Above: One crane lift cycle now replaces five forklift trips, which represents an immense gain in productivity.
May, 2025- With increased demand for its agricultural machinery, it became time for Fendt International to switch to continuous production with laser cutting directly from the coiled sheet metal strip. This means the green hoods for Fendt tractors can now be built more efficiently than ever before.
Children’s eyes light up when a tractor drives past. And how lucky are those who get to ride along or even sit in the driver’s seat? Many adults also get excited about large agricultural machines. Fendt tractors are popular in numerous countries around the world.
Florian Hammel is responsible for strategic plant and technology development at the Fendt plant in Bavaria, Germany. “Every green part you see on a Fendt tractor comes from this factory,” he says.
Hammel and the metals processing team manufacture, among other things, the steel sheet for the outer surface of the cab and hoods of the large tractors. Previously, a laser flatbed machine with a conventional plate changer cut the contours from sheets. But at some point, that process became too slow. Customer demand had increased significantly, but storage capacity in the production area had not.
“It was clear we would not be expanding the factory premises,” says Hammel. “So it was also clear we had to find a solution with more output in the same space.”
Thanks to the high efficiency and gains in productivity, a laser blanking system pays for itself very quickly for agricultural machinery manufacturer, Fendt.
FASTER WITH COIL
In a laser blanking process process, the system unwinds the strip directly from the coil, i.e., a sheet metal roll, and feeds it to the laser cutting machine.
“Customers need this when laser cutting isn’t productive enough for them,” explains James Gamache, a laser blanking expert for Trumpf Inc. “This was exactly the situation facing Fendt.” Trumpf’s sales team was able to demonstrate the benefits of the new TruLaser 8000 coil edition to the manufacturer.
But before Fendt accepted the offer, Hammel sat down with his team at Fendt and calculated every part of the process in detail. The first issue: the time required for the pallet changes. With Fendt’s previous method, the processed sheet was removed from the laser cutting machine and a new one was inserted.
A general view of the TruLaser 8000 Coil Edition: This picture shows how much less sheet metal waste is left over when Fendt cuts from the coil instead of sheets.
“This step is not needed if we simply unwind a long coil,” Hammel points out. So how much time is saved by using a coil in place of sheet metal? “Around 600 work hours per year. We can then use this time more productively. Overall, the total production time of the laser system increases by around 14 percent.”
The laser head whizzes over the seemingly endless sheet metal strip and cuts the contours of the outer surface parts of the Fendt tractors.
MORE PARTS PER INCH
Productivity increases were already impressive, but Gamache cites another important benefit of using coil. “A sheet is a maximum of 10 to 13 feet,” he explains. It has a limited amount of space for larger components and then the scraps are removed.
The situation is different when cutting directly from the coil: “The sheet becomes virtually infinite,” Gamache adds. “It becomes possible to nest the parts even better. In other words, you get more components per purchased foot of sheet metal.”
Hammel also wanted to know exactly what the difference and the savings realized. So he used his real contours to calculate the difference between sheet and coil production. “[We realized] about 20 percent less material for the same result,” he reports, adding that the purchase price of the coils is lower than buying sheet blanks.
CRANE VERSUS FORKLIFTS
Even the longest coil comes to an end, and eventually a new one needs to be loaded, just like pallets of sheet metal. But with stacks, more storage travel cycles are needed per day. Here, too, Hammel considered what the new TruLaser 8000 coil edition would mean in terms of work process improvements. “We used to move the stacks of sheet metal from the truck into storage, then out into production when needed, to the machine and so on,” he says. “That was a total of five storage travel cycles per provision.”
By using coil instead, only one crane lift cycle is required, says Hammel. “We could swap five forklift trips for one crane lift from the truck into the laser blanking system. This eliminates around 2,400 storage trips per year.” His calculations convinced him and the Fendt factory in Bavaria to purchase the laser blanking system.
The two robots have their unloading work cut out for them. The components come out of the laser cutting chamber in streams.
QUICK CONVERSION
After Trumpf’s TruLaser 8000 arrived, the first truck loaded with coils drove into the Fendt plant. The overhead crane loaded the system. The coil unwound and was pulled into- the cutting chamber. The laser cutting head zoomed across the sheet, applying the contours.
Downstream from the laser cutting unit, two robots remove the components from the coil strip and carefully place them down. A small amount of scrap is automatically transported to a container outside. The part production process continues.
Hammel says he is happy with the new line. “The nesting process ensures we use the sheet efficiently. And we have increased our output, but with less work.” The laser blanking system paid for itself very quickly “really fast,” he says.
Fendt International, http://fendt.com.us/
Trumpf Inc., 860/255-6000, http://trumpf.com/
