still manufactures HSS drills and special tooling; a fully functional PCD design and manufacturing facility; and a recently acquired factory in Onstmettingen that is used exclusively for the assembly, service and support of its own range of grinding machines. There’s no shortage of space at the Onstmettingen facility – which will come in very handy for future expansion plans.
In addition, a nearby complex in Sigmaringen-Laiz is home to four vital aspects of Guhring’s business: R&D; OEM support; the manufacture of carbide tools and taps; and apprentice training. In its tap and threadmill manufacturing plant alone, 60,000 taps are manufactured from start to finish every week. The shopfloor is a hive of activity and about the length of two football pitches. This is highly efficient manufacturing by anyone’s standards!
Germany has longstanding, deep rooted links to the automotive industry and so it’s not surprising that automotive, combined with aerospace applications accounts for around 40% of Guhring’s total business. In fact within the company’s OEM division – a department set-up to develop solutions for bespoke, highly complex customer- specific applications – 70% of the projects undertaken are with automotive customers.
“The OEM department needs to be
highly flexible because its customers can be machine tool manufacturers or end users,” reveals Manfred Brunsch, general manager of the OEM business. “We’ll work closely with both but the ultimate focus is providing working solutions to complex manufacturing challenges. We appoint a project leader for each task who will head up a dedicated team that includes design engineers, project engineers and applications engineers. Each solution can be fully trialled and tested here before being passed onto the customer.”
Here the company’s automotive expertise really comes to the fore. In 2010 no less than 465 automotive projects were undertaken including developing tooling for 49 cylinder blocks, 38 crankshafts, 25 housings and 15 conrods. The tooling itself comprised complete systems from the spindle to the cutting tool encompassing spindle adaptors, clamping, hydraulic expansion chucks, reduction sleeves and the cutting tool itself, often incorporating MQL as the preferred cooling method. Not surprising also is that Guhring works closely with many of the world’s leading automotive manufacturers including Daimler, GM, Ford, Toyota, Holden Australia, BMW, Audi, Volkswagen and Skoda.
On the aerospace front, Guhring is investing heavily in developing tooling solutions for composite machining
– indeed for Airbus Deutschland the company is the main supplier of CFRP tooling. It also has strong links with Rolls-Royce, Boeing and Eurocopter.
PCD manufacture is a particular speciality for Guhring and the facility at Albstadt handles the whole process from the PCD itself through to designing and manufacturing tool bodies, regrinding and coating. It’s a very busy department, amalgamating a combination of both manual and automated processes. “We produce 800-1,000 tools a day and whilst
much of the process makes effective use of modern CNC machine tools, the actual brazing of the diamond blanks onto the tool body is very precise and is still a manual process,” explains production engineer, Tobias Fechner. He’s right of course. Mistakes here can be costly and the process requires both concentration and a steady hand.
The PCD department is looking to double in size in the next 12 months. A number of machine tools from WFL, Stama, Traub, Gildemeister, Heller and Grob adorn the shopfloor as well as banks of Guhring’s own 9-axis grinding
New logo, same industrial tooling supplier
February 2012 - We’re rebranding to
See our latest offers online by scanning the QR code using your smart phone (you may need to download a QR code reader from your app store).
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60