Case study
Automatic sorting, the heart of optimized production flow
Story courtesy of A. Ariu and G. Mazzola/Lamiera
The introduction in LCM S.r.l. of a Salvagnini system including an LTWS store-tower, L5 2D laser cutting and MCU sorting made it possible to stabilize planning, reducing throughput times and guaranteeing the prompt availability of components for downstream operations.
Automatic sorting, the heart of optimized production flow
Highlights
- LCM
LCM S.r.l. is a Tuscan sheet metal contractor founded in 1978 and based in Cusona, near San Gimignano. With more than 30 employees and 7,000 sqm of indoor space, it manages cutting, bending, welding and assembly in-house, supplying complete assemblies for over 100 active customers. - The challenge
The bottleneck was not laser cutting capacity, but manual part separation after cutting. Dedicated operators were needed for sorting, urgent parts were hard to recover from stacks, and press brake operators often had to interrupt bending activities, making planning less predictable and slowing downstream operations. - The solution
LCM installed an 8 kW Salvagnini L5 fiber laser with a 21-tray LTWS two-tower store and MCU automatic sorting device. With two Cartesian manipulators, MCU manages 0.5–15 mm thicknesses, up to 65 kg per manipulator, or 130 kg when working together. - The results
The system now runs one 8-hour day shift plus 2–3 unmanned night shifts per week. Sorting automation consistently exceeds 80%, compared with the initial 60% target, while a reference repetitive job dropped from 3–4 weeks to around 2–2.5 weeks, reducing cycle time by about 30%.
