Two Haas UMC-750 five-axis universal machining centres recently acquired by a San Marino-based manufacturer of industrial profiles have provided a welcome boost in capacity. Within two months of arrival, the machines, which are configured in a two-machine cell with one operator attending to both, are already working 21 hours a day across three, 7-hour shifts.

Alluminio Sammarinese is a company that specialises in the production and design of custom-made industrial profiles, in particular, for the automotive, electronic, furniture, and construction sectors. The business was founded in 1981, and has grown steadily, thanks in part to a planned programme of investment in the latest manufacturing technologies, which includes two Haas UMC-750 five-axis universal machining centres.

The company is located in San Marino, which is entirely surrounded by Italy and claims to be the oldest surviving sovereign state and constitutional republic in the world. Starting out as an extrusion company, predominantly serving the window manufacturing industry, Alluminio Sammarinese has subsequently diversified into a number of other sectors and activities. Today, the company views itself more as an engineering business than an extrusion business. In fact, the window industry now only represents 1 percent of current output.

Despite its success, however, the company’s business owners and managers are aware of the need to keep moving forward. The CEO at Alluminio Sammarinese, Stefano Ceccato, whose father started the company, says increased competition from low-wage economies is the biggest threat to the future of the firm.

“Around 10 or 20 years ago, our main competitors were from Italy,” he says, “whereas now, they are from Eastern Europe, Turkey, and sometimes China. To overcome this, we have to raise our level of technology, and take on more complex machining and more complex extrusions. Also, the products need to offer greater precision and surface finish, particularly in sectors such as automotive.”

Mr. Ceccato says the Haas UMC-750 five-axis machines are part of the company’s plan to produce more complex parts.

“We bought the Haas UMC- 750s because of the very attractive quality-to-price ratio. We make a lot of complex automotive parts, and needed five-axis machines that weren’t too expensive. The components tend to be big, so we purchased two Haas UMCs – one is running while the other is loading and unloading. They are arranged in a small cell, with one operator to run both.”

Although only installed a few months ago, the Haas machines already work 21 hours a day across three 7-hour shifts (not the more traditional 8 hours, due to an agreement with the unions). Alluminio Sammarinese reports that the machines have worked perfectly since the outset, aside from one technical issue relating to the use of bespoke fixtures that was easily solved by the local Haas Factory Outlet, a Division of Celada, in Italy. Celada, which is part of the very highly regarded machine tool supplier, R.F. Celada Macchine Utensili SpA, provides expert sales, service, and support across Italy, including San Marino.

“The service we receive is excellent,” says Mr. Ceccato, “and the Haas UMC-750s work well. We are currently testing more precision parts to put on the machines, and we are very happy with the results. In fact, we would ideally like a bigger version of the UMC-750. We are always investing, and a machine such as that would be very attractive for us.”

Unsurprisingly, 100 percent of the output from Alluminio Sammarinese’s 10,000-square-meter facility is exported, 60 percent to Italy, with the remaining 40 percent to the rest of Europe. The automotive sector, for which the Haas machines were predominantly acquired, accounts for 20 to 25 percent of the company’s customers.

“In all cases, we like to help our customers create a better product, whether that’s taking out cost or enhancing quality – adding value in some way,” concludes Mr. Ceccato. The Haas universal machining centres will no doubt have an important role to play in ensuring this ethos continues for a long time to come.

Alluminio Sammarinese has since ordered two more Haas UMC-750s. Both new machines will be Super Speed (SS) models, each with 15,000-rpm spindles, and are due for installation in October 2015.

From its origins more than 30 years ago as a backyard business, Jim Stokes Workshops Ltd (JSW Group) has grown steadily over the years, and now easily fills five spacious units on an industrial estate in Waterlooville, Hampshire, UK. The company employs a team of 50, many of whom are specialist technicians in one of the most rarefied sectors of automotive engineering.

When he started the business, Jim was probably regarded as a little bit of an eccentric. This was in the years before classic cars had become collectibles for billionaires, and “safe” repositories for global capital, much like Old Masters have become, since.

