Limassol, Cyprus

Cyprus’ leading structural steel contractors looked to the other side of the globe to find a company that could provide a special light gauge steel framing machine. Cyprometal Ltd found just the thing in New Zealand - Howick’s ticked all the boxes. The quest was over.

FRAMA™ 7600 an all-round pleaser

Nasia Constantinou from Cyprometal’s business operations department says the chosen machine had to meet a whole host of prerequisites. What was required was a multi-profile machine known for its high accuracy, its high productivity, and ability to produce high quality steel profiles. A user-friendly computer interface was also advantageous, and the fact Howick’s FRAMA™ 7600 has the potential to be upgraded to expand capabilities was a plus. 

Howick has a reputation for being a trustworthy and reliable company and that was the icing on the cake to Cyprometal.

The project and what FRAMA™ 7600 achieved

Cyprometal is involved in a whole host of steel structure construction projects. These include simple portal frames, steel structure framed houses, multi-storey buildings, composite timber-steel structures and highly sophisticated, complex structures such as sports hall roofs, shopping centres, space-frames, steel bridges and trusses.

Cyprometal’s first job for the FRAMA™ 7600 was a house build. The client chose light gauge steel (also known as cold-formed steel) framing, mainly because the project could be delivered faster and at a lower cost compared to other construction methods. In terms of speed, August 2020 saw the ordering of raw materials, the manufacture and erection – all achieved in just over one month!

The house build was one of the first buildings Cyprometal had manufactured and erected entirely. The fact it was such a success bodes well for the future.

It consists mainly of light gauge steel – a total of six tonnes. Hot-rolled sections – manufactured and erected by Cyprometal - also formed part of the construction.

FRAMA™ 7600 - its ability and flexibility

The fact the FRAMA™ 7600 is a variable roll-forming machine means its value to Cyprometal will continue to grow. At present Cyprometal produces three different profiles (all three framing sizes were used on this project), but there’s the potential to upgrade to deliver up to five.

The system has a “very user-friendly” computer interface. It is compatible with Vertex software – CNC files are exported from Vertex, imported in the FRAMA™ 7600, and can then be easily manufactured without delays or errors. Tekla software was also involved in this project.

The Cyprometal team found the FRAMA™ 7600 to be easily convertible, enabling a quick coil change when a different profile, with a different width, was being manufactured.

“By designing in Vertex and setting the machine to work, the accuracy of profiles is easily achievable, and the assembly of the frames was also done without any difficulty,” Nasia says. 

Product

The Howick FRAMA™ 7600 is a fully functioned, convertible profile frame, truss and floor joist component manufacturing system. It includes Howick’s unique end-bearing stud detail for true load-bearing frames and Howick’s swage and dimple details for smooth intersections.

FRAMA 7600™ Benefits

Thanks to reliable design the FRAMA™ 7600 can boast minimised down time, maximised production, and more. Its compact design means less material wastage when changing section width, and higher product accuracy. It also offers the option to produce up to five set profile widths to cover a range of construction applications.