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Pfeuffer is a specialist manufacturer of cold stores and insulated doors from southern Germany. Established in 1928, the company began by hand-crafting cold stores made of wood and ice blocks. Today, it employs over 100 staff and is the world market leader for cold stores, freezer rooms and special-purpose industrial doors.

In the mid 1990s Pfeuffer decided to link up CNC machines by various manufacturers for manless operation. They needed a solution that could operate all machines and transport systems automatically from a unit quantity of 1 upwards. As authorised representative Stefan Wolf remembers, “All available OEM programs and even software by independent developers were miles away from what we wanted to have – the one exception was WiCAM.

Using PN4000 as a basis, a solution was developed that offers a maximum level of individuality, quality and automation to this day. To begin programming, the parametric module generates the bending information for each individual component by drawing on the orders stored in the Navision ERP system. Depending on the size, it determines whether parts are to be bent manually or automatically by the Salvagnini P4 bending cell.

The next step involves coil-optimised nesting. The length of each plate is individually optimised and sheared at the six-head decoiler in the required sequence. The programs installed in the Trumpf TruPunch 5000 punches the individual parts naturally with common line cutting, controls the content and position of the labels, and uses the Sheet Master to place the semi-finished parts in the right position in preparation for the continued bending process.

The corresponding bending programs deliver the necessary stability of the parts. As Stephan Wolf says, “Thanks to WiCAM we can manage this vital part of the manufacturing process directly from our ERP system. There is no need to enter any data at the machines. I can no longer imagine running our production lines in a conventional manner with non-networked stand-alone solutions. That’s just one reason why we consider WiCAM to offer outstanding value for money.