Investment in pays dividends

Compass Windows’ investment in a new Emmegi Quadra L1 12-axis machining centre has helped the Dungiven-based company to secure a £multi-million supply and installation contract for four new apartment blocks in central London.

The specialist trade and commercial fabricator already had an EmmegiPhantomatic M3 machining centre, Emmegi Classic Magic twin head saw, and welders and crimping machines in its factory but chose to add a Quadra to its production set up so that it could increase productivity and take on larger scale projects.

Patrice O’Hagan, business development manager at Compass, said: “We have partnered with Emmegi on our machinery requirements for aluminium for several years and have always been very happy with the help and support they provide. What really makes the difference for us is that they have a dedicated sales and engineering team here in Ireland who give us expert advice and fast and efficient technical support.Because they have so many different machines in their range, we were confident that Emmegiwould be able to offer us something that fitted our specific requirements when we were looking to expand and the Quadra L1 does exactly what we need it to do.

We are actively targeting new business in the fast-growing London new-build market and our Quadra investment is making us much more competitive, with better productivity, shorter lead times and consistent, precision quality. We have already been awarded one major contract since the Quadra was installed and we are now looking at several more.”

Emmegi’s Quadra L1 has a relatively small footprint compared with the output it can deliver and fits well within Compasss’ factory workspace, with fully enclosed sawing and machining delivering minimum noise and maximum safety.

In use, it offers the combined cutting and machining and automated material handling and sorting which Compass needed to make major increases in its volumes. It is capable of processing profile for several hundred windows per week and, because there is no profile related tooling on the machine, it allows Compass to switch quickly and easily between systems and products.

A minimum profile size of 1,250mm means it can be used for everything from bifolds to curtain walling, and inbuilt optimisation is designed to create re-usable offcuts from 850mm upwards which can be reused and reloaded alongside full bar lengths.

Cutting and machining on the Quadra L1 is in one continuous operation so very little human handling is required. For Compass, this reduces the risk of human error and has almost eliminated rejects and remakes.It can also carry out 360° machining of profile without the need to turn the bar over or process more than once, so there is no time wasted while the machine stops for profile repositioning

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