Stuga and Sturtz come together

By Steve Haines, sales director, Stuga

Following the acquisition of Stuga by Sturtz in February the decision was taken to have a modest stand at The Fit Show and stand Q59 was booked.

On display will be a Sturtz vertical four head welder which is possibly one of the most well-known Sturtz machines in the UK with many having been sold historically and still giving robust service. Also, from Stürtz will be a small but innovative robot performing some window fabrication related tasks.

From Stuga the extremely well known Multihead tooling module will be shown as a stand-alone unit. The module forms the heart of all Stuga sawing & machining centres, creating extensive flexibility for the diverse window styles in this country.

The stand will be staffed by technical people from both companies who will be able to discuss the wide range of machinery products that are now available. Stuga is well known in the British and Irish markets for its range of high performance, top quality sawing and machining centres and Stürtz is known for welders and cleaners – but Stürtz will also be talking about horizontal four, six and eight head welders feeding into two head cleaners, products that have until now been sold mainly in other countries globally but are less well known here.

Stürtz also offers sorting systems for the bigger fabricator and sawing and machining centres that can do even more than the Stuga machines such as re-enforcing and end milling. Stürtz also plans to develop machines for the UK market such as transom cleaners and in-line welding machines, all of which are in the planning stage.

Stuga will remain as Stuga in the UK and Ireland with machine building capacity increasing under the guidance of UK and international members of staff and Stuga’s strong service culture will be built on and improved further.

Many of Stuga’s field service technicians will also be trained to service Stürtz machines and to avoid dilution of resource Stuga is currently adding two further field technicians bringing the total to 12 so far. The in-depth internal back-up team at Stuga will also be strengthened to ensure a high service level remains at all times, including on-line support and camera support together with telephone diagnostics.

Liaison with the service hot desk at Stürtz in Germany is already established and will be further increased as sales of Stürtz machines increase in the UK following a flying start.

Stuga is already very successful here with sawing and machining centres like the ZX5 and AutoFlow and these machines are already being even further improved with the help of an amazing design team in Germany.

With demand for both machines being so high both design teams and the manufacturing staff are working closely together to implement design improvements that make manufacturing simpler, thereby increasing output from the new Stuga factory.

It is also important to create flexibility with interchangeable components in order to be able to adapt to supply from different manufacturers as supply chain issues continue to create shortages. Being a global manufacturer with plants in several countries there are often sources available in one country that can be used in another.

The ZX5 is proving to be the most successful and reliable automated sawing and machining line in the company’s history with features like the Tru-Loc non-slip gripper and quad plunge utility to help with high door output and the new trickle vent regulations.

Also proving very popular is the Y-Drive module that ensures extreme accuracy when producing ‘V’ or ‘Y’ notches and in particular for customers that have a double headed ‘Y’ welder where total accuracy with notches is essential.

Another plus that is easily overlooked is that the U-shape configuration of the ZX5 means considerably more output can be created due to the separation of sawing and machining modules and having a full buffer station between them. This also means that to produce volumes of up to around 600 windows per week only one operator is required. For higher volumes a second operator may be required part of the time.

Stuga and Stürtz staff are looking forward to meeting current and potential customers at Fit 2022.