Prefabrication - from plate shears to laser cutting
Current topic
Preprocessing
Our offer related to the processing of sheet metal and pipes has played an important role since our establishment. In the field of prefabrication we offer today the following steps: Laser cutting, punching, nibbling, stamping, the CNC bending and CNC round rolling, as well as assembly with spot welding, riveting or pressing. It was a long way until then. We have constantly evolved and tried new things. How it came to our current expertise, we want to report.
Development starts 22 years ago
With 15 years of experience in the metalworking industry, we took the plunge at the turn of the millennium and founded FACO. We started small with a used conventional 2.5 meter plate shear. Already one year later we replaced this shear by a also used 3-meter shear and invested in a used 3-meter press brake. In order to be able to perform circumferential bending, such as cassettes for balcony railings, with our press brake, we also invested in a notching machine. With this we were able to process the first orders and earned the capital for further investments, for example for a profile grinding machine. This investment enabled us to provide edging profiles for framing railing perforated sheets with a grinding pattern.
More space for growth!
As our machinery grew, our orders also became more complex. We expanded to include a single-lift punch press and various automatic welding machines. As time went by, we had to expand our premises and in 2006 we moved to Lohmannstraße 6, Ennepetal. Not only the address was new, a first 7,5 to truck for fast delivery to our customers in the local area was part of our inventory from then on.
Until then our growth was organic. In 2008, an unusual step in our development followed: the acquisition of GZ Edelstahltechnik from Herford. Originally, we were only interested in the machinery. After intensive considerations, however, we decided to continue the business, including the employees with their know-how, and to continue serving customers in the kitchen furniture industry.
We had access to many other machines such as CNC-controlled edging benches, a CNC-controlled punching-nibbling machine, various automatic welding machines, as well as a complete machine park for processing chipboard.
It was an exciting time, because suddenly we were serving customers in the kitchen furniture industry. A new and challenging field. We learned a lot from the existing employees about high-precision decorative welding, design for kitchen furniture and about the integration of materials such as wood. In the very year of the acquisition, we decided to merge the two sites. In order to be competitive in the long term, we wanted to exploit synergies with all production capacities at one location. Ennepetal remained our permanent home.
We laser!
The downturn in the kitchen furniture industry and the loss of employees who wanted to work in their old home meant another change for us. We did not continue to serve the kitchen furniture industry. However, we still had a very variable machine park. Apart from many advantages for our customers, we had the disadvantage that the machine capacities were not always 100% utilized.
We decided to move into laser technology. This is because orders for laser applications often entail follow-up orders for pre-processing. For us, lasers were and are a logical addition to our core business.
Variety and flexibility are the key
For the size of our company, we have a wide range of machines and offer a variety of processing options, as we serve customers from a wide range of industries. Of course, this also means that we rely on employees who can operate more than one machine. This has far-reaching implications for our personnel recruiting, training times, job control and much more. We are making a conscious decision to go this route. Particularly in turbulent times like these, flexibility through efficient start-up processes is the be-all and end-all. This strengthens our company and offers our customers long-term security.
More
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