Automating Fibreglass Insulation Cutting
More than three decades after his father founded the company, John Petrou is continuing the Brisbane-based Apex Insulation success story and recently invested in automation equipment and software to boost the shop’s productivity.
John Petrou from Apex Insulation
Founded in 1983, Apex Insulation has been working with sheetmetal shops in the airconditioning and ducting industry, fitting insulation material to duct units and other HVAC construction equipment.
While the company has continually broadened its customer base, factory manager and owner John Petrou realised it was time to speed up production and increase the shop’s efficiency by reducing the amount of manual labour involved in cutting the fibreglass insulation material to size.
“Since buying the machine the software does all the math – which is great because it is hard to find motivated people; now, and pretty much anyone can operate the machine.”
While Apex Insulation predominantly cuts fibreglass insulation with a reciprocating knife on the machine, the additional fourth axis on the CNC router offers many special tools designed for insulation material and duct board cutting including variable angled knives or steered pizza cutter wheels for creasing and cutting a variety of materials including insulated duct board, fibreglass and polyester insulation, fabric & textiles, plastic & rubber timber or aluminium.
The machine’s versatility inspired Mr Petrou to consider tapping into other markets such as insulated duct board cutting. “Now that we have the machine we are looking at expanding into duct board which is a lot lighter than sheetmetal and has the insulation incorporated in it. We can use the machine to cut out the V-notches, and put the duct parts together easily.”
The ART team helped to set up the software Apex Insulation is using, CAMduct, to tailor it to their needs. “Once it is set up, the entry of the data is basic as can be, anyone can do it. ART also helped us to create a database with most of our standard parts and shapes.”
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