SMC support the key for key manufacturing

Wadco Engineering's new machinery developed in conjunction with SMC Pneumatics (UK) Ltd is an amalgamation of eight previous machines, designed and constructed entirely in-house

Yorkshire based Wadco Engineering Ltd has been manufacturing keys for many applications over the past 22 years.

Presently employing 12 people and being ISO 9002 approved, Wadco actually produces over one million keys per month, in batches of between 4,000 and 16,000.

Automation of this manufacturing process has always needed to be cost effective.

The demands of the key market can be very general.

Globally, the sector is dominated by Italian manufacturers, and is geared to mass market production as opposed to re-cut products.

By contrast, 85% of Wadco's output is for the re-cut sector.

Because their requirements are so specific, the company becomes very closely involved in the development of its production machinery.

Their new unit developed in conjunction with SMC Pneumatics (UK) Ltd is an amalgamation of eight previous machines, designed and constructed entirely in-house under the guidance of Development Engineer, John Porter.

This manufacturing machine, built to cater for the specific requirements of Weston Body Hardware, Redditch, is known within the industry as a 'Bitting Machine'.

It solely forms the contour of the key and is operated using a combination of SMC's new ISO standard cylinders (CP95's) together with compact pneumatic cylinders (CQ2), operated by a solenoid valve island (SY series).

A pre-programmed SMC PneuAlpha, the very first that was installed in the United Kingdom controls these together with a three-phase electric motor.

Because Wadco have specific requirements, a Control Panel was required that could be easily programmed to be both flexible and totally reliable.

The machine runs mainly unmanned, producing over 8 contoured keys a minute, so programmed operation is essential.

Batch sizes almost always vary, so it must be possible to pre-set a counter and incorporate an automatic 'stop' once the count is reached.

Display Alarm messages were also required, primarily to protect against thermal overload in what is almost a continuous-use situation.

Manual operation capability and emergency stop are also included.

All of which being well within the standard operation of the SMC PneuAlpha electronic controller.

Having been introduced to the PneuAlpha prior to its launch, John Porter and his Managing Director, Andrew Aspinall, confirmed their order for a SMC, designed and built Control System, to be programmed prior to installation, according to their specific briefing instructions.

These instructions included the detailed operational movement of the key cutting unit, combining not only the sequence of actions triggered by sensors but also timed events, such as actual metal removal rates and finished key removal.

The project was concluded on 1st November 1999, the official launch date for PneuAlpha, and has been a great success.

According to Andrew Aspinall, "Wadco Engineering has used PLC's in its manufacturing processes in the past, but none has been so user-friendly or cost-effective as PneuAlpha.

In addition, the service provided by SMC has been first class.".

Back to top