Jim’s almost singular obsession at the time was the Alfa Romeo 8C, which the Milan-based company built from 1931 to 1939. The straight-eight engine and its chassis were configured in various guises for road and track over the years, by the likes of Enzo Ferrari’s fledgling scuderia, as well as the works Alfa team. They were driven by some of the most famous names in motor racing – including Tazio Nuvolari, at some of the best-known races, such as Le Mans.

What no one really knew when young Jim first began his fettling and restoration activities, was that the 8C’s scarcity and illustrious history would eventually make it one of the most sought after vintage cars in the world (auction houses love them for the 7- and 8-figure prices they command).

In the intervening years, JSW Group has built a reputation around the world for 8C expertise, as well as in-depth knowledge for similarly rare and exotic Aston Martins, Ferraris, Jaguars, Lancias, Mercedes, and Rolls-Royces, which pass through for repairs, pre- and post-race TLC and, occasionally, full restorations.

Famously, the company has also built six, painstaking recreations of Lancia D50s, and a diminutive yellow Ferrari 156 Sharknose: classic monoposto F1 cars from the 1950s and 60s, respectively. The detail and authenticity of the cars is such that they qualify for FIA passports, allowing them to compete in strictly controlled events reserved for thoroughbred classics.

Today, the JSW Group has four divisions: Triple M focuses on part manufacturing operations; South Shore specialises in bodywork and fabrication; Classics by JSW is more “everyday” vehicles; and Jim Stokes Workshops Ltd, which is the group’s best known business.

Triple M owns three Haas CNC vertical machining centres: a VF-2, a VF-5, and a VF-6.

The “V8s”, as Jim calls them, allow Triple M to produce one-offs or batches of better-than-new components, such as cylinder heads, cylinder blocks, valves, crankcases, carburettors, oil and water pumps, and plenty more besides.

“I like the American engineering, and I like the way Haas machines work,” he says “They’ve proven themselves as hard working, reliable machines, and they’ve allowed us to bring so much more of our part manufacturing back in-house.”

The story of how the company opted for Haas machines is interesting. Tony Fairbairn, one of the JSW Group’s long-serving machinists, had left the firm to pursue an opportunity at another local company – in a completely different industry sector, where he was running several Haas machines. JSW missed him, so a plan was hatched to lure him back.

“I knew I needed to upgrade the machines we had,” Jim recalls, “and I knew if I invested in Haas, Tony would consider coming back. I already knew a lot of people using Haas machines, so I had no reservations about buying them.” He had a long-term plan to do as much machining as possible within the business. “In the early days, my philosophy was to do everything myself,” he says. “But after five years of working 18 hours a day, seven days a week, I realised I couldn’t do it. However, you give it to subcontractors and quickly realise that they don’t do what you want.”

Recreated engines
On any particular weekday, The JSW Group garage may contain several Alfa 8Cs, usually owned by media-shy big name collectors or well-known, very successful business people. A frequent visitor to the shop is the 1932 Le Mans 24-hour race winner.

“The owner of that car, like many others, would not race it with the original engine; it’s too valuable from a historic point of view. Instead, we manufacture a replacement engine to his specification. We can do that with engines, gearboxes, and axles, whatever. So if you want to race these things hard, you can do it without damaging the original vehicle. All of the component machining is done on the Haas machines.”

Of the three Haas CNC machine tools on site, the VF-5 has a 10,000-rpm spindle, while the VF-2 and the VF-6 have a 7500-rpm spindle. Two of the machines have a fourth-axis Haas rotary table.

“We currently have most of the machine performance and capacity we need. We have to machine very large crankcases for AC engines, and so we need something with 1.6 m of travel, which means the VF-6 is perfect. It has plenty of tools [24 + 1], and we also have a fourth-axis on it, which we use when we run the machine overnight for making parts like stub axles. During the day, we use the rest of the bed for other jobs. For instance, at the moment we’re running cylinder blocks, which we make in two identical halves. We can produce 95 percent of our engine parts using four axes, as the port work is not particularly sophisticated.”

A very small part of the JSW Group business produces parts for film companies. For example, the company recently recreated the rear section of the Ford Mustang used in Fast & Furious 6, a film that took $788 million at the box office. “We were asked to make the tail in aluminium,” says Jim, “because the film company wanted it to crush on impact like a beer can. We ended up making five versions.

