The Luxembourg based Faymonville Group is a leading manufacturer of vehicles for transporting all kinds of cargo. No matter if semi-trailers, lowbed trailers, modular or self-propelled vehicles – products of the company are designed to transport anything exceptionally heavy, long, tall or wide. The company recently invested in two large MicroStep cutting machines for plasma bevel cutting and oxyfuel cutting.Faymonville offer the full range of vehicle transport solutions from standard to specialized applications for heavy-weight or oversized cargo, with payloads ranging from 15 to 15,000 tons. The family-owned business of 1,100 employees has its production sites spread across Europe and Russia. Its standard-sized vehicles are manufactured in Poland under the name MAX Trailer. Thanks to standardized components and optimized production process, these high-quality trailers come with affordable pricing and reach a stable customer base. Then, on the other end of the portfolio, there are vehicles produced at the Luxembourg site – tailor-made solutions based on modular design that allows to meet any requirements outside of the usual standards. "Our vehicles are characterized by a high degree of quality achieved through sustainable production methods," says Carsten Faber, process engineer at Faymonville.
Investment into MicroStep cutting technology for in-house productionThe entire production of the vehicles takes place in-house, whether in Luxembourg, Poland, Belgium or Italy. The manufacturing process starts with sheet metal cutting and continues through to final assembly and finishing in accordance with the various site-specific road traffic regulations. Extensive quality and production process control is a part of the daily routine.
Following the company's machinery park expansion plans, the Lentzweiler plant in Luxembourg has been recently equipped with new MicroStep cutting technology. Faymonville acquired two large-sized MG machines for plasma bevel cutting and oxyfuel cutting. Both machines feature Microstep's state-of-the-art plasma bevel head for weld seam preparation up to 50° with the patented ACTG® technology for auto-calibration. One system has a working area of 30,000 x 3,000 mm while the other is 21,000 x 3,000 mm.
A new hall of around 3,000 square meters was specially built for the larger of the two machines. Thanks to its length, the machine is configured with two independent work areas: in one area, loading or unloading is carried out while in the other one the cutting is performed, simultaneously. As Nic Wouters, the Managing Director of MicroStep's Benelux representative Wouters Cutting & Welding explains: "MicroStep's flagship machine series MG is designed for long-term industrial inset. It meets highest demands for precision, performance and ease of operation. The machines are customized: from plasma to oxyfuel cutting, from 2D cutting to bevel cutting. With a heightened gantry option, it is possible to cut up to 250 mm with oxyfuel."
Reliable operation with minimum downtimes is very important
When deciding for the new equipment, Faymonville largely emphasized reliability and stability of operation. "The reliability of these machines and the follow-up support are very important for us, because even the smallest incidents affect production times. We have to avoid lengthy downtimes at all costs. Those are the main reasons why we chose MicroStep, because we know that we can count on the responsiveness of our supplier, which is the most important thing for us," emphasizes Carsten Faber.
