Based in Bergkirchen near Munich, Butz Aufzüge plans design-oriented passenger elevators as well as complex heavy-duty elevators with a load capacity of several tons and installs them in new or existing buildings, always in line with customer requirements and wishes. Even the economic crisis caused by the pandemic has not affected the company's steady growth, as Managing Partner Michael Butz confirms. He names an important success factor: "Delivering high quality reliably and on time is our top priority. We only accept orders if we are sure that we can keep all agreements."

This applies equally to the conversion and modernization of existing elevator systems that are getting on in years. Stefan Förster, authorized signatory and head of the company's New Construction/Modernization department, explains: "In order to always be able to react quickly to the diverse challenges, we rely on a high level of vertical integration with qualified employees. In addition, all parts suppliers are located in close proximity, i.e. in Germany or Switzerland."

Higher productivity, flexibility and quality

The elevator specialist's latest purchases in the new hall built in 2020 include a TruBend 5230 bending machine and a TruLaser 3030 fiber laser cutting system from Trumpf, which is supplemented by the TruTool TSC 100 support strip cleaner. Before making the investment, Förster and his workshop manager Christian Kern compared the laser cutting systems from various manufacturers. An initial study of the price lists quickly made it clear that the current solution would not be the cheapest. This was followed by various tests and demonstrations of the machines at the manufacturers' premises. According to Christian Kern, the sum of all factors was clear: "In particular, the quality of results, operability, energy consumption and service clearly speak in favor of Trumpf, even from today's perspective."

For Butz, the main reasons for investing in the laser system in late fall 2020 were the expected increase in productivity, flexibility, quality and speed of response. According to workshop manager Kern, everything has now been confirmed, as the TruLaser 3030 fiber replaced over 80 percent of the previous technology - a punching machine and a guillotine shear - in both cabin and steel construction at the beginning of 2021. "In addition, we were previously unable to produce some of the stainless steel sheets for the cabin ourselves. Our suppliers produced good quality, but there were still delays," says workshop manager Kern.

Production time significantly reduced

Butz currently uses around 200 tons of galvanized structural steel per year, which is primarily used as support frames, protective devices or fastening elements in steel construction. These steel sheets, which are often up to 25 mm thick, can be processed just as easily on the TruLaser 3030 fiber as the interior cladding, ceilings, operating and other visible elements made of stainless steel. Kern uses an example to illustrate how much more productive the laser solution can be: "In the past, we first cut the two-millimeter-thick stainless steel sheets frequently used in the cabin into strips on the guillotine shears and then punched out the respective shape and length." Total time around 20 minutes per unit. Now Butz specialist Maxi Berghammer places the sheets as a whole in the TruLaser 3030 fiber and removes the finished sheets just four minutes later.

A wide variety of shapes, patterns and radii can be realized that were previously only possible with enormous effort or not at all. Even 2 cm narrow stainless steel sheet strips can be produced in 2 m lengths. "This is impossible on guillotine shears, as the sheets then twist and cannot be used," explains Kern.