“We also get a lot of commissions and projects from high net worth individuals around the world. It’s not unusual for customers to ask if there’s anywhere nearby to land a helicopter. Sometimes we need to go to the car if the car cannot come to us; we’re happy to send employees all over the world if necessary.”

The Haas machines also produce parts for the group’s Classics by JSW division. This is where the company restores, repairs, and rebuilds more “affordable” classic cars, including Porsche 911s, MGs, and even humble Morris Minors. The Haas machines are used to make components that are simply no longer available.

Jim Stokes is unequivocal and outspoken about the usefulness and versatility of Haas machine tools. “I can take a job, put it on any of the Haas machines, and get the same result in terms of quality and repeatability,” he enthuses. “The CNC of each machine is exactly the same as the others. The added advantage is, if you can use one Haas, you can use them all.”

Tony Fairbairn’s insistence JSW invest in Haas machines was well founded. “He came back to the company and is now machine shop manager,” says Jim. “In the fullness of time, we intend to upgrade every machine in our workshop to Haas, including, perhaps, some 5-axis machines. Ultimately, the potential in our business is definitely in the machine shop. We have several projects lined up, and if they all come to fruition, the next two or three years could be mind blowing!”

This story also has a video to accompany it.  You can find it here

In one of the developed world’s most expensive countries, a small engineering shop is surviving, prospering and growing by investing wisely in reliable, high-performance and affordable Haas CNC machine tools to cut complex parts in hard materials.

Telgelego is a precision machining subcontractor based around 40km south of Stockholm, Sweden. The company is located in a backstreet yard on an industrial estate surrounded on all sides by the offices and workshops of Scania, builder of trucks, buses and engines, one of the country’s best-known manufacturing companies.

Tomas Karlsson owns the company and although it was founded in 1978, it didn’t come into his possession until 8-years ago, when he bought it from the original owners. At that time, he and his brother already ran another, similarly sized subcontract business nearby. Ambitious and looking for new opportunities, purchasing Telgelego brought the brothers fresh contacts and new horizons.

Telgelego has a shop full of old-style lathes and knee type milling machines and just two employees. One of the machines that came with the purchase of the company was a 2001 Haas CNC MiniMill. Despite the small workforce, and the preponderance of ageing equipment, customers included big-name companies such as Alfa Laval and Astra Zeneca, as well as ubiquitous Scania.

These days, Telgelego has 7 Haas CNC machine tools, including an SL-30 lathe and an SL-40 lathe, an ST-30Y y-axis lathe, the original MiniMill and, the company’s latest investment, a UMC-750 universal machining centre.

Equipped with everything it needs to service its demanding, blue chip customer base, strategy is to offer high-quality, low volume subcontract machining services, specialising in precision parts in stainless steel, tool steel and, occasionally, titanium. As well as creating parts for mainstay clients, other short-run jobs are made for the paper and pulp industry, as well as shipping and marine engineering. Cutting tough materials has become the company’s USP: many parts are hardened and ground to finish.

“Our other biggest strength is the complexity of the parts we can machine,” says Mr. Karlsson. “The customer sends us the main drawing for a part and we make additional drawings, to simplify manufacturing. Occasionally, we reverse engineer parts, if they’re spare or replacement components for a machine, for example.”

A typical part for Alfa Laval, which Telgelego is contractually required to keep under wraps, requires 32 hours of machining – 16hrs each side. The company usually makes 20-25 of these parts each year. “In the course of a typical 12-months we machine Kr1.5 million worth of stainless steel,” says Mr. Karlsson. “Most of the jobs are very small runs. One customer orders 2-300 of one particular part every month, but that’s unusual.

“Many of the parts we make are large diameter – typically around 400-500mm. The Haas lathes are excellent, high torque machines perfectly suited to cutting these large diameter stainless billets. The two-speed gearbox on the SL-30 is very useful. We take big rouging cuts and make a lot of chips.

“We bought the SL-40 to replace a large German-built lathe which was always letting us down. One of the parts we now machine on the Haas for Alfa Laval starts as a 500kg, 420mm diameter billet and ends-up as a 90kg part!” Although the company does a lot of roughing, it also machines parts to tight tolerances. “For example,” points out Mr. Karlsson, “it’s common we machine bearing housings to 0.0027mm.

