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Steel bridge fabrication has traditionally utilized a laborintensive process of manual layout and excessive material handling. The Enterprise CNC drilling machine for steel girders introduces steel fabrication techniques that were previously not available for bridge fabrication. Traditional steel bridge fabrication required a laydown process where one steel girder is placed next to the following girder as part of the manual layout and drilling method. Once the connection has be manually laid out and drilled, generally with magnetic based drills, between the first and second steel girder the first girder is removed, the second girder is repositioned to permit the alignment between the second and third girder. Once this is accomplished the location can be established for manual layout and drilling of the next girder connection. This process continues along the entire length of the bridge for all of the girders.

The FICEP Enterprise CNC gantry style drill line employees leading innovative technologies to revolutionize the fabrication of steel bridge girders. Once the girder is placed anywhere along the system’s bed, laser probing scans the entire girder to establish the actual girder’s position, length, surfaces and edges. The laser scan data is used to established the required program to automatically adjusted to the girders position and dimensions of the weldment as fabricated.
The Enterprise CNC drilling line can also be used to process weldments of diverse configurations as the part is stationary during processing. Just the gantry and spindles are positioned around and along the part being processed.

The Enterprise girder drill incorporates three high performance “Direct Drive” drill spindles that can accept up to six different tools automatically with an integrated tool changer. Each spindle features a secondary sub axis for spindle positioning in the length axis. This subaxis capability permits connection holes to be drilled in each surface simultaneously even if they are not in the same alignment. This unique subaxis capability affords the ability to perform milling operations such as the generation of large holes and the scribing of locations for such items as stiffeners.
Girders up to 4 meters (1571/2”) in depth. The vertical spindle can also rotate up to 90 degrees in each direction to perform end milling for example.

The gantry travel can be provided to address girders of diverse lengths or to achieve two processing positions.

A positive rack and pinion material positioning and measuring system for the gantry generates industry leading accuracy and speed.