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Thursday 25 March 2010

FABCENTER + FABCAM = The One Machine Solution

The Breton FABCENTER is a multifunction DIGITAL workcenter for fabricating countertops to completion, with the most minimal labor and maximum manageability.

Employing our new revolutionary software Breton FABCAM, the operator can choose to design the various components of the projectvery simply dragged and dropped over automatically scaled photographs of the slabs selected for the job, taken using the industrial grade camera system provided.
With Breton FABCAM your layout is your cutting program.
The results of the assembled project are displayed at the PC monitor in High resolution as a 3 dimensional dynamic rendering including edge detail of the finished pieces where adjacent pieces are recomposed as a unit. This system allows extremely precise vein matching.

The entire cutting process is previewed using a 3D simulator showing a model of the machine running and the material being processed as programmed. The system will identify and alarm for points of collision and impact.
Breton stands in the market with a wide range of bridge saws, CNC working centres with 5 interpolated axis and numerical control machines to satisfy all the needs of the present-day marble workers.

Tuesday 23 March 2010

Single-head bridge polishing and texturing system


Breton’s new LEVIBRETON ONE is a single-head bridge polishing and texturing system designed specifically for wholesalers and fabrication shop to expand their product offerings to include antiqued, honed and other specialty finishes to customers in virtually any material.
The machine is capable of texturing, polishing or re-polishing full slabs up to 138" x 87" (3.500 x 2.200mm) as well as individual cut-to-size pieces via a simple mechanical location system.
See the Levibreton ONE at COVERINGS - Orlando, April 27/30 – Orlando - Both #4091

For a quick preview on Youtube, click here Levibreton ONE working

Breton leads the market with the industry’s widest range of 3-5 axis CNC stone routers, bridge-saws, and completely integrated machinery work-cells for kitchen and bath, architectural, and artistic carving applications, serving the needs of the modern stoneworking industry.



Wednesday 17 March 2010

Breton Second-Hand machines


Come and see the second hand machines exhibited at Breton's site: you will find golden opportunities!
Second hand machines differently branded are displayed in over 3.500 sqm of exposure.
Gangsaws, polishers, calibrating machines, bridge saws, profiling machines… as seen, reconditioned on request or overhauled and as new.
Breton may also provide the transportation service, installation and start-up, technical assistance and spare parts.
Breton keeps its word even when dealing in second hand machines.
The following are just a few of the many interesting proposals available: please send us your inquiry.
If you wish to receive photographs, descriptions and prices regarding the machines proposed in our SECOND HAND MARKET, please write to a mail@breton.it

Tuesday 16 March 2010

A precision range

CONTOURBRETON NC 600
 
Breton turns to marble workshops its offer for Fabshop Machines, which includes a wide selection of bridge saws, profiling machines, shaping centres with several controlled axes, edge polishers and multipurpose solutions, each one specially conceived and developed to meet the most demanding customers' needs, whatever their requirements.An outstanding solution in this offer is unquestionably the new Contourbreton NC 600 profiling machine. Compact, ergonomic, aesthetically attractive, it is available in two different models which differ as to workbench dimensions and "Y" axis travels, yet are equally capable to ensure a machining top precision thanks to their structural rigidity, even when subjected to heavy stresses.Contourbreton NC 600 features a mobile beam structure offering a sizable room for manoeuvre for the loading and unloading operations, is equipped with sliding doors that can be manually opened and have an accident-prevention and sound-deadening function, and houses both a wide and easily accessible workbench with slots for fixing mechanically the pieces to be machined, and a carrousel tool-store with 32 cells.The planning strategy underlying these machines attached great importance to each single structural component that typifies them; such components have been specially tailored so as to ensure superior resistance, productivity and safety. Here under some of the most interesting ones:
- powerful electrospindle cooled by electric refrigerator;
- digitally-controlled motors;
- tool cooling system with both inside and outside water feeding;
- spindle vertical travel of 600 mm, with a distance between spindle nose and worktable of 750 mm, which enables dishing operations on small blocks;
- vacuum circuit with frontal external controls;
- rapid shifts up to 60 m/min;
- HSK-B80 tool taper;
- exclusive software for polishing horizontal and inclined tops;
- Siemens Sinumerik 840D SL CNC control unit;
 
- control board placed inside a pendant and swivelling console, which includes keyboard, colour touch-screen and USB port and whose functions can be "duplicated" through a portable button strip that is cable-linked to the console;
- service electrical equipment housed in cabinets with IP 54 protection rating;
- modem or Ethernet connection for the on-line connection with Breton, to enable the remote diagnosis thus reducing dramatically the time required to remove any possible malfunction.

