For the past two years customers would have had to go through Esko for this package but, as of early May, Suffolk-based Clinchtech can now supply its customers directly with the table and automation offering.

“We’d been doing side-by-side automation for cutting tables for Esko. They’d buy the automation from us and then push it out to their customers complete with their table,” said Clinchtech project engineer Andy Griggs.

“They suggested we could be one of their resellers, effectively like their other resellers, but we wouldn’t be selling just tables, it would be a bundled product of tables and automation.”

He added: “This allows us to supply the complete solution to leads and customers at a sensible price, using Esko as the customer-facing front-end globally.

“For example, we could install a machine in the US, either from one of their leads or one of our own, and if there are any issues with it, Esko’s service engineer would go in and find the fault, and would then talk to us about what to do to repair it if it’s automation [related]. If he can’t find the fault, we can dial-in remotely and look at it from there.”

A typical starting package could include an Esko Kongsberg C66 cutting table, which features a 3.2x4.8m work area and a 1.7m maximum material stack height, along with a base level 3.2x.1.6m robotic sheet handling system from Clinchtech for payloads up to 20kg. Griggs said pricing for the bundle was “competitive”.

He added: “Esko’s table is really good; it’s fast and accurate and delivers a real quality over the others, but it needs automation. The feeder stackers that they use are limited and you can’t run them with multi-zone twin tables, four sheets at a time.”