Moving machinery wears out and electronics and computers get unreliable and obsolete. Apart from their sacrificial cutting surface, vacuum tables don't wear out and will outlast a cutter many times over. If your cutter is getting old and tired, a retrofit to give a new cutter on an existing vacuum table is the most economical option.
Retrofits, new cutters on old tables are very popular with Aeronaut's customers. Many machines, from 10 to 25 years old are being replaced by up-to-date hardware, electronics, computers and software giving them a new life at a fraction of the cost of complete replacement. New machines can take all the new accessories and features from machine vision and inkjet print heads to integrated cut-off and automated fabric pullout systems which have been developed over the years.
Aeronaut's modular vacuum table design has remained more or less the same for 20 years… mainly because the design was correct, right from the beginning. With only a few small modifications, an existing Aeronaut table can be fitted with a brand new cutter, new electronics, wiring and computer for a lot less than the price of a completely new system.
In fact, Aeronaut cutters can be fitted to a lot of other manufacturer's vacuum tables using our specialised extrusions, maintaining the value of the table frame and vacuum system.
Vacuum pumps don't appear to lose efficiency at a noticeable rate in most factory environments. Occasionally a bearing may wear or wiring burn out but these repairs are cheap so retrofits save the cost of new vacuum pumps.
A retrofit normally takes a lot less time than installing a completely new cutting table, especially if the table is large. Training operators on the new machine and software is normally easy since they're familiar with most of the system. Because we're shipping just a gantry, wiring, control box and computer, the freight cost is a lot less and mostly, airfreight is a good option for overseas retrofits.
If you've got an ageing cutter, whether made by Aeronaut or somebody else, and a retrofit sounds interesting, give us a call or send an email and we'll discuss the options.