“As well as our expertise in hard materials and complex parts, customers often use us because of the speed with which we can turn a job. For example, before a Scania part goes in to production, we’ll make 2-3 examples for development and testing. The customer isn’t set-up for this type of machining, but once they have finalised the design of the part, they can tool-up their own machines and make them in-house. Being close to their shop also helps keep delivery short.”

The company invested in the Haas ST-30Y to machine more complex, turned and milled parts in fewer set-ups.

“We bought the ST-30Y when we had an employee who had good experience with y-axis milling. Unfortunately, he left the company a little while later, which left us with a skills shortage. It’s very difficult in Sweden to find qualified machinists. We had a deadline for the work on the machine at that time so we had to learn how to operate it very quickly. Thankfully, everyone in the workshop is familiar with the Haas control, so it was relatively easy to move someone to the ST-30Y and get them comfortable.”

The employee who left eventually came back. “We bought him a Haas VF-2 with a Haas rotary table 4th axis, which is now his responsibility.”

After the arrival of the VF-2, the company also bought a Haas VF-3 to replace an ageing Taiwanese machine. “For 3-years this machine was dedicated to making a single part until the customer moved the job to a subcontractor in China. As it turned out, the machine was freed up to provide capacity we were desperate for, so things worked out just fine.”

The company buys all of its Haas CNC machine tools from Jönköping-based Edströms Maskin AB, one of the world’s most successful Haas Factory Outlets (HFOs). Like all HFOs, Edströms employs trained and factory certified technicians, runs a fleet of fully-stocked service vans and keeps an inventory of original Haas spare parts worth millions of dollars. As a result, Edströms can respond to problems and technical issues without delay, resolving even the most serious of events without having to send for parts or engineers from the USA.

“We had a terrible accident with the SL-40,” remembers Mr. Karlsson.  “We dropped a 250Kg part while it was being machined. It did a huge amount of damage but Edströms did an amazing job repairing the damage – the guideways, the chuck, the guards, etc. They had it completely fixed and running again in less than 2 weeks. It was as good as new!”

As Telgelego grows, as does its reputation for machining complex parts in hard materials, the company is committed to investing in the best, affordable CNC technology it can find. Fortuitously, around the time Mr. Karlsson and his colleagues began thinking about a five axis, universal machine, Haas launched its UMC-750.

“Ours was the first UMC-750 installed in Sweden. We placed an order as soon as we knew it was going to be available because we found we had more and more work that could be

done better and quicker on a universal type machine. We looked at what we could buy from other manufacturers for the same money and they had smaller tables and smaller work-envelopes. To be honest, so far we’re not doing full five-axis cutting – we haven’t yet made the investment in the 5-axis Edgecam software. But, as a 3+2 machine cutting stainless and tool steel, it’s doing a great job. It’s currently making a large cylindrical part – a roller for steel production. We have great expectations for this machine.”

Lots of similarly sized businesses in Sweden are finding it very difficult or impossible to survive. Often, the problem is simply finding suitably qualified people to run and manage them as owners grow older and retire. There are few, young successors willing to enter manufacturing. It’s a problem common to almost all industrialised nations.

“The longer Telgelego stays in business, the better,” says Mr. Karlsson. “As other companies fall away, we’re well placed to benefit. We have a big order coming next year so we need more space and we have to find another 2-3 employees. We’re expecting to move premises in 2015. We’re also hoping to invest in some bigger Haas vertical mills; bigger and more complex parts are the future for us.

“These are uncertain times, but increasingly, we have enough work that every machine in the shop is busy. Every day is a challenge, but those are definitely the days I feel happiest!”

Godrej employs most of its 10,000 employees at its expansive headquarters in Mumbai. The campus is home for much of the company’s multifarious manufacturing activity and looks more like an immaculately maintained suburb of the country’s second most populous city than the base of a prolific manufacturer. Along its wide streets are its factory blocks, each dedicated to a different product or engineering service. Some of them are unremarkable looking concrete buildings of three or four stories. One or two are cavernous, 100-foot-high hangars with gaping doors that look big enough to swallow an airship.

