metal forming Automated fabrication comes with its own Texas accent With Finn-Power as its trusty sidekick, company easily corrals finished parts verything seems to be bigger in Texas. And when Special Products & Mfg. Inc. (SPM), located in Rockwall, TX, recently decided to enter the world of fully automated sheet metal fabrication, it did so in a big way. Not that automation is anything new to the company. From its founding in 1963, SPM has taken pride in its commitment to procuring the latest technology and equipment. Second-generation owners Rob Grand-Lienard, president, and Ed Grand-Lienard,...

metal forming With the Shear Genius concept, the objective is to provide one machine capable of transforming a full-sized sheet into finished parts. As loading, punching, and shearing of parts become automated, the result is finished parts with a dramatic reduction in scrap and manual labor while increasing profitability. sheet into finished parts. These parts can be moved to final production stages for immediate integration directly into final product assembly. The Shear Genius accomplishes all of this with minimal floor space–approximately 30 feet (nine meters). Shear Genius functions with sophisticated...

used SG cells. One is in operation and the other is in storage awaiting opening of the new plant. When the new plant comes on stream in early 2006, SPM hopes to reorganize its manufacturing with a linear manufacturing flow; reduce the number of redundancies such as shipping, receiving, material handlers, etc., and reap the benefits of the Finn-Power Material Management System. “We will have the three Shear Ge Special Products Mfg. Inc. provides precision metal fabrication and mechanical assemblies to such industries as electronics/ semiconductor, telecommunications, cash delivery, medical, postal and...