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REPORT - WEISS GMBH
The T-Rex effect At Weiss GmbH in Buchen, an ultra-modern production cell was recently put into operation. It even drew a “boy, oh boy” from Sven Erfurt, responsible director for the project. But let’s start at he beginning. The company Transfer systems, deltoid robots, handling units and functionally safe rotary indexing tables are the core competence of Weiss GmbH. This extensive product portfolio is offered worldwide. Today, 350 of the 500 employees work at the main location in Buchen. Comprehensive service, the uncompromising demand for quality and cooperation based on partnership result in great advantages for the customers. The situation Ongoing process improvement is one of the tasks in the Manufacturing Technology department. In this context, Mr. Erfurt and his team began thinking several years ago about the possibility of producing the many cast components, especially gearbox housings, in a single clamping operation. This, of
course, was not only for the benefit of precision, but also for the efficiency on the production machines. Soon the discussion turned to the procurement of several CNC machining centers with automatic workpiece loading. Since the first, very positive, experiences had already been made with the zero point clamping systems from EROWA, the idea was relatively obvious to discuss the requirements for the new system with an EROWA process specialist. In search of solutions After initial clarifications on site, in which the suppliers of the POS Mill 800U processing machines were also involved, the first proposals were drawn up. The fact that only version V.14 of the layout plan depicts the final installed system clearly shows that such projects cannot be developed from one day to the next. A wide variety of requirements had to be met. • On the one hand, the specifications for „only one clamping“ had to be met. This was achieved by using the EROWA MTS Zero Point Clamping system and the ingeniously simple but highly effective fixtures on the pallets.
The T-Rex about to jump.