‘Twas the Season for Equipment Manufacturer Open Houses

In this column a couple issues ago, I wrote about PMTS and how the Precision Machining Technology Show is a great means for discovering equipment and ideas that can enable shopfloor employees to become more efficient, thereby helping shops become more profitable.

Specifically, it boils down to leveraging technology to make the lives of those who have chosen a career in our precision machining industry easier, while enabling them to perform duties of higher value. If there was one overarching theme of the 2023 show based on my talks with multiple exhibitors and attendees, that’d be it.

Then, after spending a week in Cleveland attending that successful show and the Precision Machined Products Association’s (PMPA) National Technical Conference that preceded it, I traveled to Germany three times over the course of nine weeks to attend open houses for Index, Haimer, Spinner and Paul Horn. I saw technology at each that offered the same benefits, but such visits offer many other advantages.

An equipment manufacturer’s open house enable you to learn more about its company culture as well as its technology offerings.

Equipment manufacturers’ open houses enable you to learn more about their technology, but also their company cultures (and cuisine and country for those held outside the United States). Some resemble mini trade shows offering tabletop displays from other equipment and software suppliers. Plus, you often get to tour the production and/or assembly areas to get a better appreciation of their manufacturing processes. One advantage of this relative to machine tool builders is you can see those machines “in the buff,” before the sheet metal enclosures have been installed, to examine their designs. These events typically include presentations about new technology with the chance to ask questions and network, too.

Mere days after returning from PMTS, I flew to Stuttgart to attend Index’s large open house held at its Reichenbach facility. This included tours of the manufacturing facility there as well as in nearby Deizisau and its global headquarters in Esslingen. (It’s always nice to see a company’s own machines making new machines.) The tech center area in the Reichenbach facility featured a number of new Index- and Traub-branded machines, various automation solutions and the latest developments in the digital Index iXworld offerings as well as nearly 30 partner companies displaying their new equipment and software solutions.

That trip also included a side visit to Haimer’s global headquarters and manufacturing facility in Igenhausen, Germany, which is expanding its tooling offerings for turning centers. This includes shrink-fit collets which I wrote about here, as well as the Duo-Lock modular interface for cutting tool heads available in ER collet versions for driven tools on CNC turning centers. The company also explained the value of balanced tool assemblies for milling operations.

Soon after that, I flew to Munich to attend Spinner’s open house at its manufacturing facility for its multi-axis machines in quaint Sauerlach. The company produces its own spindle turrets and machine structures, and just added a large five-axis Dinox 350 IAT gantry mill from Italy’s FPT Industrie for machining castings and other big components. In addition, I got to speak with CEO of the family-owned company, Axel Spinner, to get a better understanding of the company’s more focused efforts to gain market share in the U.S. and learn about the value of sister company Spinner Automation.

Finally, I flew once more to Stuttgart to attend Paul Horn’s Technology Days event at its headquarters in Tubingen. The first day, I largely took in presentations on topics such as new High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering technology (developed in conjunction with Cemecon AG) for smooth finish/eliminating droplets on PVD tool coatings; challenges/solutions for machining lead-free brass and steel; research into applying new mix of high-speed whirling/polygon turning/rotational turning for medical bone screws developed in conjunction with Index; the new Horn Tooling Configurator custom tool design process; and more. The following days I had tours of manufacturing facilities including a carbide plant.

I also find value in these events because I typically get to interact with machine shop owners and managers as well as equipment distributors and representatives who also make the trips.

I highly recommend that you consider attending events such as these when the opportunity presents itself. It can be challenging to carve out time to be away from your shop, but, chances are, it’ll be time well spent.