Henny Penny Keeps the Heat on with CI Press Brakes
Henny Penny, based in Eaton, Ohio, designs, develops and manufactures premium food service equipment such as fryers, rotisseries and holding cabinets that keep hot foods fresh. They have proudly served the world’s most demanding kitchens for over 60 years, and to safeguard their reputation for quality products, the manufacturer depends on CI press brakes. “We are big fans of their durability, repeatability and ease of use,” said Jeremy Horn, Manufacturing Technician and a 21-year company veteran who oversees forming operations at Henny Penny.
“These elements are vital since we have 35 operators forming parts on three shifts,” he said. “Materials we form include food quality stainless steel (mainly 22 to 12 gauge), cold rolled mild steel for the inside of the units, and some aluminum for the holding cabinets.”
Durability
“Henny Penny started buying CI press brakes in 1983,” Horn said. “Out of the 17 CI press brakes still in operation on the shop floor today, five FormMaster II’s were purchased in the early 1990s.” These were followed over the years by Autoform and Maxform models, including three Maxforms purchased in the last three years. “We keep buying Maxforms because they are very fast and provide amazing repeatability. They are capable of holding tight tolerances of plus or minus 0.0002” ram repeatability and plus or minus 1 degree.”
“All of the older machines have upgraded controls and cabinets,” Horn said. “We finally sold off the original three CI press brakes, even though they were still going strong, because the controls couldn’t be updated.”
Repeatability
Repeatability is very important for Henny Penny,” Horn said. “The newer fryers demand precision and we need to get a quality part every time. If we don't hold tolerances, the part won’t fit. It can't be reformed or welded. It’s basically scrap.”
While many manufacturing companies have separate fabricating divisions, all press brakes at Henny Penny are integrated in individual production cells. That means fabrications go directly to secondary operations and assembly, and press brake operators get direct feedback on part quality. Jeremy worked his first four years at Henny Penny in assembly before moving on to forming, so he knows what happens when a part isn't formed correctly. “Believe me, the press brake operators would know very quickly from their co-workers if parts weren't made to tolerance. But that’s a rare occurrence with the CI equipment.”
Ease of Use
The tightest tolerances don’t matter if the operator can’t master the machine. Horn conducts a press brake class for new operators, and the majority of them have no previous manufacturing experience. The week-long training program covers all press brake fundamentals: controls, how to form, how to read blueprints and safety. “We start new operators on Maxforms since they are very user friendly and easy to train on,” he said. “All the information needed to make adjustments is immediately available and it’s very straightforward.”
CIberDash
A major advantage of Henny Penny’s upgrade program was that the new controls came with CI’s CIberDash data-driven decision-making technology (DDDM). CIberDash allows tracking of machine performance across a wide range of parameters. “I spend an hour every morning checking CIberDash,” Horn said. “Henny Penny is a high mix, low volume shop. The software helps us track what’s being formed and keeps us on top of productivity issues.”
CIberDash also alerts Jeremy of maintenance concerns. “CIberDash calls attention to potential machine issues before something goes wrong and takes a machine out of production,” he said. “For example, there was an encoder issue on an older press brake, throwing a right axis fault error. It wasn’t bad enough to shut the machine down, but, with CIberDash, we were able to get ahead of the problem and resolve it.”
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