in particular of the Venetian territory. Among them also the top managers of Aussafer Due, Claudio and Luisa Citossi, who received the prize last 12th April at the Civic Theatre of Schio (VI), together with renowned names of the Italian industry.

Always aware of the eco-environmental sustainability, Aussafer Due has equipped its productive units with two photovoltaic plants with 2 MWh of power

CO2 and fibre laser in synergy
The acquisition of the new Bystronic plants has proved the great operational advantage, after an initial scepticism towards a “recent” and constantly evolving technology (such as the fibre source one). The availability of a constantly upgraded machine fleet allows then Aussafer Due to rely always on the right technology for each application. Just for this reason, it has recently subdivided the productive capacity between CO2 laser plants and fibre plants; in this way it can be competitive in various material typologies (steel, stainless steel, aluminium, galvanized, copper and brass) and for thicknesses that range from a minimum of 0.5 mm up to a maximum of 25 mm. This context is the frame of a relationship, established between the Friuli Company and Bystronic, which has been successfully lasting for over 15 years by now. «To the extent  – comments Claudio Citossi – that I would not speak of a supplier but instead of a valid partner and of a relationship consolidated over the years, with the purchase of a good 31 plants. If we must solve a problem, their presence and their support is timely and unequivocal. They assist us and eventually propose targeted alternative solutions. For a reality like ours, which has notably grown over the years, and still intends to grow, a wide-ranging support, from products to after sale service, as Bystronic has given us, is fundamental. For this reason we have reconfirmed our confidence, once more choosing their products and services ».

The BySprintFiber range by Bystronic installed at Aussafer Due assures mass-production of parts and cutting quality for sheet metal with subtle-medium thickness.
The By SprintFiber range by Bystronic installed at Aussafer Due assures mass-production of parts and cutting quality for sheet metal with subtle-medium thickness.

The company in pills
Headquartered at S. Giorgio di Nogaro (UD), today Aussafer Due operates on an area taking up 50,000 square metres, 30,000 of which covered by infrastructures, with a machining capacity of 3,000 ton metal per month, availing itself of the collaboration of 135 employees, induced activities included. To carry out its activity, the company makes use of: 10 laser cutting plants with maximum 6 kW of power with machining range up to 4,000 x 2,000 mm and maximum machinable sheet metal thicknesses of 25 mm on carbon steel, and up to 20 mm on stainless steel; 3 tube laser cutting plants with bar loading up to 6,500 mm and round sections with Ø from 12 to 239 mm and square ones from 12 to 200 mm of side (with possible machining on open profiles); 6 automated punching plants with loading, unloading and shearing (management of the productive flow based on the “Night Train FMS” method); an automated panel bending machine with precision bending tolerance of 0.1 mm, sheet metal sizes in thickness from 0.5 to 3 mm, maximum length of 2,550 mm; 25 CNC press brakes with maximum force of 600 t and machining length up to 12 m. Machine fleet operating 24 hours a day for the production of components intended for the most various sectors for national customers (by 40% of the production) and international ones, including South Africa, Turkey, China and India. Just in China and in India Aussafer Due has recently achieved two important job orders, winning a new challenge and proclaiming its competitiveness also in difficult markets.

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