New equipment investments help Spacefile increase bending complexity

Oct 20, 2024

The addition of two SafanDarley electric press brakes to the shop floor has helped to speed production. Beyond wanting new press brakes, the management team wanted to make sure the brakes could be set up quickly and didn’t always need a skilled operator at the controls. The electric brakes met those needs.

A company rarely tries to solve just one challenge at a time. Often, it is trying to manage capacity constraints while also looking for talented employees. This perfect storm of business opportunity and constraints is exactly what Spacefile experienced when it needed to tackle a spike in orders a few years ago. The solution it landed on was an investment in electric press brakes that could save on setup time and be managed effectively by less experienced operators when necessary.

Established more than 50 years ago, Spacefile is a Toronto-based manufacturer of high-density storage products. If you’ve been to an archive where shelves move on a track to allow for compact efficient storage, you’ll have a picture of the sort of complex systems the company designs, manufactures, and installs.

“Our customer segments include educational sectors, financial institutes, health care, museums, retail stores, law offices, libraries, government bodies, and more. Many large organizations like Lockheed Martin, Disney, Martin Luther King Hospital, and Indigo trusted us for their storage needs,” said Masood Soleimani, engineering director, Spacefile.

“As well as a quality product, the two main values that Spacefile proposes to its customers are the ability to customize our solutions based on their needs and short lead time, even on custom projects. In this sense, each project brings some unique challenges in terms of design and manufacturing,” said Masood.

Although the company has done work as far afield as Europe, South America, and the Middle East, most of its focus is on Canada and the U.S. market

Although filing systems may all seem to look the same, Masood explained that the company’s shop is a high-mix, low-volume environment. To meet production demands, it operates two turret punch presses, three press brakes, two spot welding stations, two assembly stations, and one MIG welding station. It also operates a powder coating line in its facility in Etobicoke.

“We have the in-house capability to perform every aspect of our production, from design to manufacturing and painting. We do, however, outsource certain components, such as stamping and machined parts, to our trusted suppliers,” said Masood.

Between management, sales, design, and production, the company employs around 50 people. Most of the work it does is in cold-rolled steel between 22 ga. and 12 ga.

Spacefile didn’t always have as much press brake capacity as it does today. Until 2021, it had three hydraulic machines: a 120 ton, a 60 ton, and a 40 ton. The pivotal moment for the company came when it faced a surge in orders, which meant the investment in more robust machines was inevitable.

“We had three large projects come to us all at the same time, including work at the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, Martin Luther King Hospital, and another seven-figure project from the U.S. As always, opportunities come with challenges. They all had mostly the same shipping timeline. The management team understood that there was a bottleneck in the press brake department,” said Masood. “We had to ramp up production quickly, but it was difficult to find the right machines, tooling, and operator at the time.”

Spacefile is a Toronto-based manufacturer of high-density storage products whose customer segments include financial institutes, health care, museums, law offices, libraries, and more. Images: Spacefile

Beyond wanting a new press brake, the management team wanted to make sure it could be set up quickly and didn’t always need a skilled operator at the controls

“Spacefile has been blessed to have very experienced employees on the shop floor keeping up the production quality and flow. Some of them have worked for Spacefile for over 30 years. But at the time, it was very difficult to find anyone with press brake skills,” said Masood. “We were also concerned about safety, because we knew we were going to be running 24 hours a day within three shifts and we wanted somebody to run the machine with minimum supervision. We needed a machine that could be safely and securely handled by a less experienced individual without any compromise in quality.”

Spacefile ended up investing in a SafanDarley 100 ton Premium electric press brake from Westway Machinery and it immediately became a go-to machine for the company.

“Honestly, we originally planned that this machine was going to be dedicated to only our shelving line of product, but from the moment we started to work with it, the operators loved the ease of use,” said Masood. “So we started to transfer lots more product lines to the Safan.”

About six months later, the company bought a SafanDarley 130 ton Ultra electric press brake to add to its capabilities. By that time, it had sold its 60- and 40-ton hydraulic machines.

“The Ultra has more degree of freedom (DOF) on the backgauges which makes it suitable for more complex bending profiles,” said Masood. “Those two machines helped us succeed with those projects and deliver the level of quality that we always promise to our customers. Seeing these capacities in this technology, they became the main part of our production from then on. They are just very easy to use, both in terms of the controls and the tool changes.”

Repeatability is a big part of the value of the newer press brakes, according to Masood.

