From the wire coil straight to full-thread screws on a single machine

The new all-in-one screw making machine caters to trend in wood construction.

At WIRE 2022, Amba is going to introduce its new all-in-one machine for the production of 10-mm-diameter full-thread screws in lengths of up to 420 mm. It is the first machine in the world able to produce screws of this length and diameter from the coiled wire to the finished product in a continuous cycle. With a throughput of up to 80 screws per minute, it sets a new industry benchmark.

There is a growing demand for full-thread screws of 420 mm length in wood construction, as a result of the current architectural trend of building wooden houses. While this has a long tradition in Scandinavian countries and the Alps, more and more wooden buildings are being constructed also in the northern parts of Germany.

With the new machine screw making shops can produce both full-thread and partially threaded screws at high cycle rates directly from the wire coil, meeting the growing requirements of the market.

Georg Haas, Head of Sales at Amba, explains the motivation behind the development of the new machine: “Our all-in-one machines achieve much higher throughputs than single-purpose machines that specialize in individual process steps, as rolling, for example. With the new machine, it is no longer necessary to feed, clamp, process and remove one item after the other. Instead, we have transferred discontinuous manufacturing into a quasi-continuous process. In certain applications this may result in a productivity rise by one order of magnitude.”

The first 420-mm screw making machine will be delivered shortly to a customer in Germany. Further orders for this new type of machine have already been booked.

Aachener Maschinenbau GmbH – generally referred to as “Amba” – was founded in 1908, at a time when Aachen was famous worldwide for its high-quality needle production. Since then, the company has evolved into an internationally renowned manufacturer of machinery used to make cold-formed metal components.

Today, Amba specializes in equipment for the production of long and slender components with varying cross-sections, as screws between 60 and 2,500 mm long, and tubes and spokes.

The Amba All-in-One design has made the company worldwide the only supplier of machinery that can perform all steps needed to manufacture long and complex components continuously on just one machine. Everything from the feeding of the input stock – wire rod or tube blanks – all the way down to the finished, packaged product are handled by just one machine. This is unique in the industry.

Amba employs some 80 people at its headquarters in Alsdorf near Aachen in its development and design departments, the workshops and in after sales.