One of Britain’s largest stockholders of engineering plastics, ENSINGER Ltd, is providing faster delivery of more accurate cut pieces to its customers following the company’s investment in a Missler DEB 540ce bandsaw from KASTO, Milton Keynes.

Installed in September 2009 at ENSINGER’s headquarters and main distribution centre in Tonyrefail, South Wales, the 540 mm capacity saw is resulting in at least a 10 per cent increase in yield from each length of stock that is cut, according to Steve Tipples, Director & General Manager.

In very exceptional cases, up to 40 per cent of some materials is saved from being scrapped. With 60 to 70 per cent of the company’s plastic stock at Tonyrefail sawn into millions of pieces every year, savings are considerable, especially with some materials costing more than £100 per kilogram.

Bar, tube, profile and plate from mid size up to 500 mm across were previously cut using an ageing bandsaw on which the blade tended to wander, producing a wavy cut surface. Typically, it meant that if ten pieces could theoretically be cut from a length of stock, in practice only nine might be produced at times due to material loss between the cuts.

A further drawback was that sometimes the billet ends had to be planed flat by hand to within the customer’s specification, incurring extra labour and energy costs as well as increasing lead time from order to delivery.

All of these problems have been solved by the arrival of the Missler ‘deb 540 ce’ bandsaw. ENSINGER can therefore once again quickly and reliably cut to size.

Moreover, much closer tolerances can now be held. This can save the user time and money by not having to machine the cut faces, which adds further value to the service provided by ENSINGER.

When John Sullivan and Carl Morgan, respectively the company’s Logistics Manager and Purchasing Manager, researched the market for a suitable bandsaw, they knew that a machine normally sold into the metal cutting sector was required; woodworking bandsaws are too lightweight.

They evaluated machines from a large number of suppliers and the build quality of the Missler (part of the KASTO group) stood out as being superior to the others. Amusingly and rather flatteringly, one of KASTO’s competitors described the Missler bandsaw as a Ferrari.

Once the order had been placed with KASTO, however, the competitor focused on the perception in the marketplace that Missler spares would be a problem in years to come, as machine production ceased in 2007 after KASTO bought the company. Ernst Wagner, Managing Director of the group’s UK subsidiary, dispelled the rumour by stating that availability of Missler spares was guaranteed for a minimum of 10 years, as required by European law. In the UK, there are over 150 Missler machines being maintained by KASTO.

The Missler has indeed proved to be a Ferrari of a bandsaw. Over a 16-hour daily shift, it cuts rapidly through ENSINGER’s wide range of plastic materials, including some very tough varieties. For example, 450 mm diameter TECAST TM cast polyamide tube of 50 mm wall thickness is sawn in fractionally over 1.5 minutes, using a band speed of 110 m/min and a feed rate of 300 mm/min. It equates to cutting 420 cm²/min.

When sawing 500 mm diameter solid bar of the same material, a feed rate of 100 mm/min completes the cut in five minutes, ie, at 390 cm²/min.

Established in 1987, ENSINGER’s UK subsidiary in Tonyrefail now co-ordinates the activities of seven other branches around the UK, which provide a personalised plastics distribution service to local industries. Customers include end users, machine shops and other distributors serving a wide range of sectors including food and drink, aerospace, defence, medical, F1, offshore and nuclear.

Some centres have cutting and machining facilities, supplying batches of parts ranging from one-off to several thousand at a time. No metal is stored or processed on any of the sites to avoid contaminating the plastic materials. The headquarters in Wales is also heavily involved in application-based design and development for its customers.

ENSINGER has grown steadily over the past 22 years. It employs 240 staff, of which 70 are dedicated to machining.

As the leader in the industry, ENSINGER regards education and training as part of its responsibility and is active on many fronts. It has an internal training school at Tonyrefail with apprentices studying for NVQs, and has established a machine shop at the local Tonyrefail Comprehensive to teach practical aspects of turning, milling and sawing of all types of material. The company also has close links with Swansea University and sponsors a room dedicated to testing of materials.