The Fabricator - November 2013

Adept Technology Inc. has opened its East Coast application and demo center within its Amherst, N.H., facility. ;e demonstration center allows visitors to prove out advanced robotic packaging, handling, dispensing, or assembling applications in real time using the company’s robots and vision guidance and conveyor controls. All of the company’s mobile robot models are available for testing both commercial and research applications.

;e 5,000-sq.-ft. facility, which has all the capabilities of the company’s other technical centers, is sta;ed by engineers with expertise in flexible manufacturing and primary and secondary food packaging. ;ey can provide design, programming, testing, and training for the company’s kinematics, including Cobra SCARA, Viper 6-axis, Python linear modules, and Quattro parallel model, as well as flexible feeding systems, including the Anyfeeder and Flexibowl.

Bilsing Automation North America, a supplier of automated tooling systems for pressroom, body shop, hydroforming, packaging, and fabrication applications, has moved to a new facility in Roseville, Mich.

;e new plant—the company’s North American sales, manufacturing, and technical center—provides 9,200 sq. ft. of shop floor space, 4,500 sq. ft. of o;ce space, and numerous upgrades to accommodate the company’s growth.

Blue Giant Equipment Corp., Brampton, Ont., has announced a strategic partnership with HVLS fan-maker MacroAir, San Bernardino, Calif. Under the new arrangement, Blue Giant will sell HVLS fans under the brand name MacroAir by Blue Giant.

;e fans exchange air every 50 sec-
onds to help improve air quality and
increase employee comfort. ;ey are
engineered to run in reverse during
the winter months, forcing trapped
air down from the ceiling and dis-
tributing it evenly to help achieve
heat savings of 20 percent or more,
the company states.

Bystronic Inc., an Elgin, Ill.-based supplier of laser cutting, waterjet cutting, and bending equipment, participated in the Fab and Steel Processing Expo hosted by its dealer, Sominn Machinery Sales, in Dodge Center, Minn. More than 230 people attended the multiday event at Sominn’s 30,000-sq.-ft. facility, supported by more than 20 sheet metal fabrication equipment suppliers and featuring tours of local steel supplier McNeilus Steel.

Bystronic demonstrated its Xpert 150 press brake, featuring dynamic crowning, dynamic sheet thickness detection, LED optical bend guiding, high-speed ram, and the ByVision bending control with 22-in. touch-screen interface.

Visitors to the steel supplier plant saw in-house fabrication capabilities that included two BySpeed Pro 6,000-W laser cutting machines and two ByStar 4025 L 6,000-W, 8- by 26- ft., large-sheet-format laser cutting machines with automated load and unload capabilities.

Sominn represents Bystronic in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

Eriez®, Erie, Pa., has acquired U.K.-based Centriforce Ltd., a provider of coolant filtration systems to the European metalworking industry. ;e Centriforce product portfolio will be integrated into Eriez’ HydroFlow® line of fluid recycling and filtration equipment.