RA Super Alloys take first of new breed of ultra high-speed,
fully-auto band saws, with new, unique processing benefits!

Cuts Ø300mm Ti-6AL4V in only 15mins


Fully-auto HBM440A with user-friendly coloured touch-screen controls, auto-engraving and 6-station auto-palletising system

The HBM440A RA Super Alloys system achieves:

• Dramatic reductions in cutting speed and batch processing logistics
• Fully-auto batch processing; leave unmanned overnight & week-ends
• Fully-auto, 6-station palletising, with programmable material placement
• Unique 'vibro-engraving', cut-face marking, gives full traceability
• User-friendly coloured 'touch-screen' input control & recall of all data
• Auto-input flat-bed system, accepts 9 raw material bars to 250mm dia
• Stand-alone HBM440A machine material capacity of <440mm dia x 6m
• Direct downloading of cutting requirements from Scheduling Office
• Remote internet access, monitoring and service interogation

Auto-input feed side of system, showing gripper & 'vibro-engraver' head.		Auto-input magazine, with 'return-to-stock' area to the right.
HBM440A systems; 440dia x 6m long material machine in fore ground   The new HBM440A bandsaws, with auto-input magazine m/c far right.		View of part of RA Super Alloys superb Milton Keynes facilities   Unique 'vibro-engraving' marking on cut-face, gives full traceability.

RA Super Alloys International Ltd, Milton Keynes, has the first UK installation of a new breed of advanced, ultra-high performance, high-speed bandsawing systems, which include new, revolutionary auto-marking of cut material and auto-output sorting. Dramatic reductions in cutting cycle times and overall processing efficiency, enable these new bandsawing systems to significantly improve production efficiency and response-to-customer times, particularly when processing notoriously difficult-to-cut alloys.

Installed at RA Super Alloys modern Milton Keynes site by Kaltenbach Ltd are two new state-of-the-art, Behringer HBM440A straight cutting bandsawing systems, which include a number of unique technical firsts, which are helping to achieve remarkable reductions in cutting speeds and overall process times for historically difficult-to-cut alloys.

Super-fast cutting of notoriously difficult-to-cut metals
For example, Ø255mm Titanium 6AL4V is taking Super Alloys a mere 15mins, when the industry historical norm can be anywhere between 25-45mins. Nickel Alloy, Inconel 718 for example, is cutting up to 60% faster, compared to RA Super Alloys cutting speeds from their previous generation of high-performance Behringer saws, which were already considerable faster than industry norms.

Part of Rolled Alloys International, a global leader in the supply and processing of a wide range of special metals, RA Super Alloys International Ltd from their Milton Keynes operation supply precision, cut-to size, high-end special alloys to most of the high-tech industries. These include Aerospace, Motor racing (including F1 ) Petro-chem and Medical sectors, with customers spread worldwide . Their extensive range of supplied materials include 6AL4V - ELI (Extra Low Interstitial) Nickel based alloys such as 718 and 625 and other difficult to cut but popular materials.

“Our company ethos”, says Wayne Houchin, Operations Manager, RA Super Alloys, “which is in keeping with Rolled Alloys world-wide philosophy, is to provide the highest possible level of service, which includes rapid speed of response and supply of an extensive range of high-end alloys, readily processed to our customers precise requirements. It sounds obvious, but to offer the quality and level of service that we provide requires good staff, good logistics, extensive metal stocks and the very best processing technology, which our new bandsaws fully satisfy”.

The two new HBM440A bandsaws are installed in two very different configurations, with both machines being carbide or HSS blade compatible. One is a stand-alone, semi-automatic, straight-cutting machine, providing rapid, flexible processing of requirements up to Ø 440mm or square and 6 m long, while the other HBM440A has an automated input magazine and some unique, new additional features (the first of their kind in the UK) that provide major new efficiency gains and customer benefits.

The HBM carbide blade machines benefit from the extensive research and ongoing advances made to this generation of bandsaws since their UK launch some 8 years. These latest models take full advantage of the performance benefits offered by the latest high-tech carbide blades, which can withstand extremely high stresses, providing they are matched by a saw that an cope with the very high-cutting loads. The HBM machines use high performance 11kW, frequency controlled drive motors and servo-driven ball screw down-feed, which along with IBC (Intelligent Blade Control) and sophisticated overall NC control, makes for extremely robust, fit-for-purpose, high-speed sawing systems.

Fully-auto operation, includes palletising of cut materials, enabling unmanned overnight and week-end operation
The Super Alloys HBM440A fully automatic system, with auto-input magazine is a carbide bandsawing system, operated via coloured touch-screen control. It has a unique ‘vibro-engraving’, marking system and auto-sorting, 6-station palletising of all material output, including trim-cut storage, plus a return-to-stock material sorting and holding area to one side of the input magazine.

The HBM440A touch screen controls enable rapid user-friendly selection and input of all raw material types, sections and lengths and their cut-to-length requirements. Having loaded the input magazine, material can be fully processed while unmanned, including overnight and weekend running.

The flatbed input magazine accepts up to 9 raw material bars, each up to Ø250mm or square x 4.5m long. Material is contained and auto-fed across the magazine by a series of motorised dogs, until reaching a position inline with the saws clamping jaws. A motorised conveyor feeds the metal into the saws clamping jaws. The material’s end-start position is laser beam set and with or without any required trim cut the precise cut-length feed movement is auto-set. A unique CNC driven ‘vibro-head’ type marking system, which sits immediately above the material input cutting area, is auto-lowered to sit in front of the material’s end-cut face. The marking system automatically engraves a unique alphanumeric batch code and/or text based identification onto the cut surface to suit RA Super Alloys and/or their customers specific requirements. The engraving style can be selected from a range font types and sizes. After engraving, the material is fed forward to the required cut-length position and rapidly cut by carbide blade (or slower, optional HSS). The cut material automatically exits the saw, making a short-drop down an angled ramp, then auto-sorted into one of a 6-station sorting system. Super Alloys chooses to use as a 3-pallet system, with a half separation option, to make 3 or 6-pallet positions. The pallets sit on a laterally traversing, motorised table that’s set into the floor immediately below the output side of the saw to enable pallet truck removal. From the original touch-screen cutting instructions, the system auto-indexes the traversing pallets to suit each batch. This includes automatic assessment of the most efficient maximum fill for each pallet.

The marking system enables full traceability, which is an added benefit for the high-end manufacturing sectors that RA Super Alloys serve. Their entire range of stocked material and sizes are to be programmed into the saws control system for operator immediate screen recall of desired band speeds and down-feeds.

RA Super Alloys have also taken a Remote Software Licence to enable direct downloading of cutting schedules from their Scheduling Office to the HBM saws. The companies production schedules runs at least a month forward but to meet the often unpredictable and critically urgent demands of their customers they can respond by the hour when required. They also have machine remote internet access links to Behringer for any monitoring and service interrogate of the machines.

“With FI racing for example, where winning can be determined by a team using their very latest component, we may be required to immediately supply specialist material, cut to a precise, ready-to-machine length for our customer to then manufacture and fly to a grand prix overnight” says Wayne Houchin, “it’s our well managed system and the technology we employ, that enables us to achieve this level of customer support”.

So if you cut metal, particularly if it’s difficult and slow to cut and would benefit from much faster processing, whether semi or complete automation, then the latest generation our carbide blade bandsaws will provide very significant gains in process time and logistics efficiency.