Make way for optional accessories !
Besides the specific software consisting of high-performance and easy-to-understand CAM based on parametric macros, which can be modelled off-line to execute machining operations following those underway, optimize the work cycles and draw up accurate production statistics, the following optional accessories are also available:
- contact meter with radio transmission, detecting the real spatial position of the tops to be machined 
- laser positioning device, showing the exact point where the operators must fix the vacuum cups to the bench
- laser projector, projecting the outline of both the pieces to be produced and the single vacuum cups to be arranged on the worktable surface  
- laser touch probe to control the tool profile, diameter and length
- device for the "C" axis continuous rotation, enabling to use the cutting unit with vertical saw blade to carry out rectilinear cuts, convex saw blade to carry out curvilinear cuts, or 45° saw blade to carry out inclined cuts
 

- 90° milling head to perform engravings or milling works on the side of small blocks 
- special head performing rabbets with constant depth 
- inclinable spindle, which can be manually adjusted from -5° to +5°, to carry out the inclined stock removal
- vacuum cups with mechanical locking 
- worktop made of aluminium alloy and double-effect vacuum cups
- 3D "laser scanner" optic precision system and relevant software, enabling to detect the shape and dimensions of the pieces to be copied without any contact, and to program the appropriate machining by simulating the final result 
 
- head to make drips
 
- double tool taper, which allows to use two overlapped tools for producing profiles up to 3 cm
- kits required to realize the sink hole with 90° sharp corner and polished inside edge  
 

Tuesday 9 March 2010

Wednesday 3 March 2010

The “microshop” is born

The “microshop” is born (by Stone World)
by Scott McGourley
Sometime in 2005 in Fredrikstad, Norway, Jan Waerness contemplated a new stone fabrication model. He wanted to digitally fabricate stone in the most efficient manner by himself; however, there were no machines out there that are set up for this task. After doing some research, he decided to convert a 4-axis CNC machine with a saw blade into what will eventually become the FabCenter. With a little ingenuity and a fistful of patience, he set up his one-man shop that would evolve into the very first “microshop.” These were the seeds that drifted onto the Stone Fabricators Forum at www.StoneAdvice.com, and it set off a chain reaction of events that would have three major manufacturers developing this type of machinery and dozens of microshops popping up all over the country.

What is a microshop? 
While you can classify a number of small fabrication shops in this category, the following criteria will define this microshop. First of all, as the name implies, it is a small fabrication shop — with 5,000 square feet of space or less. The second important component is a FabCenter (mine is from Breton of Italy). While it may be possible to digitally fabricate stone efficiently with other types of fabrication equipment, the added labor and material handling — coupled with the cost of purchasing and maintaining more than one machine — excludes most combinations from this model. The third major defining factor is scope. The scope of the business must be to fabricate between 200 and 500 square feet of installed product per week, with occasional stints of up to 1,000 square feet.

Why is this a good idea?
Those of you who already run a stone shop know how difficult and costly this business can be. Up to this point, there was no middle in the business. Either a shop can stay manual and avoid the price tag of automation, or they can embrace it. Manual fabrication costs are more or less linear. It costs roughly the same per square foot to produce 100 square feet of finished product as it does 1,000 square feet.
A typical small shop consists of five individuals. Usually they wear many hats and manage to fabricate and install somewhere on the order of 250 square feet per week. Now, if that same shop invests in a CNC, they still need the same number of people. They can certainly do more work, but will the work be there? An automated shop can generally lower their expenditures with increases in volume. Those that invest in CNC technology usually gravitate toward more volume because they can, and they may quickly evolve into a “large” shop. This is great as long as sales meet the demands of the day. But as evidenced by the hundreds of shop closures in the last year, a slowing economy can be the death blow to even the healthiest of shops.

