In 2015, the company took delivery of a Haas VM-6 vertical machining centre, which has allowed Chiaro engineers to reduce machining set-up times, and more easily machine a wide variety of different size parts.

Based near the industrial capital of Italy, Turin – self-proclaimed City of the Automobile – privately owned specialist-engineering company, Chiaro Macchine Speciali, is perfectly located to serve industry heavyweights, such as Magneti Marelli and Webasto. In fact, 80 percent of the company’s engineered products, test systems, and tooling – used in manufacturing processes and on production lines – are supplied to the European and global automotive sector.

Andrea Beltramo and his colleague, Khalid Mahmood, are the Chiaro engineers responsible for the company’s Haas CNC machine tools, one of which is a VM-6 mould-making machine.

“We bought the Haas because we wanted a large, solid machine,” says Ing. Mahmood. “And, it’s precise and versatile. We don’t make parts in large numbers; most of the test systems and machines we build are one-offs, but we do need versatility. The Haas VM-6 table, with its X and Y T-slots, gives us the ability to quickly and easily mount parts of different sizes and shapes.”

“We do all our planning and design in-house,” adds Ing. Beltramo, “so it’s important – for speed and quality control – that we can make our own parts, test them, and make changes as quickly and efficiently as possible.”

A typical Chiaro test system could be, for example, one designed to check fabricated automotive exhausts before they are fitted to vehicles on a line.

Ing. Beltramo explains: “We’ve designed and built a fully automated machine that allows our customer to check the silencer of an exhaust system for leaks. It will be located beside a production line, so it has to be designed to minimize the possibility of set-up errors and, very importantly, it has to accommodate a variety of different model variations without any trouble or delays.

“Before the Haas VM-6 arrived, we already had a Haas TM-2 Toolroom Mill, which we use for small, one-off parts. So, we already knew the Haas control, which meant we were able to start working the new machine without the need for much additional instruction. We did a very short course, and that was it!”

“We’re extremely happy with the VM-6,” says Ing. Mahmood, “and I know the company owner is, too. We got the machine we needed to be able to improve the way we make parts in-house. It has made a significant difference.”

The popular HaasTEC shows are returning to India this year with two events arranged for different regions of the nation. Managed by the Haas Factory Outlet (HFO) in India (Phillips Machine Tools India Pvt. Ltd.), the first HaasTEC will take place from 16th-19th November at Ahmedabad in the western state of Gujarat and will be followed closely by HaasTEC Manesar from 07th to 10th December, in the industrial district of Gurgaon near New Delhi.

In line with previous HaasTEC events, a number of innovative, affordable Haas CNC machine tools will be on view. Indeed, two machines will be on show for the first time in India, the Haas ST-15 & Haas DT-2. All of the Haas CNC machine tools on display will be powered and performing demonstrations, cutting metal. Haas specialists from the HFO will be available to guide visitors through the demonstrations and answer any questions about the machines.

Show stopper HAAS UMC-750 five-axis vertical machining centre offers a capacity of 762 x 508 x 508 mm in the X, Y and Z-axis respectively. It features a two-axis inbuilt trunnion rotary table and a 40-taper, 22.4 kW, 12000 rpm direct drive spindle. Other features of this advanced machine include a 40+1 side mount tool changer, 25.4 m/min rapids, co-ordinate rotation and scaling, rigid tapping, a wireless intuitive probing system and a 284 litre flood coolant system.

Other Haas CNC machine tool models scheduled to appear at both HaasTEC events include the ST-10Y turning center with Y-axis, VMC’s – VF-2 & VF-2SS & Mini Mill.

Visitors are invited to bring along components or drawings for a full evaluation of optimized machining solutions. Indeed, the HaasTEC events will also feature a number of the company’s industrial partners, all able to offer complementary technologies and advice.

Demonstrations, tours and a live Q&A counter will be among other event highlights. In fact, apart from Haas Caps / T-Shirts, visitors also stand a chance to win a trip for two to the 2017 Monaco Grand Prix to see Haas F1 Team live!

Professional deep-sea divers need to know a thing or two about technology and engineering, but they’re not usually required to know how to run CNC machine tools. The founders of Italian dive equipment manufacturing company, Subspec Srl, on the other hand, have taught themselves all they need to know to make parts for some of the best and most innovative commercial dive systems available.

