23.08.2018
Advancements in Manufacturing with High-Precision Leveling Technology from KOHLER
Blickle Räder+Rollen GmbH u. Co KG manufactures its products entirely in-house in order to reliably control quality and delivery dates. In order to ensure the optimum levels of performance from the presses used on its production lines, Blickle has recently opted for leveling technology from KOHLER Maschinenbau GmbH in Lahr.
The new strip leveling line is allowing Blickle to process material up to 12 mm thick for the very first time. Blickle Räder+Rollen GmbH u. Co KG is headquartered in Rosenfeld, a Swabian town lying between Stuttgart and Lake Constance. As a typical representative of the "Mittelstand" – a collective term for globally successful SMEs from Germany – the family-owned enterprise has grown in just two generations from a small craft workshop to one of the world's leading suppliers of wheels and castors, with annual sales of over 200 million euros and more than 950 employees around the world.
The company holds more than 30,000 catalog products for a practically endless number of applications. Blickle has secured its outstanding position on the global market by implementing customer-specific solutions, for example castors with a load-bearing capacity of up to 50 tons. Equipped with its own state-of-the-art and high-performance production facilities, Blickle reacts quickly and flexibly to customer and market requirements. At the heart of its production operation are the 6 press lines with automatic strip feeding lines. The automatic stamping machines have a press force of up to 630 tons. Using progressive composite tools designed and manufactured in-house, Blickle produces steel and stainless steel components that can be incorporated directly into the automatic assembly line without any further processing. KOHLER Maschinenbau GmbH came out ahead of the competition to supply a strip leveling line following Blickle's recent decision to expand its production capacities.
In accordance with the customer requirements, KOHLER supplied the line configured with coil loading chair, decoiler, strip leveling machine, and the strip transfer bridge to the downstream stamping and forming line.
“In future, we will process 2,500 to 3,000 tons of steel per year on KOHLER's strip feeding line. It enables us to process two sheet thicknesses of up to 12 mm, which had not previously been possible”,
explains Matthias Senn, assistant to the management board at Blickle.
Investment with a view to the future
Walter Wager, CEO of Blickle Räder+Rollen GmbH u. Co. KG, sees the investment in the KOHLER strip leveling line as a means of helping to secure the company's future while simultaneously expanding its current production capacities; not least because the ability to now process sheets up to 12 mm thick will allow the Blickle product range to grow even further. Looking back, he notes:
“The entire project with KOHLER, including the advice and technical support that was tailored exactly to our needs, was managed excellently.”
Senior managers in Rosenfeld can rest easy knowing that KOHLER stands ready in Baden-Württemberg to continue to provide advice and support.