In one particularly neat enclave is the company’s glass-fronted showroom, where visitors can see an example of each of the many domestic and small-scale industrial products made nearby. In addition to DVD players, washing machines, microwave ovens, and kitchen tables, there are walk-in safes, vending machines, office chairs – even hospital beds. Products that aren’t suitable for display or won’t fit in the showroom – animal feed, edible oils, satellites, India’s largest radio telescope, and components for the country’s space program, are represented graphically or using detailed scale models. It’s a breathtaking array, by any standard

Our distinguished host for the day is Mr. D K Sharma, Vice President Tooling Division Godrej & Boyce Mfg Co Ltd. “Godrej is well-known in many different industries,” he says. “It is vitally important that we choose our technology partners very carefully. We have several Haas CNC machine tools, which I’m glad to say are versatile, reliable and capable machines.”

A short walk from the showroom is the company’s busy tooling machine shop, where it makes the moulds and dies used to manufacture countless die cast aluminium parts for its myriad products. Godrej owns 18 Haas CNC machine tools, five of which are used in the tooling department, an operation overseen by Mr. S. M. Nayak, General Manager of Engineering Services.

“Three of the Haas vertical machining centres are being used to make electrodes for our sinker EDM machines,” he says. “The other two, VF-3s, are used to make conventional moulds and dies in steel.”

Electrodes for EDM (electrical discharge machining) sinker machines create an imprint or cavity in a machined workpiece. Electrode holders clamp the precision-machined, tungsten carbideelectrodes in place to ensure a high degree of accuracy and repeatability. The process istypically used when the surface finish of acomponent and the dimensions of intricate features are critical, which means the electrodes themselves have to be very finely machined.
“Given the complexity of the electrodes and theaccuracy we need to achieve, we originally thought we would have to buy high-end, expensive European or Japanese machines,” says Mr. Nayak, “until we discovered Haas. We couldn’t believe how capable they are; we have no problems regularly achieving tolerances of 10 microns.”

Several of the company’s other Haas machines are employed in its lock-making division, where they operate 24 hours a day in a production configuration for a line of products that Godrej has been making in one form or another for all of its 114 years. The division uses four Haas VF-2s, two VF-2SS Super Speeds, and two SL-10 lathes. Between them, they make pin cylinder locks in brass and stainless steel. Tolerances are typically 20 to 50 microns and batches are 200 to 1000 units per shift, depending on the component being machined. The VF-2 machines are fitted with two rotary tables on each table, with different types of fixtures to accommodate the wide-variety of part shapes and sizes.
“We chose the Haas because we are always looking for the top machines: good quality CNC machine tools that are cost-effective, reliable, and easy to operate,” says Mr. Nayak.

In the company’s Precision Engineering Systems (PES) division, Haas VF-3 machining centres are used to make critical components, such as the stator ring, hub, carrier arm, and disc rotor for wind turbines, one of Godrej’s latest and fastestgrowing manufacturing activities.

“Haas machines are reliable, user-friendly, and flexible,” says S.M. Nayak. “We’re already achieving 65 to 70% cutting time, and we are always looking for ways to make our operations more efficient. We’re also adding more capacity,” he adds. “Later this year we will order two more Haas VF-8 machines for our tooling division, and one for the MHE division.”
The founding family and the senior managers at Godrej know that the company’s future depends on helping India’s disadvantaged. The challenge is to do the right over the expedient, but without sacrificing opportunity. Being privately owned means Godrej can make its own judgement call.

“Our company provides its employees and their families with extensive social support,” says Mr. D.K Sharma. “On our Mumbai campus there is a purpose-built school, and a memorial hospital with 110 beds and a fully equipped intensive care unit. There’s also housing and accommodation for all levels up to senior management, and even a hilltop country club.

“The future of our country depends on the intellectual capacity and the learning capability of the young India,” concludes Mr. Sharma. “Twentyfive percent of our company’s shares are owned by the Pirojsha Godrej Foundation Trust, which provides communities around the country with schooling, medical treatment, education, and disaster relief.”
Godrej’s investment, relentless innovation and wide-reaching philanthropy mean that it will play a very important role in the socio-economic and industrial development of India for at least another 100 years.

Courtesy: Haas Automation India Pvt Ltd