“My friend and colleague, Ciro Caiazzo, and I started the company in 2012,” says Managing Director David Marzi. “We were both commercial divers working around the world in the oil and gas industry. We had an idea for a gas reclaim valve – we felt the industry generally was slow to develop and adopt new technology, so we thought we’d design, make, and patent the product ourselves.”

During lengthy, deep dives, professional divers use very large amounts of breathing gas mix. A gas reclaim system recovers helium – an expensive constituent of breathing gas that would otherwise be vented and lost to the atmosphere. A gas reclaim valve is a critical component of the gas reclaim system, and is subject to high rates of wear and corrosion.

The responsibility for running Subspec’s CNC machining operations falls to Technical Director Ciro Caizzo: “Our main machine is a Haas VM-2 mould maker,” he says. “Our products – typically valves – are critical features, and can mean the difference between life and death if they don’t work flawlessly and reliably. We wanted to be 100 percent sure the parts were made to our standards, and to eliminate the possibility of quality issues. That’s why we bought the Haas machine – so we could take control and do all the critical machining in-house. Most of the parts we make are stainless steel, and tolerances are tight; 0.02 mm is common for an O-ring seat. The VM-2 table has a grid of T-slots in X and Y, which gives us flexibility for holding all the different sizes and shapes of parts we machine. We also do our own laser welding in-house, and a few other processes, such as vacuum casting. ”

These days, Subspec is a world-leader in bespoke subsea diving systems, and has close ties and partnerships with various other organisations, including neighbouring firm, Drass Srl, which manufacturers the full gas reclaim system in which the Subspec valve is used, as well as complete hyperbaric chambers, and other systems used by commercial saturation divers.

“We make all the fittings and valves for the chambers, and the diver monitoring and safety systems built by Drass,” says David. “For example, a complete hyperbaric chamber might cost a customer around €2 million. The parts we make could easily constitute €350,000 or more of that total cost. Being next door to Drass has helped our working relationship enormously. In fact, we’re now invested as a partner of the company.”

There’s no question, Subspec is on a roll: “We’re planning to open a UK office, and we have lots of ideas for new products,” says David. “Perhaps the most exciting is the full
diving helmet we’re designing. We’re still at prototype stage, but we already plan to do all the machining in-house using a Haas UMC-750 universal machining centre.”

In an industry where mistakes are punished in the severest way, professional deep-sea divers are trained to get the job done, but carefully. David Marzi and Ciro Caiazzo don’t take chances with the parts they make, or with the CNC machines they use to make them.

Based in Dettingen, not far from Stuttgart, Germany, DIETZ-motoren is a privately owned business that has spent almost 100 years perfecting electric motors and radial fans used in niche industry sectors, such as food production, textiles, specialist machinery, etc.

None of the company’s products are made in great volume; some of the manufacturing processes, such as winding, are in fact still done by hand. However, DIETZ manages to produce around 150,000 motors and fans of various sizes and power outputs every year, most of which are shipped to customers overseas.

The company’s finishing and assembly buildings are busy, but light and relatively quiet, and are dotted with small tress and plants, which give a peaceful, natural feel. The adjacent machine shop, on the other hand, is noisy and, by comparison, frenetic. On most days, it’s open and running round the clock.

This is just one of the company’s two factory sites. The other is in the Swabian Jura, the low, snowy mountain range of the state of Baden-Württemberg.

The Dettingen site, with the bigger of the two machine shops, is home to six of the company’s eight Haas CNC machine tools. As well as Haas SL-30 and ST-30 turning centres and a Haas Mini Mill, there’s a Haas VF-5 and two Haas VM-3s, which do most of the higher-volume machining.

“The VM-3 was our first Haas machine,” says Chief Engineer, Dieter Irsiegler. “We needed a flexible vertical machining centre with good power and high spindle speed.

“We have a large and varied product range, so we also needed the optional 40-station tool changer. The table on the VM-3 – which has T-slots in X and Y, allows us very quickly and easily to create fixtures for our parts.”

Between them, the VF-5 and the VM-3 can be called upon to machine any part from a database of 400 different programmes, to tolerances of 0.02 mm. All the Haas machines work between 16 and 24 hours a day, depending upon demand, and each of them is equipped with a Haas HRT310 CNC rotary table.

