Page 21 - Machines Italia Vol. XIII Next Generation Manufacturing

equipment. Atlantic’s market is largely the United States, with an ad- ditional orders from Canada or Mexico. The Vitap machines Azzoni sells are used for working with wood, plastics, man-made materials, particle board, fiber board and melamine. They’re used in furniture making, cabinetry, displays and acoustic panels.
Vitap is home to woodworking machinery innovation. Its special hole drilling and grooving machinery for acoustic tiles allows for the creation of a standard-size panel at least four to six times faster than other machines. It was the first company in the world to develop two-gripper technology with its patented Double Dynamic Transport system, a feature of its Point K2 2.0 work center that does cutting, profiling, drilling and nested routing. The K2 2.0 allows machining of the four sides and the lower face of a panel in a single process. Also under patent is the Vitap Bar Nesting System, featured in Vitap’s Point K2 CNC machine, which cuts, drills and routs while the part lays flat on the work table.
“At the end, you’re nesting all of the functions inside that ma- chine,” Azzoni said.
Vitap conserves energy with its machinery by decreasing its footprint and keeps the working heads stationary in the Y axis while the work panel moves. This means a smaller motor is needed in the machine.
“Another big thing is that a (typical) CNC router uses a vacuum pump to hold the part totally stationary because the workpiece is prone to moving when the routing bit works from the top,” Azzoni said, noting the pump uses a tremendous amount of energy. “But on the Vitap machine there is no need for that because we’re doing ev- erything from the bottom and the part only moves in the X axis while the heads move in the Y axis.”
Vitap is a member of ACIMALL (Assago, Italy, www.acimall. com/en/)), the Italian trade association for the woodworking industry.
Equipment aids recovery after disasters
When Hurricane Irma struck the southern portion of the United States in 2017, it was the most powerful storm to make landfall in North America since Katrina in 2005. The storm’s destruction was so intense the word “Irmageddon” was coined to describe the hur- ricane’s aftermath.
Some of the cleanup fell to Will Brown, the owner/operator of North Georgia Land Management, who relies on FAE mulching heads to chew up downed vegetation and leave fine mulch in its wake, according to a case study available from FAE titled USA: Clearing up the Storm Damage. These heads are available from FAE USA Inc. (Flowery Branch, Georgia, USA., www.fae-group. com/en), one of six branches of FAE Group SpA (Fondo, Italy, www.fae-group.com/en).
“After Hurricane Irma, we had a lot of cleaning up to do,” Brown said. “One of the lots I had to clear had over 20 pines, both fallen and standing, that needed to be removed due to the storm damage. One of those 75-foot-tall trees was less than 30 feet away from the house, and moving it became a matter of extraordinary precision. Some of
the pines were reaching 18 inches in diameter, which is a lot of stress on a mulching head. However, with my FAE equipment, I managed to turn that disaster zone into fine mulch in less than seven hours. My customers are happy, and they love the look.”
Having reliable equipment like this helps Brown stay ahead of his competition.
“The mulching door is a lifesaver when it comes to jobs that are close to houses. Not worrying about property damage while mulching is a great feeling!” he said. “FAE’s (mulching head) teeth are unstoppable and last twice as long as the competitor’s prod- uct or aftermarket teeth; they can hit rocks all day long and be just fine. In my two years of serving Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, I only chipped three teeth. And when it’s time for maintenance or a part upgrade, FAE help is just a call away in Flowery Branch. Everyone knows me by name, and they make my life so much easier.”
Vitap’s Point K2 2.0 work center does cutting, profiling, drilling and nested routing, while allowing machining of the four sides and the
lower face of a panel in a single process.
According to Brown, FAE mulchers are ideal for land manage- ment in the Southeast region, which is known for its thick vegeta- tion, diverse landscapes, and rocky soil. FAE machines can handle it all at once and work precisely and efficiently. Depending on the type and density of material, Brown clears up to three acres a day on average.
Mulching heads aren’t the only get-the-job-done equipment from FAE. The company’s tillers, stone crushers, stump cutters, soil stabi- lizers, asphalt grinders and multifunction heads hitch easily to a trac- tor and shred and chop their way through many environments.
And post-hurricane cleanup is far from the only heavy work that operators call on their FAE equipment to help with. They are used for tasks such as creating fire breaks during the 2019-20 Australian wildfires.
FAE Group is a member of the Italian construction equipment as- sociation, UNACEA (Rome, Italy, www.unacea.org).
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