Set-up time reduced by 50% Located in Waldkirch, Hummel AG, a manufacturer of solar thermal systems has implemented workholding technology from Hainbuch to reduce set-up times by over 50% in its milling department. By switching to Hainbuch clamping devices, the German solar manufacturer can now produce with significantly higher flexi- bility in its milling operations.
s a medium-sized thermal systems. Between First contact chuck from Hainbuch on multi- global player, its Waldkirch and Denzlingen When the Hummel manage- spindle lathes. The SF51 multi- Hummel AG manu- locations, Hummel employs ment board commissioned spindle automatic lathe from Afactures threaded cable glands, over 260 staff with over Michael Schulz, Authorized Schütte was equipped with the plug-and-socket connections, 450 employees globally. Officer at Hummel AG to mini- Spanntop chuck. Now, in the instrumentation and control However, the complete turn- mize the set-up times back in shop boxes at Hummel, there are electronics, heater fittings, ing and milling production 2000, Mr. Schulz soon had his thousands of Hainbuch clam- pump groups and also sys- is located at the company’s first contact with Hainbuch: “We ping devices with a value bet- tems and components for solar Waldkirch facility. started to use the Spanntop ween € 500,000 and € 750,000.” 2
1 + 2 With the flexible hydraulic stati- onary chucks from Hainbuch, Hummel saves 50 % set-up time.
3 Wilfried Weber, Milling Production Manager at Hummel, Thomas Klumpp, Hainbuch Regional Sales Manager, and Michael Schulz, Authorized Officer at Hummel, (left to right) are extremely satisfied with the flexibility, accuracy, and set-up time optimization.
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From the very beginning, brass and aluminum cable recalls Wilfried Weber, the checked out different variants Thomas Klumpp, Regional glands with strain relief. The company’s Milling Production with the Hydrok SE 40 hydrau- Sales Manager at Hainbuch cable glands are first manu- Manager. lic stationary chuck. Due to the was the contact person for factured as turned parts on compact design of the Hydrok Michael Schulz and his col- a single or multi-spindle ma- In 2009, the company con- SE 40, today Hummel can leagues. Commenting: “Start- chine. Then on the Haas ma- verted some of the clamping machine one more part in the ing with the multi-spindle au- chine, the middle pieces are devices to hydraulic clamping same spatial conditions than tomatic lathe, Hummel also milled out, the workpieces to achieve higher precision they could with the old system systematically implemented get bored and threaded, into and clamping forces. “How- - six parts instead of five.” the Hainbuch clamping devic- which screws are inserted for ever, in 2012 we reached a es on the single-spindle au- the strain relief elements. The point where we had difficulties By removing the workpiece tomatic lathes. And now we cable glands with strain relief achieving the higher precision changeover, the runtime sav- have progressed to milling ma- are used in the machine tool levels. In addition, the set-up ings are evident. “We run vol- chines.” industry. times were clearly too long,” umes between 1500 and 6000, explains Michael Schulz. so the benefits are significant. Since 2013, Hummel also “We bought the Haas VF2 The important reasons for the uses clamping devices from with a fourth axis in 2004 for Compact design clamping device conversion Hainbuch on its Haas vertical the four-side machining. It re- In 2012 at the AMB Show, Wil- to Hainbuch were the set-up VF2 machining center. Overall, placed an old Steinel machine, fried Weber spoke with Thomas accuracy, the shorter set-up milling represents just 5% of so the pneumatic clamping lo- Klumpp from Hainbuch about time and the fact that the met- the metal cutting at Hummel, cation elements from the Stei- implementing new clamping al removal rates of the tools with all other work complet- nel had to be adapted to the devices for the company’s mill- that exist today in the milling ed on turning centres. On the Haas VF2. For this, bridges ing operations. Mr. Klumpp re- area could be exploited. With Haas VF2, Hummel machines and other items were built,” calls: “At AMB, we immediately a pneumatic clamping device, 4
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4 Thanks to the CENTREX duo bolts, alignment is not necessary. 5 The three ZS-R-125 centric clamping vises from Hainbuch on a special pallet. 6 Wilfried Weber shows, who is an original equipment manu- facturer at Hummel: In the shop boxes there are only clamping heads and collets from Hainbuch. 5
the clamping forces to fully de- “In addition to the 6 Hydrok SE cial pallet. Previously, we had changeovers. In terms of set- ploy a hard metal tool with a 40 clamping set-ups on the fi ve different clamping devices, up times, we now save at least cutting speed of 400m/per min VF2, we are also using three now we have just two. This 50 percent,” explains Wilfried couldn’t be achieved at all,” ZS-R-125 centric clamping means that we save expen- Weber. emphasizes Wilfried Weber. vices from Hainbuch on a spe- sive set-up times and frequent
As Klumpp describes the ad- vantages: “The outstanding feature of the Hydrok SE 40 is FACTS that in spite of its small install space and piston, it can trans- Hummel in Waldkirch was founded in 1948 by Anton Hummel and initially concentrated fer a very high clamping force. on contract manufacturing. The conversion to manufacturing of electrical goods With a maximum actuation of for installation followed later. Heating products and sanitary products were add- 85 bar and a radial clamping ed. In the 1970s, in addition to turned metal products, the parts spectrum was supple- force of 85 kN, the Hydrok mented with plastic products. delivers the force of a small At this time, the company included the installation division with electrical products, such truck.” as cable glands, heating system and sanitary threaded unions, and vents for radiators. Since 1998, Hummel has also been offering plug-and-socket connectors, which has Cable glands become an important source of revenue for the companies. On the Haas VF2, Hummel For example, in the electronic area hot runner control devices, for injection molding ma- machines a special variant of chines are part of the Hummel products. Today Holger Hummel leads the company in its cable glands as well as the the third generation as a Chairman of the Board. Touch panels with a screen diagonal large variants with armored of up to 22 inches for industrial applications, are Hummel’s newest product division. conduit thread, which corre- A Dutch sensor manufacturer for touch systems now also belongs to Hummel. sponds to an outside diameter In addition to the international headquarters in Denzlingen, and the historic main offi ce in of 28.3 mm. Out of 200 work- Waldkirch, Hummel is also represented worldwide with subsidiaries and sales represent- ing days, the special variants atives. For example, Hummel produces in Shanghai with approximately 50 employees. run at least 150 days. Through It is represented in India with its own tool construction and an aluminum foundry with a total of ten different dimen- approximately 25 employees. In the São Paulo area it maintains a subsidiary with a sions and two different materials turning shop, an injection molding, and an assembly, with approximately 30 employees. for the two different product A small production facility in Italy and a small assembly facility in France complete the types, over 40 different prod- Hummel worldwide locations. ucts are produced.