A German mould shop has earned a name for itself through the precision and quality of its work. The shop recently upgraded its EDM unit, a move that boosted exactness and reduced processing times.
Huyghe Formenbau, Lüdenscheid, Germany, finds itself in good company, since the region is home to a good 160 firms specialising in tool and mould-making, a stronghold of the industry. With eight employees, the shop may not be one of the biggest in the industry, but it is one of the soundest financially, according to owner Eric Huyghe. “For the banks, we rank among the Top 10.”
A small shop for a large number of sectors
“As a small company, we have always concentrated in the region around Lüdenscheid and sought our customers here. We so far haven’t had any need for advertising campaigns or for active efforts to attract business,” the owner said.
With a modern machine park and its highly skilled staff, the company is said to feature a broad base and is equipped to produce tools and moulds for a range of sectors. One indicator of the quality of tool and mould-making is the rework rate, which is reportedly practically zero. For tool design sector, the company works with experienced specialists.
One speciality helps create yet another
One shop speciality is moulds–including those with two components–and tools for the large-series production of high-grade system parts for the automotive and electrical industries. In the last few years, the company has focused on two-component moulds and said it has increased its expertise in this area.
EDM and conventional machining are complementary processes at the shop. Each application offers a number of strengths, the owner said. “We combine the two methods so that we can always achieve the optimum of quality and machining speed and respond flexibly to customer requests.” This method is only possible with high manufacturing depth, said to be indispensable for quality.
To ensure tools are built with the required care, the company keeps work in house. “Only then can we comprehensively plan, design and control all work steps,” the owner said. He noted that customers need to be able to obtain the quality they require, quality said to be assured in accordance with DIN ISO 9001 and DIN 2008. These are only the formal guidelines.
Everybody’s trained up to jump in when needed
The shop’s specialised knowledge is said to be the crucial resource for moulds and tools with the desired quality. The highly trained workforce and the machine park form a sound foundation for quality and flexibility. For instance, all toolmakers are able to operate any of the machines and process any of the workpieces. Each employee is solely responsible for his job, said to call for technical competence, offer the chance to work independently and demand a high degree of personal accountability. Recently, one machinist was concentrating more on wire-cutting with a Mitsubishi MV 2400 R, the owner said.
Moving forward with the next generation
For years, the company wire-cut tools on a Mitsubishi FA 20. Good care and regular service of the machine kept its performance tip top.
But even good things can be improved upon, the shop said. In 2012, Mitsubishi Electric introduced its MV wire EDM machines. The shop owner was said to be intrigued by the units. He realised it was time to move on with an investment that would boost the productivity of his EDM department, and soon pay for itself. The MV was said to immediately justify the investment because it offers better functionality, shorter throughput times than its predecessors and hence lower piece costs. The new generator technology also reportedly lowers energy and wire consumption. The MV is claimed to mark the entry level into the high-end class of wire-cutting machines for a modest price.
The improvement in performance, reduced wire consumption and energy savings were the decisive factors for selecting the unit, the shop owner said, noting that other features like the larger machining range and the footprint were also important.
The MV 2400 R was installed at the Lüdenscheid firm in autumn 2012 and has since been running in 1.5 shifts per day without any notable stoppages. During the machining of the very first workpieces on the MV, the new wire-threading system was fast: the FA 20 took an average of 20 sec for threading, the MV only 5 sec.
How to reduce 50 hours down to a mere 30
A comparison was performed with complex workpieces of very similar design produced again and again for a longstanding customer. Clamped on the old unit, the workpiece took about 50 hours to reach completion. For its virtually identical counterpart, the new unit completed the process after only about 30 hours. “The first machine presentations by Mitsubishi Electric yielded very similar figures. But it was the precise confirmation of these data in our everyday work that really surprised us,” the owner said. In everyday manufacturing, it is not easy to produce comparable data. However, price calculation calls for reliable and realistic data, and the shop generates the data with its own methods. The economical wire consumption of the new unit is said to be very apparent on each job. As far as consumables are concerned, Huyghe estimates savings of about 40%.
Looking for the big payback like shops everywhere
The shop owner noted that on the issue of payback, which is so important for businesses and financiers, he couldn’t accurately quantify the savings due to the short period of use. “However, I expect the MV 2400 R to have paid for itself in our production shop after two to three years.”
The company suggested that wire-cutting will continue to grow in importance in the foreseeable future, as the tools for many branches of industry such as the automotive and electrical industries will become increasingly complex. The demand for modular tools will thus grow. This is a task in which EDM machines with their technological advantages will truly come into their own. Particularly when one considers that such machines are capable of cutting tools directly out of hardened materials.
