Automated machinery

Spring testing equipment Among our automation development projects of the last 10 years, Becterm was involved in the fabrication of automated testing equipment for the hot-coiled steel spring industry. The need to be able to rigorously control and verify each spring is critical as springs are used worldwide in a vast range of installations/applications (many life threatening). Some of the highlighted features of our machine are: the ability to measure accurately every spring rate, free height, compressed length and maximum force;
data and statistics can be transmitted via a Wireless network to the main control room or stored on a SD memory card;
rejections are detected in real-time and immediately removed from the production line;
the support of an optional laser marking module to identify every spring;
fully automatic safety grill to protect operators and bystanders from possible catastrophic failing of a defective spring;
full automatic height adjustment for the different springs being tested;
Possibility to control a loader and an unloader robot;
mechanical and software protections to minimize risk to the operators; and
electronically controlled motor/pump operations to minimize the energy waste of the system and to limit the heat of the oil in the hydraulics circuits.

Spring making equipment The fabrication of springs traditionally required a custom mandrel in order to form the spring to the correct size and pitch. The motors were engaged via a clutch and the movement was harsh and not reliable. Becterm's controls and our personnel's expertise in developing reliable, efficient and cost-effective automated systems permitted the design of a smooth, energy efficient, fast, and pitch mandrel-free spring making machine. Some of its features include:
eliminating the need for custom pitch mandrels (an expensive and time-consuming method);
facilitating the production of any combination of pitch and variable pitch per part;
high manufacturing precision using encoded closed loops;
minimizes setup time; and
fast execution time.

Fabrication of greenhouse structures Another project from the past 10 years is the development of a system to facilitate the production of greenhouse structures. This CNC machine is used to produce the appropriate structural members with specific angle cuts, lengths, bolt holes, etc. to facilitate assembly. The features of this system include: performing angle cuts;
calculating tube lengths to minimize material loss per job;
an automated feeder system possessing an optical laser to locate the edge of each tube length;
support of up to 24 lengths of material to be processed at a time; the ability to feed material in real-time to two robotic welding stations;
wear counters for the blade and drill to minimize the risk of damage to the equipment; and
fully integrated security system in the mechanics and software to prevent accidents.

Automation for the manufacturing of urethane molded parts Becterm's Meter Mix system was developed to accurately control the servo-driven pumps used to dispense the appropriate amount of each component (in a two-component urethane-based system) as per the user-specified recipe. Add to this a full-size X-Y-Z(θ) table and this system offers a fully automated system capable of replacing the labor-intensive trial and error set-ups of traditional metering system (no more manually setting up a series of gears to get the recipe right). Some characteristics of this system include: support of multiple recipes to facilitate quick set-up changes (instantaneous changeover capability);
integrated compensations for temperature and density variations;
SD Memory card support for supporting additional recipe programs;
an auto flush feature to prevent the system from seizing;
possibility to control a choice of mixing heads; and
proven reliability 24/7/365 operation.

Automated equipment for the manufacturing of domestic railings and sidings Throughout the years, Becterm has been involved in many projects requiring the automation of fabricating different components used in the housing construction industry.
Examples include PVC fence, soffit processing, flying cut-off knives and rollforming controls. This picture shows a fully automated X-Y-Z system used to manufacture PVC fences. The features of this system include: eight individual Z axes;
easy installations of the Z axis facilitates set-ups and maintenance;
storage of multiple programs for various jobs;
built for 24/7/365 operation; and
very rigid construction.