Case study: IDEAL BOILERS

Atkin provides the Ideal solution

Nearly a century old, Hull-based Ideal Boilers (part of the Caradon Group) has remained a force to be reckoned with in today’s competitive market place. However, as with all successful companies, there have been significant changes made in order to ensure it maintained its position. The introduction of a new range of boilers, the M series W6436, meant that the traditional manufacturing press shop could no longer meet the output conditions for this new product. The team at Ideal decided to invest in a state-of-the-art roll-form production line, and its long-established relationship with Atkin Automation was once again called into action as the combined teams undertook the four year product design and development project.

Tony Blakey of Ideal Boilers explained: “We knew what we wanted from the new production line, but were working with sketchy ideas and abstract concepts. Apart from Atkin, none of the other companies who we contacted about specifications and cost were willing to be flexible enough to work with what we had. We decided to include Atkin in the design team and so they worked with us all the way on every element of this unique new boiler casing production line to produce the turn-key package we were looking for.”

Thetford-based Atkin Automation provides engineering and industrial automation solutions to a wide variety of industries. It is also the UK’s leading designer and manufacturer of press feed and coil processing equipment. Ideal Boilers use other Atkin Automation equipment in its Hull factory, and so it was the obvious choice.

Specification sign-off to installation of the new production line took just eight months, with Atkin manufacturing all the machinery, which makes up this integrated boiler casing production line, and the line has worked perfectly ever since. It is the first such line at Ideal Boiler to be tagged directly onto the main assembly line, which makes the complete assembly of the boiler faster and easier.

The line’s function is to produce chassis and side panels to exacting specifications for use in the production of the high-quality models which have earned Ideal its enviable reputation. Steel blanks of up to 1.8 metres move through the integrated line which, in turn, punches holes, makes envelope folds and presses in indentations before the finished boiler casing emerges at the other end. The one-man production line requires minimal human input, with the chassis being fitted with a barcode label to aid quality control and end-user maintenance.

At present, the line produces variants from two chassis types, although it has the capacity to produce almost infinite differing designs. It is also flexible enough to be quickly programmed to handle model change-overs to handle small batches or one-off orders with minimal change-over time of only fifteen minutes.

When witnessing the ease of operation offered by the boiler casing line, it is hard to imagine that this work was formerly done by hand. In fact, the tools needed to produce the chassis and side panels traditionally cost over £100,000 – plus the high labour costs needed to operate the five presses, which would have been needed to make all the parts. The type of chassis that Ideal is producing for the new range could never have been made by hand. At 1.8 metres in length, the blanks could not be easily handled on a traditional machine shop.

Production Team Leader, Tony Blakey, commented: “The Atkin team supported us through every step of the design process and has delivered the perfect design solution. Even now that the line is in place I know that, if there is a problem, the same men who we worked with on the design are on the other end of the telephone and are ready to help. Some of the companies who gave us quotes at the beginning of the process were going through third parties to be able to supply all the pieces of equipment needed to make up this integrated production line. The personal approach, teamed with technical know how and experience, gave Atkin Automation the cutting edge.”