“They’re very reliable machines,” adds Chief Engineer Irsiegler. “It doesn’t matter how many hours they work, they always keep tolerance. The VF-5 is actually ten years old, so it has made a lot of parts in its life so far.”

After the company had bought its two Haas vertical machining centres, it also invested in a Haas SL-30 turning centre, which, like the other Haas workhorses, runs 24-hour shifts. It’s used to machine high-tolerance surfaces on flanges.

“The Haas CNC is another feature of all the Haas machines that gives us greater flexibility. The control is very easy to use, and it’s essentially the same on all Haas machines, so we’re able to move operators between machines – whether vertical mill or lathe – when we need to.”

Again, according to Eng. Irsiegler, the Haas SL-30 has proven to be 100-percent reliable.

“Reliability and service are very important,” he reiterates. “We have no back-up, so if a machine were to break down, we’d need it fixed and up-and-running straight away. The local Haas Factory Outlet is very efficient, and they give us good and prompt support.”

For engineers like Dieter Irsiegler, who run CNC machines round the clock, and who want to sleep soundly at night, reliability and dependable support are essential. Unlike finishing and assembly areas, machine shops are very noisy places. They need to stay that way.

Gloucestershire, UK-based Retro Track and Air has invested in a Haas CNC VF-5/40XT – a 40-taper vertical machining centre with an extra-long, 60 inch (1524 mm) table – to machine cylinder heads for the famous V12 Merlin aero engine.

Installed in Retro’s newly built facility, beside the company founder’s family home, the VF-5/40XT is a snug fit, towering over an adjacent Haas CNC Toolroom Lathe, and working long hours under the supervision of Gavin Faulks, head of design.

As the company’s name suggests, Retro Track and Air specializes in rebuilding and maintaining winged and wheeled masterpieces from a bygone era. Housed in various outbuildings – as well as a hangar at a nearby airfield – are various single-seat racing cars undergoing rebuild and maintenance before the new season. There are also partly restored aircraft and aero engines, some of which are the property of the Royal Air Force Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.

Gavin Faulks: The Haas VF-5XT is perfect for machining the Merlin cylinder heads, designed more than 80 years ago by Rolls Royce. With all the parts we make for old engines, we work from drawings that are at least as old, which means we often have to reverse engineer components or best-guess dimensions, etc.

The castings are made to a material specification called RR50 – created by Rolls Royce. It’s exactly the same material and part design as it was when the Merlin engine was first run, in the early 1930s. It would be relatively straightforward to modernize aspects of the engine design – to remedy small design faults – but the demand is for authentic parts, without any changes from the original.

This particular batch of cylinder heads – seven off – will take us two years to finish and deliver to the Royal Air Force. Tolerances – between the arrays of bolt holes, for example – are 0.025 mm. Each face takes around a week to machine; the inlet/exhaust faces take another half a week. All the programming is done offline on OneCNC.

The new Haas has enabled us to keep more of this type of work in-house, and not rely so heavily on subcontractors. As a company, that’s the general direction we are heading in. To do so means making an investment, of course, but the difference between the parts we used to get – or make in-house on old machines – is night-and-day. The repeatability of the Haas is excellent, and it’s very reliable and easy to use.

Although we can’t change the design of the parts, we are machining them to a higher standard, which, in itself, is a big improvement.

The 1^st of the year HAAS Mumbai Demo Day 2016, was inaugurated by Mr. Nishikant Ahire, CMD – AMT Group in the midst of several industry professionals who graced the occasion with their presence at Haas Factory Outlet, Mumbai.

The Haas Demo Day attracted roughly 800 visitors from 500 companies. Other than Maharashtra, delegations came from Gujarat & Delhi. Visitors were able to witness the latest generation Haas CNC machines: VF-2 & ST-35. Premiering for the 1^st time was the New Generation Control from Haas. The new generation control packs even more innovation into what was already the industry’s greatest overall CNC control.

With 5 exhibitors displaying their latest products and technical experts in attendance from major Tooling, Work holding, Accessories, CAD/CAM, Measurement and Probing manufacturers the Mumbai Demo Day truly  lived up to its expectation.

