Health
sector hits Sheet metal specialist Keltech
Ventilator production has been the big story across many
metalcutting fi rms, but those that undertake punching & profi ling
have also been playing their part in the fi ght against Covid-19,
as Machinery reveals
Sheet metal specialist Keltech of
Waterford, Ireland, has used Radan
software (www.is.gd/mafoki) to
prototype and manufacture emergency
medical waste bins for the Irish health service
in the ght against Covid-19. And the
company has additionally developed a unique
hand sanitisation station capable of
dispensing 6,000 shots of gel before needing
to re ll the unit’s four-litre tank.
The company has previously operated in
three main industrial sectors: reservoir,
hydraulic and fuel tanks; overhead guards
and cabins for equipment such as forklift
trucks; and acoustic enclosures for the power
generation industry.
The idea for the bins came after one of the
rm’s power generation customers needed to
supply both the NHS and the Irish Health
Service Executive (HSE) with emergency
software to prototype and manufacture emergency
diesel generators at temporary patient care
and Covid-19 testing sites. “We stayed open
to manufacture the acoustic enclosures to
reduce the noise of the generators, but that
was only taking around 30% of our machining
capacity,” says business development
manager Seamus Lawlor.
“So we approached the HSE to offer
support by manufacturing medical waste bins,
as we had the in-house CNC cutting tools,
Radan software to drive them and the
necessary expertise to rapidly prototype a
product in keeping with the spec they
required. Their reply was almost
instantaneous…saying bins were in huge
demand globally, and they were having
dif culty sourcing them.”
The initial prototype was built in seven
days, and the rst production batch, based
on the fourth version, came off the CNC
of Waterford, Ireland, has used Radan
medical waste bins for the Irish health service
machines three days later. Keltech has gone
on to manufacture around 500 a week from
two different material speci cations,
depending on the particular application; one
is a stainless steel version, while the most
popular is a mild steel, powder-coated unit.
Each bin comprises around a dozen
individual components, with Radan creating
optimum nests to maximise the yield from
each sheet and avoid wastage. Senior
projects engineer Sean McNamara says the
company buys a considerable amount of
sheet metal and needs to utilise every piece.
“Radan is excellent at optimising each sheet.
We can see exactly where we are with the
nests, and how they can be improved, if we
need to use a larger blank to add more
components, or a smaller blank, if there are
fewer parts.”
One of the biggest challenges was the
opening and closing mechanism for the lid,
but Radan’s ability to quickly edit the
toolpaths and amend the programs was
crucial in speeding up the process.
“For instance, where we needed to change
the position of holes, we could do that quickly
and accurately.”
28 July/August 2020 | www.machinery.co.uk | MachineryMagazine | @MachineryTweets
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