Page 53 - MetalForming May 2015

decided to bring production inhouse to control our own destiny and not be bound by our subcontractors. At that point I purchased more equipment.”
Buckles purchased basic machines, including an 8-ft. CNC press brake and additional welding equipment, all the while striving to meet deadlines and grow his company. “I had a short amount of time between testing, approval and production,” he says with a grin.
Used Equipment Goes Only So Far
In 2009 Buckles moved yet again, to a 20,000-sq.-ft. building in Hood River, OR, and purchased yet additional used machinery “to save money,” he says. “I hired additional employees (the firm now employs 40) and finally started to produce the complete product line, as well as fulfill our military contracts.”
By 2011, Buckles determined that his company was ready to invest in modern bending technology.
“We had old CNC press brakes,” says Buckles, “and we were doing an unbelievable amount of production on those machines. However, they required a lot of expertise, press-brake knowledge and training to make them perform. If the operators weren’t at their best each and every day, produc- tivity suffered. So I sought equipment solutions that would allow us to expand our horizons—our capabili- ties, quality and speed.”
Buckles shopped around and
researched the latest bending technol- ogy on the market. “We narrowed it down to three machine builders, decid- ing eventually to invest in a servo-elec- tric press brake (an eP-1030 model from Prima Power),” he says. “We purchased the machine in July 2012.”
Servo-electric press brakes are fast, accurate and nonhydraulic bending solutions. They’re versatile yet deliver reduced power consumption and require less maintenance than do hydraulic brakes.
“For almost a solid year we ran the eP-1030 two shifts per day, 10 hr./shift, five days per week,” says Buckles. “We needed more capacity, so in December 2013 we installed a second eP-1030.”
Ease of Programming
Buckles is impressed with the press brakes’ ease of programming. The eP- series utilizes a Windows-based control that includes two separate processors, one for real-time operations and one for bending-application tasks.
Champion fabricates 150,000 lb. of material each month, and nearly all of it routes through the Prima Power press brakes. The firm manfuactures fixed and mobile storage cabinets, workbenches, tool boxes and carts, wall systems, and more, including 14 different drawer heights for its modular series of products.
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At the press-brake control, operators download bending programs and pull up matching part numbers, which gives them the setup sheets—no need to figure out tool lengths, what tools to use or the bend sequence. That process, combined with quick-change tooling and a hydraulic top clamp for the press brakes, has enabled Champion to reduce setup times from 20-30 min. to just 5 min.