Firm goes
to amazing lengths
P.P. Profi les (West Yorkshire) has installed a two-table, three-gantry, multi-head combined plasma/fl ame
cutting cell that stretches for a length of 39 m length, supplied by Kerf Developments (https://is.gd/
humoze) to support its established subcontract cutting service
Established in 1978, the Batley,
Greater Manchester-based company
has built a reputation for providing
cutting solutions for carbon steel, stainless
steel and a range of additional materials
for the nuclear, oil and gas, construction,
rail, bulk handling, food, water and waste,
storage tank and yellow goods industries.
The 40-employee business produces
anything from one-offs to small-to-large
batch runs that involve small and large
components from its 70,000 ft2 site. P.P.
Pro les processes an average of 400 to
500 tonnes of steel every month – almost
40% of this is run through the new Kerf
RUR4500. And that underlines the need for
the new cell’s purchase – the replacement
of less accurate and less ef cient existing
kit. This latest investment is part of more
than £2 million spent by the company
during the past two years, in fact.
Two older 12 by 2.5 m ame cutting
machines and a 6 m plasma machine were
proving unreliable, creating an inef cient
work ow. Explains commercial director
Daniel Morley: “We speci ed the Kerf
RUR4500 with a single high de nition 400
A plasma cutting head on a 12 by 4 m bed,
and a two-machine 24 by 4 m bed that has
both a six-head and a four-head ame
cutting gantry – all in a single 39 by 4 m
cell. This allows us to load much larger jobs
and it has opened us up to new markets,
as parts over 12 m long parts are not
uncommon.”
The arrival of the Kerf (https://is.gd/
humoze) machine made the previous three
machines surplus to requirements, reducing
the required oor area and drastically
improving ef ciency and work ow. Referring
to the savings, Morley says: “Anybody
wishing to not only survive but thrive in the
UK manufacturing sector must have
ef ciency at the forefront of their minds,
and prior to the arrival of the Kerf RUR4500
we had to run a late shift and a night shift.
The Kerf machine cell instantly eradicated
the need for extra shifts and we now only
work a day shift. This is because each of
the three previous machines required
loading, material processing, unloading of
the steel sheets that could be up to 12 m
long and then cutting the sheet remnants
into smaller sized quantities for scrap
disposal. This would be very labour
intensive and all happening when the
machine was not cutting. Our crane
operator would be feeding three machines
with material instead of just one.
“Now, we have four people running the
three machines within the Kerf RUR4500
cell. There are operators running each of
the two ame cutting gantries and another
operator on the plasma machine. Feeding
the Kerf machine is a crane operator that
organises and sorts material ow, as well
as ensuring the three machines are always
loaded with material, and he also removes
the plate remnants. This work ow
con guration has reduced our processing
times by at least 50%.
“The 50%-time saving is credit to having
the ability to pendulum load and process
our work ow. This means we can cut steel
plates on the extremely large bed and
whilst this process is ongoing, the crane
operator can load the next plate. So, as
soon as the machine has cut one plate,
it can move on to the next. This eliminates
non-cutting times and slashes set-up times.
During cutting times, the crane operator is
constantly loading and unloading plates to
ensure all three stations are constantly
running. As the new Kerf plasma head is
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