As the country emerges from recession, some manufacturers continue to be reluctant to invest in new machine tools. However, business in repair and refurbishment of pre-owned presses and ancillaries is brisker than ever, says high-speed press supplier, Bruderer UK. Built by its Swiss parent company, the machines are rated from 18 to 250 tons punching force and have stroke rates up to 2,000 per minute.

Since the start of this year, eight presses ranging from 25 to 60 tons have already been returned to as-new condition by engineering staff at Luton, all for UK users save for one that was shipped to a customer in India. There are currently two further machines being overhauled and rebuilt on the shop floor to factory standard, a 25 ton model and a large 110 ton press.

Managing Director in the UK, Adrian Haller, said, “Many people do not know that we are active in this area, yet it has been a mainstay of our business during the downturn. “We not only refurbish customers’ machines to order in a time frame of about five weeks, but are also permanently on the lookout to buy pre-owned presses which we return to factory condition and sell on.”

He explained that the benefit to manufacturers is that they end up with a machine that is as accurate, reliable and productive as a new high-speed press, but at a fraction of the cost. By way of illustration, he said that the price of a new Bruderer BSTA25 is circa £185,000 whereas a refurbished model can cost as little as £25,000. Moreover, it is covered by a 12-month warranty.

The scope of the work undertaken on each press is often extensive, covering all mechanical, electrical and control elements of the machine. Initial delivery checks are carried out to ascertain the condition of the machine: these include ram parallelism, main bearing clearence, hydraulic drive test, pneumatic checks to name just a few. The press is then stripped and all parts inspected for wear and damage. The press is then rebuilt using genuine Bruderer parts, retested before being offered for resale.

As a supplier of turnkey pressworking lines, with all necessary equipment needed to start producing on day one, Bruderer is also ideally placed to rebuild or replace the ancillary equipment fitted to a press. Its own product portfolio encompasses coil handling equipment, servo feeds, tooling and other items ranging from acoustic enclosures through tooling to vision systems and machine monitoring equipment.