Installations News
Diametric installs news Kongsberg X20 digital cutting table

Diametric, a U.K.-based precision badge, label, and nameplate producer, recently acquired the Kongsberg X20 as part of a strategic upgrade at the company’s manufacturing plant on the Isle of Wight. Graham Steele, managing director of Diametric, said the digital cutting solution was already delivering a significant return on investment.

“It’s totally exceeded expectations, and really opened our eyes to the possibilities,” said Graham. “We knew there was a need for new technology because the cut shop has always been a bit of a bottleneck for production, so understanding the capacity of what we can actually put through has been a revelation.

“Whenever you get a new piece of equipment there’s always the anticipation of how it will fit into the existing workflow process, but once the engineer had been in to deliver the training, the machine has not stopped!”

Graham said the Kongsberg X20 had an immediate impact on productivity and efficiency. “The instant advantage we saw was the minimal setup time required, particularly for repeat orders, where you can recall the programming,” he explained. “Then there’s the accelerated running time. Because you can index cut on the X20, where the only limitation is the sheet size, we can also look at a larger yield on the sheet without worrying about registration issues. Previously we’d have had to do a lower yield cut because we had to be conscious of the fact the cut needed to be accurate across the whole sheet. But with Kongsberg automation, we can maximize our materials.”

“We’re also bringing costs down for customers because we can get the job through the department at a faster rate, as well as cutting more products from one sheet,” he said. “Pre-Covid, we ran an extensive secret shopper exercise and discovered that our setup costs and tooling were proving an issue. Now we’ve brought the Kongsberg in, we’ve eliminated a lot of those costs. We’re already passing those savings on to our customers, which has opened the door to some without the same budget as large international brands, but now with the option of good quality branding on their products.”

Diametric offers complete branding solutions. With cutting edge badge, label, and nameplate production technologies, it delivers all branding requirements for a host of national and international customers.

“Our cut shop has two full-time operators, and most of our cuts would previously go through a manual process,” said Graham. “To move those onto the Kongsberg meant a new way of working. Our production manager has taken the lead and is passing on the training to the two operators. That’s what is great about the X20 – it’s a very intuitive machine. It’s one thing to upgrade the systems in the cut shop, but it’s another for people to learn it and understand its capabilities. But the team have gotten on board very quickly and are confidently running production. It fits our business model exactly.”