The past year has been very busy, both in terms of installations and new orders. A brief summary of our major projects and news for 2007-8 is given below:

SAS INTERNATIONAL’S 3 NEW RAS MULTIBEND CENTRES

During 2007 all 3 of the new RAS 79.26-2 Multibend Centres were installed & commissioned. 2 of these are running at their Bridgend facility, and the other is at Maybole, Ayrshire.

The customer is delighted with the machines, which give a new dimension to the speed & flexibility with which they can produce their wide range of ceiling panels, partitions and other internal architectural steel & aluminium parts.

All 3 machines have 2560 x 1500 x 2mm capacity and can either be manually fed or use a simple combined pneumatic / magnetic feeder from a stack of blanks.

The great advantage of the system, apart from the speed of production, is the speed at which they can change from job to job.

2007 also saw the installation of a RAS 75.06 XXL Automatic Up & Down Folder and Luna MBC 8268 3m 4 roll CNC Bending Rolls at Architectural Steel in Manchester – probably the most go ahead and innovative manufacturer & supplier of roofing profiles, flashings etc in the north of England.

The beginning of 2008 saw the installation of our first Panasonic Robot Welding Cell at C&D Sheet Metal in Belvedere, N Kent. The Perform Arc ET XXL system has a twin cell arrangement with rotating door so that one part can be welded while the next is being prepared. It uses the latest Tawers MIG system, and is capable of doing the work of 4-5 manual welders. For more information please contact us.

Although sales in 2008 started slowly, they have snowballed dramatically in the last few months, helped by our stand at the Mach 2008 Exhibition at the NEC at the end of April.

At the show we featured the new RAS 78.30 UpDownBend Folder, designed for larger panels and parts, with capacity up to 3200 x 4mm and a beam clearance of 600mm. This machine is ideal for those large and heavy panels, doors etc with both positive & negative bends that are a real problem to make and often need 2 or 3 operators. On the new RAS UpDownBend, they can be done by one man.

Orders have been received recently for a RAS FLEXIbend Folder for forming steel storage enclosure panels, a variety of TURBObend & TURBObend Plus Folders, mostly for the roofing industry in both UK & Ireland, but also for a sign manufacturer in Scotland. We have also sold 2 Luna MBC 8268 4 roll CNC Bending Rolls, one to a truck & bus exhaust / silencer producer (their 4th machine!) and one to an air curtain heater manufacturer. A 3rd machine, this time Luna MBC 8344 CNC Bending Rolls has been sold to a firm making lighting covers in Kent.

We are encouraged by these orders and by our enquiry level to believe that 2008-9 will not be as gloomy as some have predicted. Keep your fingers crossed!