Promotion to the Champions League
The Pronimetal group of companies, founded in Zaragoza in 1976, has specialised since 1986 in the processing of unusually large bending parts. In the meantime, Pronimetal with 140 employees, an annual turnover of 40 million Euros and a market share of about a third for bending over-length parts, is not only the market leader in its sector in Spain but also one of the major players in southern Europe. Most of the customers of this Spanish concern come from the rail, boat, agricultural, solar and wind energy sectors.
Factory expansion creates space for even more quality
To be able to satisfy their customers’ demands for on-time production even faster was the driving force for Pronimetal in 2009 to expand its production area from 10.000 to an impressive 60.000 square metres in the new Poligono PLAZA of Zaragoza. This moved the company into the champions league in Europe in matters of cutting. To be equipped for all cutting tasks, Pronimetal opted for all three thermal cutting processes - Oxyfuel, Plasma and Laser - with machines from Messer Cutting Systems.
Currently a total of seven new machines from Messer Cutting Systems in operation, and the Spanish company has been relying on the quality of this market leader for a long time: already 40 years ago Pronimetal installed one of the very first CNC flame cutting machines in Spain - also from the traditional branch professional, Messer, whose Cutting Systems division has been supplying the market with high quality plant for thermal cutting of plates for many years. Currently some 900 Messer employees produce cutting machines for the highest requirements of metal processing at five locations world-wide.
Pronimetal processes very large, mostly cut, sheet metal parts. With the combination of laser, oxyfuel and precision plasma cutting, Pronimetal is today one of the leading suppliers of large plates in Spain.
Thick plates and precision bevelling
For oxyfuel cutting, Pronimetal works with two identical Messer MultiTherm® 4000 with 3 x 12 metre working area and each with four ALFA oxyfuel torches. The Messer MultiTherm® is a multifaceted gantry cutting machine which can be adapted quite individually to every area of application, for example with multiple torch oxyfuel cutting, plasma systems, marking or a combination of all processes. What is more, the MultiTherm® can be upgraded at any time to another cutting operation so that it is a flexible system with a sure future.
Plates up to 20mm thick can be cut with a LaserMat® 5000 with a working area of 3 x 14 metres and a 4.000 Watt laser. This unit will soon be extended to a working area of 3 x 30 metres and will have a laser bevel head added.
Strong in precision plasma
In the branch, the Messer OmniMat® is the name for flexible capability amongst gantry machines: the range with its wide spectrum of options, offers all oxyfuel, plasma and marking systems, allows demanding vertical and bevel cuts and enables a complete process automation. At the same time it offers the highest levels of precision, robustness and speed — unbeatable arguments for Pronimetal, who currently operate the World’s largest precision plasma cutting installation.
No less than three identical OmniMat®6500 with 5.2 x 30 metre working areas and each two fully automatic HiFocus 360i precision plasma torches are in operation there. An additional OmniMat®7500 with the same working area is equipped with two fully automatic HiFocus 360i precision plasma torches and two infinitely rotating Skew Rotator bevel heads. Jan Sulimma: “With the Skew Rotator, Pronimetal can make customer specific weld seam preparations. A further plus is the fast a precise marking and part identification with the Ink-Jet marking heads on all machines.”
All four plasma machines are also equipped with fully automatic, self cleaning (by vibration) fume extraction tables type “TidyTab”. This ensures that the working area is always clean for highest cut accuracy and the best quality.
“With the comprehensive possibilities which the new systems offer, our company is also equipped for the coming years. Many Pronimetal customers already use this service plus which the machines offer – especially the drastically better cut quality and accuracy with the plasma are unbeatable arguments” explained Gonzalo Iguaz, the Managing Director.
Positive Outlook
Future development has also been taken care of: apart from the existing machine park, Pronimetal plans to integrate a large area combined machine with fibre laser and precision plasma. The topic of an OmniMat® with fully automatic drill, to be able to execute drilling and weld seam preparation on one system without double handling as well as wind tower cutting with fully automatic D/AFL triple torch units all have their place in the medium term strategy, as does the implementation of production planning software OmniCalc from MesserSoft.
“All in all, we are looking with Messer Cutting Systems at a positive future development of the Spanish plate processing market” sums up Gonzalo Iguaz.
ABOUT MESSER CUTTING SYSTEMS
At five production sites situated around the globe, over 900 employees manufacture thermal cutting machines to meet highest standards in the metal plate processing industry.
Sturdy make, modern design and innovative technology are the three pillars that our products rest on. Owing to the high quality of workmanship and the many years of experience in the area of application technology, these offer a complete solution when it comes to complex cutting jobs. With more than a thousand machines around the globe in operation daily, we will soon win your trust in the reliability of our products.