During a visit by Finnish customer Mantsinen Group Oy to Luyckx's production facility in Belgium, the two companies discussed welding robots and the processing of excavator arms. Luyckx and Mantsinen both specialise in earthmoving machinery and cranes, and immediately recognised each other's challenges. The conversation led to a recommendation that made the difference for Luyckx: ARP (Automatic Robot Programming).
Since 1952, Luyckx has specialised in the distribution and service of machinery for civil engineering, material handling and agriculture. The company works with two Valk Welding systems: a TRACK-FRAME-E and Belgium's largest system, a TRACK-YXZ-RL-FH. This system has a track length of 82 metres and a load capacity of 40 tonnes (The image on the right provides a clear illustration of this system). Both systems automate the welding process of excavator arms and heavy excavator buckets.
Robbe Vekemans from Luyckx requested an ARP demonstration from James and shortly afterwards decided to purchase the ARP software for the TRACK-FRAME-E setup, which the company uses to weld small parts, mainly excavator buckets. ARP (Automatic Robot Programming) is offline programming software that automatically generates a welding program for welding robots based on 3D CAD files, making programming up to ten times faster and making small batches and one-off productions profitable too.
After just one week, the Luyckx team programmed the first excavator bucket entirely using ARP. A month later, programming a bucket takes only half a day.
The improvements are remarkable. "Our process has become much more efficient and flexible because programming is so much faster," says Robbe.
Mantsinen, a family business and leader in material handling, also recently chose a TRACK-YX-RL-FH. From its factory in eastern Finland, Mantsinen supplies material handlers worldwide through an extensive dealer network.
This story shows how knowledge and experience spread within the Valk Welding network: from one customer to another.
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