Almost every customer who comes to us asks the same question: should I buy an automatic machine or a semi-automatic one? Most of the time the answer has already taken shape in their mind — “automatic is better”: newer technology, less labour, it sounds sensible. But as people who have been building these machines for 27 years and shipping them all over the world, we will be frank: we usually recommend semi-automatic. Let us explain why.
In heavy industry, the more electronics a machine carries, the more likely it is to break down. Dust, humidity, power fluctuations, irregular maintenance — all of these make electronic components far more fragile than mechanical parts. When something goes wrong on a semi-automatic machine, it is usually a mechanical part that has failed. Replacing it is easy, the part is cheap, and almost anywhere you can find a technician who knows the job.
With an automatic machine it is a different story. When an electronic board or a sensor fails, there is not always someone qualified nearby to repair it. We ship our machines to more than 40 countries, most of them in Africa — and, to be honest, not every part of the world is the same when it comes to electronic service. If your plant is far from the city, or there is no authorised service where you are, even a simple electronic fault can stop production for days, even weeks.
So this is what we tell our customers: an automatic machine runs faster and gets by with fewer workers, that is true. But if electronic service is hard to find where you are, semi-automatic is a much safer investment. The risk of a breakdown is lower, and if one does happen, fixing it is easier and cheaper.
Of course, every business has different needs. If you work in a city centre, where service is easy to find, an automatic machine can make perfect sense. Our advice is to make this decision not just because it is “newer technology”, but according to the conditions where you are.