PPEB PRESS BRAKES, TOOLCELL & TAURUS XXL

Various types of products
Breman Machinery operates in many industries, such as offshore, oil and gas, luxury yacht building, defence and medical. The company’s facility is situated on the Black Water river, an easy way to transport the heavy constructions made here over the water to their destination. A tour from CEO Henk Breman through the immense production halls takes you along a wide range of products: enormous pile driver parts, emergency bridges to repair riverbank connections throughout Europe, rudder systems for XXL sailing yachts and systems used to lift ships out of the water. But also frames for MRI scanners and drying machines to dry out grass for racing camels in Saudi Arabia. 

“Our market is focused on  one-off products, with limited tolerances and often difficult materials, requiring a high level of craftsmanship.”

Envisioning opportunities
 

With a wealth of experience, knowledge and craftsmanship, Breman Machinery can tackle a wide variety of assignments. “We prefer to make non-standard products that challenge us. Our market is focused on one-off products, with limited tolerances and often difficult materials, requiring a high level of craftsmanship.” The Breman Machinery turnover is solid, including in the energy transition. For example, they recently delivered a 1500-ton structure for offshore wind energy. “The energy transition is quite significant for our company,” says Henk Breman. “It gives rise to a new industry, which is a very welcome development.” The CEO’s remarks show that his company has been envisioning opportunities for many generations. 

New factory
Good tools are needed to create this type of product. Breman Machinery has a wide range of processing machinery and departments for welding, assembly and conservation.

Recently, the major production methods rolling, bending and laser cutting have been moved to a separate facility, Breman Bending, specifically built for this purpose and part of the larger Breman organisation. Here, Henk Breman’s son Niek is given the opportunity to develop his talents and gain experience with the responsibilities that come with entrepreneurship.  “So, make it a good one” is the simple message he received from his father. he objective of the new factory was to install existing machines, to advance the logistics. But the heavy LVD machines at the back of the production hall for mid-sized machine processing were already quite old. Eventually it was decided to fully modernise the sheet metalworking operations and install new machines at the new factory. First of all, a 1600- and an 800-ton PPEB-H press brake and a third, being a 3000-ton press brake retrofitted by LVD to step into the digital future. A ToolCell with automatic tool changer completes the bending department. The factory also houses a 10 kW Taurus XXL laser cutting machine with an 18-meter cutting table and a Tower Automation System (TAS) for the efficient storage of 6x2 m sheets.

Confidence in LVD
 

All these machines come from LVD where Henk Breman used to come with his father as a child. “We have confidence in LVD. We never had any issues with the previous generation of equipment. They have a proven track record. Why go to another? We are loyal to our suppliers, just like we expect our customers to return when we deliver them quality products. We trust LVD to deliver high-quality machines we can use as we intended, and that these will run successfully for many years to come.”

The challenge of digitisation

Henk and Niek Breman believe it  is up to them and their employees to make the most of the machines. Digitisation plays a major role in this process and LVD provided the software solutions. Both the father and son see it as a challenge to realise the potential of digitisation. The company therefore has various teams working on this theme. “For us, software and computers are primarily a tool. What counts is the craftsmanship of our employees, that know exactly how to handle the machines.”

A bold statement

Just like Breman Machinery, Breman Bending intends to focus on exceptional, challenging products. Bending thicker material others cannot do, but also the production of very accurate, thin components made of all possible materials, including Hardox®, copper, duplex and super duplex.

Niek Breman is raring to go, as are the employees of Breman Bending. “Brand-new machines and a new production hall. This makes for 
a great environment to work in. The new factory will increase the efficiency of the entire Breman organisation. Having everything under one roof is enabling a rapid transition from cutting to bending. This makes us very proactive. It is also a major development for the company image. It is a bold statement to our employees, customers and suppliers, a signal we are working on our future.”