Above: Leaders at Nevada Precision Sheet Metal decided to acquire a system for marking and shearing flat bar and punching holes.

Eclectic multipurpose shop adopts automatic plate processing system, simplifying and speeding workload

October 2017 - “Getting hit motivates me,” said Roberto Duran, who was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in October 2006. “It makes me punish the guy more. A fighter takes a punch, hits back with three punches.”

Sin City is hailed as the “fight capital of the world” and the Strip is the primary location for boxing matches. Roughly one mile southeast of Las Vegas Boulevard, Nevada Precision Sheet Metal Inc. is known for its eclectic array, and delivery of, fabricated steel, aluminum, sheet, tube, angle, bar and channel. Nevada Precision Sheet Metal is also recognized for its powder coat finishing, sandblasting, shearing, bending, welding, laser cutting, plasma cutting and CNC punching applications and ships to dealers in all 50 states.

Late last year, company leaders decided to acquire a system for marking and shearing flat bar and punching holes. Gianni Ygnelzi, a product designer at Nevada Precision Sheet Metal, began shopping for the system that would best meet its needs.

The Sunrise APS is a fully automatic plate processing system.

Ultimately, Ygnelzi concentrated his research on Belcamp, Maryland-based Trilogy Machinery Inc. and its fully automatic plate processing system, the Sunrise APS.

Capable of processing flat bar in sizes ranging up to 20 in. wide, 1-in. thick and 40 ft. in length, the Sunrise APS eases an operator’s workload. Replacing the laborious methods of the past, this system allows an operator to simply load flat bar onto an all-steel infeed roller. Next, by engaging a plate with pneumatic clamping and squaring devices, the Sunrise APS processes material by automatically punching and shearing it by using an industrial-strength rack-and-pinion drive system.

Ygnelzi contacted Trilogy Machinery’s Sunrise product manager, Ben Flamholz, to begin discussions. Nevada Precision Sheet Metal ordered the machine during a trade show last November.

“The Sunrise APS utilizes a triple-punch station that automatically chooses the correct punch to use, nests material and shears it to desired lengths automatically,” says Flamholz. The machine installed at Nevada Precision Sheet Metal can process materials up to 12 in. wide, ¾-in. thick and 20-ft. long.

The new line is capable of punching flat bar in sizes ranging up to 20 in. wide, 1-in. thick and 40 ft. long.

“This system was unveiled this year and it’s designed for customers looking to process long lengths of flat bar that may be doing it manually now on multiple machines,” he says. “This allows customers to take a long stick of material and process all parts needed for a customer without any intervention. Obviously, by processing an entire piece of material from start to finish, downtime is reduced.”

Ygnelzi says Trilogy’s system has bolstered Nevada Precision Sheet Metal’s efficiency and reduced man-hours.

“Previously, our operators manually sheared all parts down to size and manually hit the pedal punch to make different size holes,” he explains. “A flat bar is heavy and it took two guys to feed it through the shear and then an operator would punch holes in the material and restock it onto a pallet. This machine removes all extra steps and now, rather than three people, we have only one operator running the machine.”

The single operator, using magnets and a hoist, loads bars by himself. “The program allows material to run through while our guy is on the other side stacking parts,” Ygnelzi says. “It used to take us three to four weeks to wholly assemble our parts and cut and punch them. Now, with one operator, the whole process takes two weeks.”

The Sunrise APS-30080M model is designed to assist customers that may be manually processing long lengths of flat bar on multiple machines.

According to Ygnelzi, the Sunrise APS—with its multiple structural parts and automated, computerized features—have simplified Nevada Precision Sheet Metal’s plate and bar processing tasks. Operators can now store job data for accurate recordkeeping, and then pull it up for reuse when the same job is ordered again.

Ygnelzi credits Trilogy Machinery with being responsive when questions arise about any aspect of the machine’s functionality. “They’ve been great handling issues as they happen. For example, if an operator inserts a wrong die for a punch, we can simply take a picture and text or email them an image of the problem. They come back with a solution, and the machine is quickly back up and running. It’s an extremely reliable machine, but their customer service is elite.”

Nearly a year after ordering the Sunrise APS, Ygnelzi has growing confidence regarding its abilities to mark and shear flat bar and punch holes in heavy materials. Essentially, the machine has been a knockout for the Sin City metalworking business. FFJ