Like all Haas CNC machines, the VF-2 and the ST-35 are built at the company’s one and only 1-million square foot factory  in California, US. Haas Factory Outlet has a network of local HFOs in India that support all Haas products, each one employing factory-trained engineers and stocking official Haas spare parts.

Despite what the text books and the business magazines might say, there’s no ‘right’ way to start a company. Some of those that eventually turn out to be successful have very humble beginnings, and no particular business plans to speak of. Take Haas Automation customer Lange CNC, for example. Founded and owned by Jens Lange, and his wife, Steffi, the Stuttgart-based company wasn’t exactly an accident, but it started off as little more than a pastime, albeit a very time consuming one.

Mr. Jens Lange: I was working for a local manufacturing company. At that time, some friends and I were racing RC cars – in our spare time, as a hobby. One of my friends – a very serious RC car racer, asked me to make him some aluminium axels for his car, which I did. He was so pleased with the axels – and others were likewise, very interested in the product, that I decided to buy an old, knee-type milling machine to see what else I could make. Pretty soon, local companies began to find out I was machining in my spare time, and a few orders came my way.

After 3-4 months, I would finish my job at the end of each day and spend another eight hours a day working in my own machine shop! It was crazy, but I loved it. After a year or so – around 2008, I decided it was time to buy a milling machine with a tool changer, which is when I went to AMB, the manufacturing show in Stuttgart, and discovered Haas. Immediately, I could see they were the right CNC machines for me. They were relatively low cost, very well equipped and, overall, great value for money. My first Haas was a VF-1 vertical machining centre, which is still running as hard today as it was the day it arrived.

I continued in my day job while running the Haas in the evenings. This went on for 7 years, until we had a daughter and my wife, Steffi, said: You need to decide whether you are going to carry on like this or take the risk to run your own business full time.

A semi-retired gentleman called Mr. Straub, with a background in machining, said he’d come and work for me, so immediately I had employee number one.

When Steffi and I decided to commit to running Lange CNC, we bought a Haas ST-10Y turning centre with live tooling, another VF-1 and a VF-2SS super speed machine.

We already had some new business, once customers knew we were full time, so the fact that the Haas machines were ordered and arrived within three weeks was perfect.

We make quite a few parts for local manufacturer, SMS Maschinenbau – parts for special machines. Our volumes are low – typically 1-10 pieces, such as machine control pedals or turning handles. We make a lot of bearing flanges – programmes run to 100,000 lines and tolerance are 0.02mm, but that’s no problem for the Haas ST-10Y. We often use it to make parts with tolerances of 0.008mm.

Florian is our machine operator running the ST-10Y. He’s currently making 250 little spindles for a miniature vice, used in dental applications and metrology.

At the most, we make batches of, say, 500 small prismatic parts for customers like VW. But small batches are our specialty, which is why we are about to merge with another local machining business that is set-up for larger batches: 2000+ off.

The Haas machines are so easy to run. One of our operators – Hans Maier, spent 20-years out of machining before he joined us. We put him on a Haas VF-1 and he was running it within a couple of days, no problem. We also have a trainee, Bahadir Deniz, a student from a local college, running our other VF-1. He’s doing a great job and I know he’s very comfortable operating the Haas.

All of our Haas machines run from 6:30am to 10pm, every day. Before we moved to these premises, my workshop was a garage, without heating or insulation, and the Haas VF-1 would be running in temperatures of zero degrees. But, despite the demands we place on them, we’ve had no serious issues and the Haas machines never lose accuracy. If ever we do need support, the local Haas Factory Outlet can send us a replacement part or a service engineer within twenty-four hours. For a young, growing company like us, that sort of peace of mind is very valuable. I have no doubt we’ll buy more Haas machine tools.

Haas Factory Outlet – A Division of CNC Servicing & Solutions presents the MUMBAI DEMO DAY, the first for the year 2016. With live demos & tours, the event will be conducted at the HAAS FACTORY OUTLET in Kopar Khairne, Navi Mumbai from May 05^th to 07^th 2016.

Visitors at the Demo Day will see the company’s latest generation CNC machines: VF-2SS & ST-35. The center of attraction would be the New Generation Control (NGC) from HAAS which will be showcased at this show.

