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A.L. INOX s.r.l. specializes in stainless steel furniture for professional kitchens. The product selection of this Italy based company ranges from cabinets to custom-designed sinks and stoves.
The main part of the production is sold by agents directly to projects, always tailor-made to fit project requirements.
It is essential that A.L. INOX can turn out a catering kitchen item in a very short period of time to meet customer specifications. Such fast response requires that nothing goes wrong. The first requirement is impeccable raw material that ensures smooth production, as automated operations allow for no mistakes.
At the company, automated laser cutting of stainless steel sheets continues through the night, unsupervised, at the speed of up to 130 meters per minute.
The problem
In this industry where quality and a product's image are everything, just one mark or scratch on the material makes it worthless and it will need to be scrapped.
On the laser cutting production run, a tiny fault in the material can cause the process to stop and waste a whole night’s worth of production.
Another issue is if the laser cutting system is set to cut a series of identical pieces, and a one piece of material has a bend in it, the operators will need to reset the system. That means a huge loss in valuable production time.
Perfect flatness of the stainless steel material is essential to the laser cutting process.
There must also be no internal tension in the material which could result in an end product that is flat.
The solution
To ensure no time or materials are wasted, A.L. INOX sources its stainless steel mainly from Outokumpu, and has done so for some time.
The company tested several suppliers, and have found they are now happy to stick with Outokumpu because the quality is reliable and exactly what they need for an uninterrupted laser cutting process.
The results
A.L. INOX buys grade EN 1.4301 (ASTM 304) stainless steel sheets with a Scotch Brite brushed finish from Outokumpu.
The material is cut to length at Outokumpu’s service centers in Italy and delivered at regular intervals to maintain a three-month stock. |