Aiguisatek benefits from the experience of Swabian sharpening specialist VOLLMER during the coronavirus pandemic: the VOLLMER CHD 270 sharpening machine with its ND 250 loader enabled Aiguisatek to continue manufacturing its carbide circular saws unmanned, 24 hours a day. From the outset, the company founded in 1986 has placed its trust in the sharpening technology of the Biberach-based machine manufacturer.
"Our company suffered a loss of 30% at the height of the coronavirus pandemic restrictions," explains Lisa Goulet, owner and director of Aiguisatek, a Canadian tool manufacturer. "Given that our staff had to stay at home, we took on the challenge of ensuring the low level of production with two; which we nevertheless succeeded perfectly thanks to automated production with VOLLMER sharpening technology."
Triple the quantity with unmanned production
Apart from Lisa Goulet, only second owner and director Jonathan Riberdy was allowed access to Aiguisatek's 14,000 square-meter production building. The other 13 employees of the company, located in Delson in the French province of Quebec, had to stay at home due to regional coronavirus guidelines. The VOLLMER CHD 270 sharpening machine with its ND 250 loader enabled unmanned manufacturing and machining of carbide circular saw blades around the clock. The loading carriages of the ND 250 robotized system can accommodate up to 450 saw blades, with a maximum load of 1.5 tons. The CHD 270 and ND 250 duo that Aiguisatek received in 2019 meanwhile achieve the same daily output with two employees operating seven manual machines every day in parallel for ten hours. As a result, the toolmaker has been able to triple the quantity of its circular saws machined, from 350 to today's 1,000 circular saw blades per week.
Higher quality and double quota for sharpening
Aiguisatek also uses the CHD 270 to improve the quality of its circular saw blades. One of the decisive factors in this is the automatic scanning of the saw blades, which guarantees consistent grinding quality in repetitive processes. Test reports enable customers to understand the life cycle of carbide circular saw blades, from manufacture to final sharpening. Since the VOLLMER machine enables every cutting edge to be sharpened with minimal abrasion, Aiguisatek is able to sharpen its saw blades up to 25 times; on average, this is twice the quota of the competition.
Aiguisatek has trusted VOLLMER for 35 years
Since the company was founded in 1986 by Mario Dion and Conrad Goulet, father and grandfather of Lisa Goulet and Jonathan Riberdy, Aiguisatek has relied on VOLLMER sharpening know-how. The first Akemat sharpening robot is still in daily use. And in 2013, a new VOLLMER CP 200 sharpening machine arrived in the small town of Delson from Biberach.
"At the time, demand for scoring saw blades had risen sharply, and manual machining of each saw was taking up to 15 minutes with the Akemat," recalls Jonathan Riberdy. "The purchase of the CP 200 enabled us to reduce production time to less than four minutes, increase sharpening quality and produce circular saw blades with complex geometries.
Aiguisatek is growing by around 25 % a year
Customers use Aiguisatek circular saws to machine a wide range of materials, including wood, metal and composites. Around 90 % of regular customers come from the wood processing industry, among them furniture and window manufacturers as well as companies from the construction industry. In addition to carbide circular saws, since 2015 the toolmaker has also been producing cutting tools with diamond inserts, which meanwhile account for a third of sales. Thanks to its expanded product range, Aiguisatek has been able to win new customers beyond Quebec and Ontario, and has since recorded annual growth of around 25 %.
"The Aiguisatek toolmaker both confirms the importance of the Canadian and North American market for VOLLMER and demonstrates the benefits of grinding machine automation, and this irrespective of the coronavirus pandemic," explains Jürgen Hauger, Managing Director of the VOLLMER Group. "For this reason, we are constantly accelerating the automation and digitization of our sharpening machines to achieve more efficient tool production, and in this context sustainably strengthen our market position as a technology leader."
Source: https://www.lemondedubois.com/