The Haas NGC Control: Years of development have gone into designing the best control hardware and software in the industry. The new generation control packs even more innovation into what was already the industry’s greatest overall CNC control.

The popular Haas VF-2SS CNC vertical machining center has travels of 762 x 406 x 508 mm in the X, Y and Z axes. The machine uses a 40 taper spindle driven by a 22.4 kW vector drive motor delivering high torque through to a maximum speed of 12000 rpm. The VF-2SS boasts of a 24+1 station High Speed Servo Tool Changer and 35.6 m/min rapids on the three main axes.

The Haas ST-35 big bore CNC lathe can accommodate bars up to 102 mm in diameter and offers a capacity of 533 (dia) x 660 mm (length) with 806 mm of swing. The 29.8 kW, 2400 rpm spindle is served by a two-speed gearbox, while additional features include a 381 mm chuck, 12-station bolt-on turret and rigid tapping capability.

Visitors are invited to bring along components or drawings for a full evaluation of optimized machining solutions.

The Demo Day will also feature a number of the company’s industrial partners like:

ZEISS – ‘CONTURA G2’ the broad CMM platform from ZEISS for flexible, reliable and uncompromising quality assurance. The latest generation is even more precise and offers a large package of optical sensors on top of a larger measuring range.

Prime Industries – based in Nashik is India’s Largest & oldest Imported Graphite Machine shop. Prime is regarded as the premier quality Graphite Supplier in India offering highest quality products exclusively representing Tokai Carbon Co. Ltd, Japan since 1998.

SECO Tools – Seco will showcase a comprehensive portfolio of advanced metal cutting solutions at Mumbai Demo Day. The company will have its practical experts available to assist manufacturers in redefining their productivity and profitability.

DELCAM- Delcam will demonstrate the latest releases in its range of CAD/CAM software at the Haas Mumbai Demo Day. New releases will be on show of the modelling-for-manufacture CAD system, PowerSHAPE, the PowerMILL CAM system for high-speed and five-axis machining, and the PowerINSPECT inspection software.

Also present would be MMC Hardmetal India, all able to offer complementary technologies and advice.

Manufacturing companies and OEMs sometimes get to a point in their growth and development where it makes sense to opt for independence from subcontract machinists. There are many reasons why, but the most common, perhaps, is that local suppliers simply do not give an appropriate or reliable level of service – slow deliveries, poor part quality, lack of capacity, or technical ability, for example. This is precisely the case with Todo Impresión, a specialist printing company based near Bareclona. The company uses a Haas VF-3 vertical machining centre to make a patented robot-loaded system for printing brand names and logos on stainless-steel beer barrels.

Rubén Rueda Ruiz: We’ve designed and developed a large-scale printing machine for a particular client – a well-known German brewing company. It uses two ABB robots – one to load a beer barrel, the other to unload it. Once loaded, the barrel is held in a custom-made rotating fixture, allowing the screen-printing heads to quickly and accurately mark the barrels with brand logos and text. The machine is 100 percent our design, and we intend to market it around the world.

Up until recently, we relied on local subcontract companies to machine almost all of the main precision parts. We had a few manual mills, but until we bought the Haas VF-3, we didn’t have in-house CNC capability.

That wasn’t a good place to be. We needed flexibility, reliability, and good quality – which we couldn’t always count on. We were spending too much time resolving supplier problems. We ordered the Haas, and it was delivered in a week! The support from the Haas Factory Outlet in Spain has been incredible.

The Haas VF-3 is my very first CNC machine, although I’m an engineer with more than thirteen years of experience. We also invested in Mastercam^®, which works very well with the Haas. I’ve had to learn how to use both, and I’m happy to say, it’s been a painless experience.

We’re machining ST52 steel for the structural parts of the printing machine, and 6082 aluminium for many of the other parts, such as base plates to attach the barrel grippers to the robots. We also machine some PE and nylon parts, for the maintenance-free guide ways, for example.

We machine a wide range of different parts in different sizes, so the Haas Wireless Intuitive Probing System (WIPS) has been very useful. We can keep set-up times to a minimum, and since I’ve had to learn programming on the job, it’s been a huge help.

