In a recent project for a leading Canadian tier-one automotive industry supplier, Turkish machine builder Coiltech was challenged with replacing three machinery lines across two plants, one of which was in Mexico.
“The North American market is tough to get into,” explains Volga Gürsel, Foreign Trade Manager at Coiltech. “As well as having a traditional mindset, it is also well served by equipment from the home region and from China, with machines that all look and operate very similarly.
“There is a lot of older machinery out there, too, much of which needs to be renewed and replaced to leverage modern technologies, including digitalization. But we can’t expect companies to simply turn to a supplier from Türkiye, so we had to work hard to get this leading tier-one onboard. This was helped by an in-depth visit to our state-of-the-art fabrication facility in Türkiye and the local-market presence of Rockwell Automation.
“What ultimately differentiated Coiltech was our ability to combine modern machine design, advanced automation, application expertise and responsive customer support into a solution tailored to the customer's specific production requirements. The customer was not simply looking for replacement equipment; they were looking for a long-term technology partner capable of supporting future growth, modernization and digital transformation initiatives.”
Adding to the 120+ lines it already has in North America, Coiltech recently supplied two new lines – including compact feeders and oscillating sheers – to two different customer plants, with both lines deploying a variety of automation solutions from Rockwell to control feed speed accuracy and feed length. These included Allen-Bradley® CompactLogix™ programmable controllers, Allen-Bradley Kinetix® servo drives and MMA servo motors, and Allen-Bradley POINT I/O™ modules. Coiltech also received in-depth support from Rockwell Global OEM Technical Consultants (GOTC) and local in-country teams.
“Rockwell was an obvious candidate for the automation for our North American machines, and we set some tough standards and delivery timescales,” Gürsel adds, “but ultimately the automation architecture and advanced machine designs we delivered were perfect for the customer’s needs.
“Beyond the technology itself, Rockwell’s strong presence in North America, responsive local support structure and widespread acceptance among end users were important factors in our decision. This helped reduce project risk and provided confidence to both Coiltech and the customer throughout the implementation process.
“Our newer machines offer our customers a wide range of additional operational benefits, too. As well as having a modernized after-sales program, with digitally enabled 24/7 support and much more readily available spares, our machines are more capable of handling the harder materials being used today, which older machines can struggle to process.
“The digital capabilities Rockwell offers are also attractive to the end users. To retrofit a modern control solution, you could be looking at 40 to 50% of the cost of a new line, so it makes sense to upgrade the whole machine, especially when you consider all the additional performance benefits. The connectivity also gives us the ability to deliver remote support, while the digital architecture creates essential data for our customers to feed into the digital threads so often being specified by automotive OEMs.
“Where available, we are also working with customers to quantify improvements related to productivity, engineering efficiency, setup optimization and operational flexibility, helping them better understand the long-term value of modernization.”
Coiltech’s customer is reaping the benefits of Rockwell Automation’s contemporary industrial technology, including the ability to modify batch parameters with far less engineering intervention, greater production flexibility and a platform designed for future expansion and digitalization.
“The modern Rockwell control solutions also allow us to tailor our machines to much more closely match the customer’s specific needs and demands,” Gürsel adds. “It will also give our customers an easier path to future modernization and augmentation, which is especially important considering the pace of change within automotive.
“The result is a solution that requires less engineering effort when product parameters change and enables operators to respond more quickly to evolving production requirements. For manufacturers facing increasing product variation and growing demands for flexibility, this can be just as valuable as machine performance itself.
“As well as more readily handling the newer materials, I also think our machines look more contemporary, like an Italian sportscar, compared to those they are replacing. A modern-looking manufacturing plant is important to consider, too.
“We have a great relationship with Rockwell, and we use its automation and safety solutions in many of our other machines. The technical support was particularly important in this project; we found it so much easier and quicker to get a response to our questions compared to other suppliers, and we came to the conclusion that Rockwell acts like a much smaller and more agile company. Also, the transition from another automation supplier was relatively straightforward, with our engineers finding the programming environment so much easier to use.”
“With Rockwell’s help, we will continue to grow our brand and penetration into the North American market,” Gürsel concludes, “expanding on the 70 countries we already serve with thousands of working machines. Our target, with Rockwell’s help, is to become the world’s leading company in press-feeding systems. And with confident steps like this, coupled with our young and dynamic team and customer-driven working mentality, we are confident in this future.”