“You can repeat the same setup again and again without having to readjust anything,” he explained. “It also allows you to store a database of parts so that the operator can easily pull up a job from that database and run a job again. This improved the bending throughput and quality. With our older hydraulic brake, while you can call up a program, getting the first good part from the machine isn’t as easy. We had to adjust the settings again. That’s a huge time savings.”

The tool changes also are simple and quick.

“Because we are a high-mix, low-volume shop, the operator is going to have to change out tooling at least a couple of times during a shift,” said Masood. “With the previous mechanical clamping on brakes, tool change and setup can sometimes take as much as 20 minutes. But with the hydraulic clamping on Safan brakes, it’s just a push of the button and the tools are loose, and you can change them out for another set.

Although filing systems may all seem to look the same, Masood Soleimani explained that the company’s shop is a high-mix, low-volume environment.

“To simplify this further, we created a database that relates tooling, sheet thickness, and bending angle together so that all that information is at the operator’s fingertips. They don’t have to think through what will be involved in a setup the way they did on the hydraulic press. And because of the level of control that you have over the stroke, you can do the same job with much less tooling. We have three sets of Wila premium and Mate custom tooling that the two machines share, and with that we can do most of the jobs we run in the shop.”

From a speed standpoint, the electric brake’s ability to move quickly and safely at 40 thou above the clamping point is an advantage as well.

“It may not seem like a big deal on paper but when you are bending hundreds of parts per shift, the increase in productivity will be clear,” said Masood.

The other key to speeding production is the implementation of effective production information flow within the manufacturing plant. The company uses SolidWorks for its 3D modeling and designs, Lantek to generate G-code for operating the CNC turret presses, and Radbend for the bend programs.

“Implementing the CAD/CAM software and creating the part database for our CNC turret press and brake presses and connecting the machines directly to these databases created a seamless information flow between engineering and production. This is necessary for us since we make lots of custom parts and communication of the changes with production is vital. Off-line programming is one of the key elements of this information flow. We chose Radbend because it can program both the Safan and Delem controls on the hydraulic brake,” said Masood. “Programming off-line saves a lot of time and effort on the shop floor. The only paperwork we have to do is to send the job instructions so the operators know which program they should be running.

“It also saves us a lot of time in the product development phase,” Masood continued. “For example, before, there was a lot of back and forth in prototyping, making sure that the tooling would be able to bend the profile we were working on. Now, with all the parameters available in the software, we can import the CAD file into the software and accurately determine the correct tooling based on what we have in the shop. It’s sophisticated enough that we can eliminate a lot of tooling needs by having the software help determine our part flow between the two machines.”

Off-line programming also means that production flow can be maintained even without experienced operators on the machines at all times.

“It used to be that if your most experienced operator was out sick, work on the brake would slow or stop. Now, because the programming is done off-line, the absence of that one employee isn’t going to stop operations.”

Beyond the more sophisticated backgauge, Masood noted that there are a few differences between the Premium and the Ultra e-brakes.

“One of our main line of products is the heavy-duty SDS carriages, which are made out of 12 ga., and the panels can be up to 10 ft. long. We produce these panels on the Ultra because the job requires more tonnage. Also, the crowning system on the Ultra will help maintain the quality we require from the bend through the whole length of the profile,” he explained.

Meanwhile, the one remaining hydraulic brake has been relegated for use primarily on one product line that requires special tools purchased for that machine.

“It’s hard to get operators to work the hydraulic now,” said Masood. “The number of quality checks is much greater with the hydraulic brake. They know the quality they will get out of the electric brakes, they know they’ll get a good part right from the first part, and that those parts will remain consistent.”

While accuracy is important for the company, Masood consistently goes back to the safety of the machines as a key point for him.

“At Spacefile, the safety of our workers is the highest priority,” he said. “I just think these brakes go a long way to make safety a key goal. The safety light curtain on the Safans has been located, programmed, and operates in a way that keeps operators very safe without slowing down their operations. No compromise is made with safety, and productivity goes up substantially.

“At Spacefile, we look for new technologies that enable us to create and pass more value to our customers in terms of cost-efficiency and quality,” he continued. “These technologies make our business operation more profitable as well. The investment in e-brakes proved to be transformative. Looking ahead, we will continue to leverage new manufacturing technologies to improve the efficiency, quality, and safety of our operations.

“What we experienced at Spacefile is that investing in technology creates a win-win situation for all involved.”

Editor Robert Colman can be reached at [email protected].

Spacefile International Corp., spacefile.com

SafanDarley, safandarley.com

Westway Machinery, westwaymachinery.com