As a business, we have three priorities: service to customers, controlling part costs, and meeting delivery dates. Since we bought the Haas and brought the machining in-house, we feel confident we can consistently achieve all of them.

We now machine more than 90 percent of all our parts. Some of them only just fit the VF-3; perhaps we should have bought a bigger one! We probably will, but in the meantime, I’m working the machine 12 hours a day until, at some point, we employ an operator to take over.

Haas was recommended to us by several local companies who already use their machines. We took their advice, and I’m happy to say, we made the right decision. Things are moving fast for our company, but we now feel like we have the control, confidence, and independence we need.

The name alone is a clue to the ambitions of this apparently modest CNC machining business near Girona, in the north of Catalunya, Spain. Inside and out, it appears like so many of its kind the world over; after all, the majority of Haas customers are small- to medium-sized, privately owned “job shops.” On the basis of first appearances, it could just as easily be called A N Other. Production manager Mr. Lluis Lloveras insists BIT is different, however.

Lluis Lloveras: We don’t want to be thought of us a general-purpose machine shop. For example, we don’t try to compete on price alone. We tend to specialize in complex parts in small runs and tough materials.

Two years ago, we bought our first Haas CNC machine tool: a VF-3 vertical machining centre fitted with a Haas HRT210 rotary table. Six months later, we bought the bigger VF-7, and just recently we took delivery of a Haas ST-20SSY super speed turning centre with Y-axis.  The ST isn’t running yet, but we already have new business and a new client, just on the strength of investing in that one machine.

A lot of our business currently is in special machinery, the railway, and food processing industries. However, our long-term aim over the next five years or so is to grow our business with tier-two suppliers in the petrochemical, automotive, and aerospace sectors. To do so means we have to invest in machines that allow us to make more complex parts,

with quicker and fewer setups. That’s the reason for buying the Haas ST-20SSY. Instead of using two machines to finish a part – and therefore two setups – it’ll be turned and milled on the same machine. Done in one!

Right now, we machine all of our hard steel parts on the two Haas verticals. They’re tough and accurate machines, and are quite happy cutting nickel alloys like Inconel 718. We’re using the VF-3 to make a large cam used in the food processing sector. The material is tool steel, and the tolerances are +/-0.008 mm. My son, Joel, runs the machine. In fact, he also runs the VF-7, and I guess he’ll be pretty keen to get his hands on the new machine, too.

Joel Lloveras: I joined the company ten years ago, when I was sixteen. I learnt to machine using manual mills, but since we’ve had the Haas CNC machines, they’ve become my responsibility. I like the Haas control, first and foremost. It’s so easy to use; the design is very logical and clear, and as it’s the same on all Haas machines, I can easily switch from one to the other. A little thing that makes life easier is the USB port. It doesn’t sound like much, but it helps us when move programmes from our Fanuc-based controls to the Haas machines.

I also like the Haas load monitor. On the VF-7, we make some pretty big and expensive parts in hard metals. We can’t afford to make scrap. At the moment we’re machining twelve cast sections of a pipe expander, for a customer in the petrochemical industry. Each part is around a meter long, half a meter wide, and ten centimeters deep. We machine both sides – one convex and one flat – which take around twelve hours, in total. The spindle load condition can be set for a particular tool, so if the spindle load exceeds that amount, the machine will stop and an alarm will sound. It can save a part, and it can also save an expensive tool.

Another seemingly small but important feature of both the Haas verticals is the size of their windows. The visibility is excellent! So many other machines have such tiny windows that once the coolant starts you can’t see a thing!

Lluis Lloveras: I’m responsible for specifying and purchasing the company’s CNC machine tools, plus the various options they come with. Investing in Haas has definitely been the right thing to do. The machines have worked flawlessly, even though we work them very hard. Also, the service and support from the Barcelona Haas Factory Outlet have been great.

The newer machines in the Haas range, like the UMC-750SS, are perfect for us as we move toward more complex parts and, perhaps, higher volumes. People might think customers source from Spain because, compared to other countries in Europe, we just offer low cost. But, that’s not true. We have to provide innovation and better solutions, invest in the latest technology, and compete on value-added. That’s why I think, a few years from now, we’ll have a lot more Haas machines in our workshop. They give us the capability we need, they’re affordable, and they’re very reliable.