Industry Watch: Business

Participation in HaasTec 2011 demonstrates Gibbs’ continuing worldwide cooperation with Haas (Oxnard, CA), in support of their technology, machine tools and customers. In the U.S., where application engineers at Haas headquarters use GibbsCAM to support customers, Gibbs recently participated in Haas Demo Day events at multiple Haas Factory Outlets (HFOs) across the country. Each event demonstrated how the GibbsCAM-Haas combination provides an ideal solution for customers who need to increase output, quality, productivity and profits, whether by maximizing material removal, optimizing surface finish, reducing cycle times, or minimizing errors through single-setup MTM machining.

“We were pleased to participate at HaasTec 2011,” said Robb Weinstein, the senior vice president of sales and strategic planning of Gibbs. “We are in a unique position in supporting Haas. With over 10,000 postprocessors, including over 1,000 unique MTM postprocessors, we provide easy-to-use programming, machine simulation and postprocessors for all Haas machines, and we look forward to extending our cooperative effort across the globe.”

Terrence Miranda, the director of Haas Automation India, added, “We were extremely pleased to have GibbsCAM participating in the first ever HaasTec event in Chennai. Our team and our HFOs look forward to continuing to work with their engineers in India, as we do with many of our allied industry associates, with the sole purpose of ensuring our customers’ best interests.” GibbsCAM will be used to program some of the demos on display at the Haas Automation booth at Engimach 2011 in Ahmedabad, India, from November 23-27. www.gibbscam.com

HAUZER TECHNO COATING BV
(VENLO, THE NETHERLANDS) . . .
enjoyed two celebrations in October. The first one involved the official opening of Hauzer’s extension of their headquarters in Venlo. Hauzer also officially opened its competence centre in Yokohama, Japan. “We enjoyed a celebratory month, first in Europe, then in Asia,” smiled Thomas Krug, the CEO of Hauzer. “The symbolic value is clear . . . our markets move along continents and we grow with the success of our customers. Their success will always be the basis for ours.”

Hauzer started its business in Venlo in 1983, the time that physical vapor deposition (PVD) technology started claiming its functional advantages, giving a longer lifetime to tools, less friction on automotive components and scratch resistance for decorative products. The company moved once within Venlo since then and now was the time to add an extension to the building.

Over the summer an assembly hall of more than 1500 m2 was added to the capacity of building PVD coating equipment for customers all over the world. “We have more than doubled our capacity,” explains Krug, “and we will need it for building more Flexicoat® batch machines and special equipment. Some of the specials we are working on now, are much larger than usual. When there is a requirement for larger coating capacity, the equipment will grow as well.”

Hauzer started its business in Japan in 1996, when its first machine was sold to a Japanese customer. In 2008 the company committed firmly to the Japanese market by founding a branch in Yokohama. “The growth of Hauzer in Japan has been given a boost by joining the IHI Group in 2008,” notes Krug. “Being part of this large Japanese engineering enterprise, with approximately 25,000 employees worldwide, helps us find opportunities in the Japanese market.”

In October the Japanese branch was extended into a competence centre, where pilot production can be performed with a Flexicoat® 1200 machine for coating development and sampling for customers. The team of Japanese engineers are able to give training to the Japanese customers and assist them with their PVD coating challenges. “We believe that our focus on technological development closely together with our customers, on efficiency of equipment and on worldwide support will bring our customers the benefits they deserve. Because PVD coating is a relatively young technology, there are still new markets that discover the advantages,” added Krug. www.hauzer.nl

HOBART BROTHERS COMPANY (TROY, OH) . . .
launched a fully redesigned website. In addition to featuring a new look, the website has improved navigation options and product search features. Visitors can search for filler metals by American Welding Society (AWS; Miami, FL) classification, product name, part number or brand. Or they can use one of the website’s interactive tools to obtain filler metal recommendations for a specific application.

The website also features more detailed product information, including package availability and agency approval documentation for specified products. The new website allows visitors to locate their nearest Hobart Brothers’ distributor in North America by entering their ZIP code, city and state (or providence) or internationally, by selecting a country from a dropdown menu. For those interested in filler metal safety, the new website offers the option to subscribe for notification of safety updates on products, and it features multiple safety bulletin and MSDS downloads.

Additional downloads are available for Hobart Brothers product catalogs, product reference charts and more. Additionally, the website features a pressroom with articles that discuss a variety of welding and filler metal topics, and provide customer testimonials about Hobart Brothers products. This area of the site also features up-to-date press releases for new products.

Hobart Brothers Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Illinois Tool Works, Inc. (Glenview, IL), is a leading manufacturer of welding filler metals marketed under the brand names Hobart, Tri-Mark, McKay and Corex. www.hobartbrothers.com

LANTEK SHEET METAL SYSTEMS, INC. (ÁLAVA, SPAIN) . . .
carried out an open innovation process along with Kaltenbach GmbH + Co KG (Lörrach, Germany), a machine tool and sheet metal machining product manufacturer, and Friedrich Remmert GmbH (Löhne, Germany), a company specialized in the robotization and automation of industrial warehouses, in order to reach an important technological solution.

Through this collaboration, the three companies have gathered together their respective technological and innovative skills to develop and create a plasma cutting machine and robot to speed up the component extraction processes, providing an answer for the requirements posed by Goldbeck (Bielefeld, Germany), an engineering company focused on the design, construction and maintenance of office buildings, halls and car parks. It is a cutting-edge innovation as it is the first automatic evacuation system with a robotic arm for heavy parts.

This initiative is clear evidence of the commitment that Lantek, Kaltenbach and Remmert have regarding innovation and the development of effective solutions that provide added value and which guarantee a more direct and closer service for their customers. As a proof of concept of this innovation, a prototype of the machine robot assembly was presented at the annual “International Partners in Steel” (IPS) fair held in Lörrach (Germany). The assembly has already been installed and is fully operative at Goldbeck.

Kaltenbach, the company promoting this collaboration agreement, has trusted Lantek – its partner for four years – and Remmert with the design of a solution that would allow it to take full advantage of its machines’ performance, that would offer increased productivity and that could offer, in addition, ease of use for the operators. Thus, Lantek has provided the technology to generate the machine cutting data and the evacuation and palletizing positions that the robot must execute in a simple and visual way, taking full advantage of the system.

Remmert, on the other hand, has been responsible for making sure that the palletizing information reaching it is correctly executed by the robot. Last of all, the team at Kaltenbach has coordinated all the processes so that the machine executes the right movements at the precise moment. The combination of all these technologies offers great benefits for Goldbeck.

On the one hand, it allows it to substantially increase its productivity, because while the robot quickly moves the part to the pallet assigned to it by Lantek’s software, the Kaltenbach machine can continue with its cutting activity without interruption, significantly increasing the speed of evacuation of parts. On the other, as the operator does not have to handle the heavy parts, accidents are avoided and safety is increased. As a result of this fruitful experience, Lantek and Remmert are considering a continuation of the agreement, extending this collaboration to other scenarios.

Lantek is a leading global multi-national regarding the development and commercialization of CAD/CAM and ERP integral solutions for the machine tool sector. Its capacity for innovation and its firm commitment to internationalization have led Lantek, founded in 1986 in the Basque Country, to become a global reference with its Lantek Expert solutions for sheet metal cutting and punching. The company now has over 11,000 customers in over 100 countries, its own offices in Spain, the U.S., Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Italy, United Kingdom, China, South Korea, France, Japan, India, Poland, Mexico, Turkey and the Czech Republic, and a network of distributors that extend its presence throughout the world. In 2010 its international operations provided 84 percent of its turnover. www.lanteksms.com