The new CNC machines at Flatøy are the largest ones in Framo, and they provide bigger, quicker and better deliveries to our customers.

“Large products require large machines,” explains production engineering manager Øystein Haugen at Framo Flatøy.

One of the machines could be mistaken for a large version of a light rail carriage. The other could house a medium-sized apartment block. The two huge machines from Weingärtner and Soraluce have now been installed at the factory at Flatøy, where they produce parts for sea water lift and subsea multi-phase pumps for major customers.

Both investments were triggered by a market shift towards larger pumps with higher capacities.

“The new machines ensure inhouse production of key components and reduces risk of quality issues. Framo deliver quality on time, and these two machines contributes to that matter for sure” says Øystein Haugen.

Significant time-savings

The new machine are packed with new technology resulting in more automation and extremely accurate machining.

“With the new machines, we need less setups, so we are obviously gaining significant time-savings here,” says senior production engineer Heiko Kørner.

Specialised transport

While the “apartment block” was delivered in parts and divided between trailers travelling from Spain. The machine base to the “light rail carriage” came from Austria in one piece, weighing 64 tonnes. The complete machine has a total weight of 115 tonnes.

The machine was sent by specialised transport to Amsterdam, then by boat to Bergen. Transporting the machine over the Nordhordland bridge was impossible. It was way too heavy. The solution was to transport it onboard an old car ferry to the factory.

Complex

The team at Flatøy started working on the investments in 2019. Since then, large areas of the workshop have been refurbished to make space for the new machines. The actual construction work started in January 2021 and were completed in the autumn before the machines arrived. It took the suppliers in Austria and Spain between 13-16 months to build the machines.

“In recent years, our products have grown in size and complexity.  These machines are packed with technology, and our operators makes sure the end product satisfies our level of quality and the customer's requirements,” says Haugen.