Stuga to launch new Sturtz transom corner cleaner at FIT
Great Yarmouth based manufacturer Stuga – now wholly-owned by Stürtz Maschinenbau GmbH in Germany – will be launching a newly developed transom corner cleaner at the 2023 FIT Show, as part of its growth strategy.
Since being appointed as commercial lead in the summer of 2022, Ed Williams has now taken the reigns of the UK business as managing director and has made significant strides in re-structuring the business, to meet the present and future demands.
“We have spent the early part of the year developing the management and operational structure of the organisation to get it ready for growth and improve performance in all areas,” explains Williams.
“It’s not so much a case of ‘all change’, rather it’s a re-ordering of roles and responsibilities to ensure we flex the muscle of our brilliant team more effectively. The launch of the new transom cleaner represents a complete re-development of a solution that Stürtz had in its portfolio for many years, but it has benefited from a total upgrade and addition of key features to ensure we have a solution that is completely focussed on the complexities of the UK market.”
Capability
According to Ed, the machine’s launch at this year’s FIT Show will bolster an already impressive portfolio of automated solutions in welding, cleaning and logistics.
Stuga – now the UK division of Stürtz GmbH – is already well advanced in terms of its plans of executing a launch and marketing strategy, which Williams confirms has fuelled significant interest within the UK region.
“The industry knows the Stürtz brand well and of course Stuga is synonymous with sawing and machining, but the TXR was a missing piece of our plan to grow Stürtz presence in the UK market.
“We are delighted with the warm reception we received so far form our customers in the UK industry, who seem to universally welcome the idea of this solution from Stürtz, as a credible alternative to current options available to them”.
The right solution
Ed explains that the PVC-U market in the UK is dominated by complex frame and sash configurations that require efficient and reliable cleaning of transoms that often can’t be handled effectively on higher speed multi-point corner cleaning solutions.
The main feature of the Stürtz TXR is an interpolating 3-axis CNC controlled cleaning head, which provides higher output than conventional systems where the entire head moves – and greater control over the cleaning function.
Spring mounted knives, which follow the contour of profiles, along with automatic recognition means that the machine produces consistently high quality product and mitigates the risk of serious machine damage that can be caused on other solutions where the wrong profile can be loaded by the operator.
“It was vital we consider the production and quality challenges faced by the UK fabricators every day and tailor a machine design that is unique to meeting their needs,” continues Ed.
“The addition of profile recognition, sprung knives and a crucial auto-shift function on the cleaning heads are delivered in a cost effective, well-engineered design.
“Traditional transom cleaning solutions – indeed the old technology that Stürtz previously used – relies on moving huge masses of the machine structure from one side of the transom to the other to complete the cleaning task.
“We wanted to eradicate the need to do this and focussed our efforts on designing a solution that moves smaller masses in a much more precise and efficient way. The results are fantastic and repeatable product quality with a huge reduction in the stress on the machine itself – any factory maintenance engineer understands the benefit in reducing the mass you want to move and its impact on machine reliability,” Ed concludes.
Ready to deliver
The transom corner cleaner is a staple asset for every PVC-U fabricator in the UK and with Stuga’s after sales team of 11 field-based technicians and a slick, reliable and well-engineered machine, Ed is confident that the future for Stürtz and Stuga in the UK is bright.