The microshop is able to produce the same amount with one less worker. With the reduction of just one full-time employee, you can pay for more than half of your CNC payment. This is significant when operating in the lower-volume range. It is less important with higher volume. In fact, there is a point where it would be more efficient to employ a dedicated digital cutting solution and just run the FabCenter as a CNC. It is possible to profitably operate this kind of shop all the way down to just an owner and a helper — due to the almost complete eradication of labor. It is also possible to add labor as needed and run double shifts in order to enjoy maximum productivity for short time periods in order to cover large contracts or unusually high periods of sales.

Why can a microshop operate with one less employee?
This is because of the gains achieved by utilizing a digital cutting solution, along with digital templating and reduced material handling. With a manual saw, usually the fabricator has to lay his wooden templates on the slab and try various layouts in order to achieve the desired end. This becomes increasingly difficult as the number of slabs in the job increases. It is not unusual to spend hours laying out a difficult four-slab job. Usually these tasks are accompanied by a crowd of fellow workers that feel compelled to give their input on how the layout can work — usually to the dismay of the guy trying to concentrate on the task at hand. He then has to proceed to saw manually — with a limited ability to cut complex shapes — and then transport the parts to the CNC.
Meanwhile, the microshop employs a programmer in an air-conditioned office who can try multiple layouts in any weather in minutes. This allows him to achieve better material utilization because of his ability to easily try various possibilities. Most systems include a dynamic digital rendering of the completed job, which takes some of the question marks out of the process. The ability to digitally cut complex shapes saves material when the cutting is done.
With some systems, the parts are not removed from the table, they are simply “floated” apart in order to gain tool clearance, and the routing begins immediately. The operator can normally accomplish other tasks while the machine is running. It is very easy for one man to process a slab with the help of a vacuum lifter. In both cases it is troublesome to move odd-shaped parts, and in such cases, parts are usually left on the table until help arrives.
Another important byproduct of the microshop is the ability to share critical information with only a few key individuals. For example, the owner can sell and template the jobs, and the programming and machine operation can be done by another. Most of the key information is privy to these two individuals. The other employees generally do not need to know what size radius the corners get, what sink will be used, what edge, how deep should the edge be run, whether or not a piece needs under-polishing and a seemingly endless list of other queries. This leads to a lot less responses that start with “I thought.”
FabCenters seldom call out sick, whine about overtime and will work for very little once the payment cycle has concluded. They are also not subject to Workers’ Compensation.

The “digital showroom”
Some of the other criteria for defining this microshop is a digital showroom. It is normally not possible for a small shop to have vast inventory of slabs or large showrooms. Therefore, flat-screens and large computer monitors are utilized to display slabs, remnants, examples of various installations and consumer education. While it is necessary for the client to view the actual slabs, this process significantly reduces the time it takes to narrow choices. This is especially true with remnants, as they do not show well and are generally packed into an almost un-viewable configuration. An overhead crane and vacuum lifter are other required elements for a microshop. While there are other components, most can be found in any fabrication shop, so I will leave them out for the purposes of this discussion.
The advantages of the microshop are many. One is the reduced dependence on skilled labor. Tooling costs are also reduced over a manual operation. A microshop can also be a stepping stone to a large shop. A dedicated digital cutting solution can be added easily — doubling the amount of output that can be achieved. Profitability can be maintained in just about any market condition. The microshop appears to the customer as a small, but highly organized and capable modern shop. The ability to operate in a hub spoke or in nodes for a company with multiple locations is another possibility. A large shop in a busy metropolitan area — surrounded by a small network of microshops — can satisfy just about any market demand. Probably the most important gain is the sanity that an organized and highly automated process brings to an otherwise insane business.

Scott McGourley
Scott McGourley is Owner/Operator of Kasco Stone in Tampa, FL. This small shop, while typical in size to the average shop found across our country, has over the past four years transformed itself from a dry cutting manual operation to a fully digital microshop. McGourley is an active member of the Stone Fabricators Alliance (SFA) embracing the group’s mission, and working to raise the bar for quality in his region.
Interesting, isn’t it? So why don’t you ask for an estimate or some additional INFO?  Write to mail@breton.it , we will reply you shortly! Well, that’s all for today.  
 By-by
Sergio Prior