Archive for category: plastic mold

The positive market trend detected during the run-up to the world’s biggest plastics and rubber industry trade fair also characterized K 2010 itself and made for an excellent mood among the 3,102 exhibitors in Düsseldorf. Serious new contacts, a marked willingness among visitors to invest, and many business deals were reported.

“K 2010 was held at the right point in time and has provided all areas of our industry with new impetus,” was the verdict of Ulrich Reifenhäuser, chairman of the Exhibitor Council for K 2010. “The many, and sometimes quite unexpectedly specific, contract negotiations entered into at the trade fair speak for themselves!”

Delighted by the good results, Werner Matthias Dornscheidt, CEO and president of Messe Düsseldorf, said that the registration of more than 220,000 trade visitors to the show “clearly exceeded expectations in the sector, given the crisis now finally drawing to an end.”

Continued Dornscheidt: “We are very satisfied that the trade fair succeeded in providing strong impetus for further growth and that our exhibitors were able to do business with numerous international customers of high decision-making competence.”

Compared to the previous event in 2007 visitor attendance was down by nine percent. But then the industry was in a boom phase, which came to a sudden end soon after as a result of the global economic and financial crisis.

Trade visitors from more than 100 countries at K clearly conveyed the fact that an investment backlog had formed during the global economic crisis and that growing global demand for materials and technologies is rising. The innovations introduced at the fair stimulated the placement of orders.

Close to 60% of K visitors came from outside Germany, and 46% of these international guests originated outside of Europe, intensifying a trend. The Indian subcontinent again accounted for the largest share of Asian visitors. Substantial increases in the number of trade visitors from Turkey and Israel also were registered.

For roughly two-thirds of visitors, custom machinery and equipment building were of primary interest in ranges. Nearly half were strongly interested in raw materials and auxiliaries, and 26% cited semifinished products and technical plastics and rubber components as a major reason for their attendance.

K 2010 received high marks from visitors for the calibre of products on display in the 19 exhibition halls. Indeed, 97% of the professional experts said they fully achieved the aims of their visit.

A major reorganization of the operational strategy of Hardinge Machine Tools Ltd. and Hardinge-Bridgeport will see the UK operations of Hardinge-Bridgeport in Leicester become the hub for coordination of all of the company’s milling machine activities throughout the world. Meanwhile, Hardinge Machine Tools in Exeter will continue to have responsibility for turning and grinding products offered to the UK and Irish markets. The latter entity will also control the activities of Hardinge Machine Tools B.V. in the Netherlands.

Pat Ervin, chairman, president, and CEO of Hardinge Inc., commented: “The highly successful acquisition of Bridgeport Machines in November 2004 and an extremely positive reaction from customers to the way the two businesses were integrated so quickly has led to a resurgence of sales and a current order backlog of almost 130 machines.” Merging European operations through the UK was logical, he said, as it would enable the US headquarters of Hardinge to focus on global manufacture.

Heading European operations is now the joint responsibility of Bob Duxbury, managing director of Hardinge Machine Tools in Exeter, and George Brasseur, the Hardinge Group’s European business development managing director. David Andrew continues as sales director of the UK market but also become responsible for marketing across Europe the group’s turning, milling, and workholding product ranges.

Another highlight of the reorganization is the opening this month of a 1,000-m² Hardinge-Bridgeport showroom and technical centre in Krefeld, Germany. The site is earmarked to be the company’s European Centre of Excellence for hard turning applications.

Ervin expects annual European sales of the group’s machine tools to begin to surpass 1,000 units starting in 2006. The growing success of Viper grinding processes in the aerospace sector and of workholding products globally also strengthens Hardinge’s business position for the long term, he believes.

Machines and software, solutions and details, modules and possibilities—all these are presented in full in the new product catalogue from Zimmer + Kreim GmbH & Co. KG,which was released at the September machine tool fair EMO 2005. The sectioning of the catalogue makes clear to potential customers that they are dealing with a systems company that strives for flexibility in automation.

The new Zimmer + Kreim catalogue showcases state-of-the-art technology for mould and tool construction, including not only single high-capacity machines but also complete manufacturing systems. Quality assurance, which is of course essential to tool and mould makers, is the central theme of the catalogue.

“It was our goal to present our complete portfolio in one compendium which covers the business areas of cavity-sinking machines, handling systems, and software solutions,” said Wolfgang Emert, head of marketing at Zimmer + Kreim. He went on to point out that catalogue users can read about everything the company has developed so far and also catch up on the latest technological possibilities.

Zimmer + Kreim specializes in the areas of cavity-sinking EDM machinery, automated material-handling systems, and software-based machining-job management systems.

Hardinge, a leading global machine tool company with annual sales in excess of $200 million, has announced that it has acquired the major assets of the well-known British machine tools manufacturer Bridgeport Machines Ltd., which had gone into receivership. As a result, 62 Bridgeport employees in the UK and the Netherlands have joined the Hardinge Group. The Bridgeport brand will continue, and Hardinge says it will work to ensure continuity to Bridgeport’s existing customers.

The Bridgeport brand will be added to Hardinge’s existing portfolio of brands, which includes Hardinge high-precision lathes, Kellenberger and Tschudin cylindrical grinding machines, Hauser jig grinding machines, Tripet internal grinding machines, and Hardinge collets, chucks, indexing fixtures, and other industrial products.

Hardinge has had a business relationship with Bridgeport since 2002, when it began manufacturing Bridgeport’s knee mill products in the USA. Now Hardinge has acquired Bridgeport’s intellectual property rights, as well as its sales and support services division. This is expected to significantly increase Hardinge’s presence in the vertical and horizontal machining center market. Hardinge sales outlets around the world will have access to Bridgeport’s knee mill products, for example.

Said Bob Duxbury, managing director of Hardinge Machine Tools Ltd., at the time of the announcement: “Bridgeport has an excellent reputation and brand in the marketplace, and we are excited by this acquisition and the opportunities available by adding the Bridgeport brand to our portfolio. In the long term we believe that we can grow Bridgeport’s sales, just as we have with our existing brands.”

J. Patrick Ervin, president and CEO of Hardinge Inc. in the United States, added: “We are excited to continue the tradition of the Bridgeport name and to provide worldwide customers with uninterrupted service and spare-parts support for the large installed base of Bridgeport machines. In England and Holland, we will be adding 62 knowledgeable, dedicated, and hard-working people to our organization. We are glad to have them as part of the Hardinge team.”

Ervin continued, “We will continue to look for opportunities to expand our product lines and global reach in the machine tool market. Hardinge’s growth strategy was started over a decade ago, and we remain committed to being a consolidator of valuable brands and operations in our industry.”

Hardinge Inc. (NASDAQ: HDNG) founded more than 100 years ago, is an international leader in providing the latest industrial technology to companies requiring material-cutting solutions. The company designs and manufactures CNC metal-cutting lathes, machining centers, grinding machines, collets, chucks, indexing fixtures, and other industrial products. It has manufacturing operations in the USA, Switzerland, Taiwan, and China, and distributes machines in all major industrialized countries.

Communication Makes the Difference for Maker of Custom Springs and Wire Forms

McKees, PA—For Ace Wire Spring & Form Company, Inc. offer machining parts, aluminum die casting parts, metal parts, spring parts, plastic injection molding parts, etc. innovative CNC wire forming technology is a key capability that increases productivity while helping to ensure consistency of quality and on-time delivery. But it’s only one of several core competencies that have helped build the company’s reputation as a custom manufacturer of springs and wire forms. In business since 1939, the ISO 9001:2000-certified company makes custom and precision springs and wire forms for diversified applications, serving virtually every conceivable industry.

“Almost everything uses a spring,” says Linda Froehlich, owner of Ace Wire Spring & Form. “We make springs for mechanical applications in industries such as agricultural, aerospace, automotive, lawn and gardening, and power-generating equipment.”

Types of springs manufactured by the company include compression, extension, torsion, and coil springs, as well as garter, power, assembly, and specialty springs. Using CNC technology, Ace Wire Spring manufactures springs in wire diameters ranging from 0.003-inch to 0.625-inch. The firm’s precision wire forming machines are capable of forming round wire in diameters from 0.030-inch up to 0.312-inch, with a maximum length of 30 inches. They also form flat wire up to 2-½ inches in width and ¼-inch thickness, with maximum feed length of 15 inches, according to the company.

“There’s the easy way to make a spring and there’s the right way,” says Harry Bollinger, chief sales engineer. “We do it the right way.”

At Ace Wire Spring, “doing it the right way” is a process that relies greatly on communications with customers. It requires asking the appropriate questions, actively listening to the answers, and doing everything possible to understand the customer’s objectives. The process is built on an understanding that each customer has a unique problem that they’re trying to solve.

“Asking questions is key,” says Sanford (Sandy) Glick, the firm’s national sales manager. “But you have to ask the right questions.” By asking the right questions, Ace Wire Spring can get a clear understanding of the environment in which the spring or wire form is intended to function. The company is then in position to produce the parts that are best suited to meeting customers’ requirements. Questions are typically aimed at understanding operating conditions such as heat, atmosphere, and stress level, all of which are important in selecting the appropriate material or choosing a coating to protect the part. But the company is also aware that tolerances initially specified in designs for springs are often not necessary to achieve the manufacturer’s objective for the part.

“People put machine tolerances on drawings, but bending metal is not the same thing,” says Glick. “By asking customers why they’ve chosen the tolerances that they have, we can get the information needed to solve a problem and reduce our customer’s costs.”

With four engineers on staff, Ace Wire Spring can readily assist customers with design for manufacturability issues by providing recommendations on part design, tolerances, and material selection. The company verifies all part designs with its engineering software, a practice that uncovers potential problems, for example, that could result from a specified dimension that puts too much load stress on a spring. If such a dimension is found, the company will consult with the customer and recommend a spring design more suited to achieving the customer’s objectives. “That’s how we create alliances,” says Bollinger. “We become part of our customer’s team.”

Ace Wire Spring’s thorough knowledge of metallurgy informs its selection of appropriate materials for a wide range of operating conditions. Issues such as high-temperature performance, resistance to corrosion, and fatigue properties under conditions of vibration are some of the metallurgical considerations that Ace regularly evaluates.

The company also strives to accommodate its customers’ needs by working to develop new equipment, machinery, and plastic tooling suited to their manufacturing requirements. But regardless of the project, Ace Wire Spring is always mindful of the essential role that communication plays in technical problem-solving and, ultimately customer satisfaction.

“We’ll call a customer if we’re going to be late, or if we see a problem with material—we don’t surprise them,” says Bollinger. “People are often amazed that we’re doing this.”