Paul Horn Keeps Moving Forward
Since I visited Horn in Germany two years ago, it has doubled its production floor with an investment of 70 million Euros.
Horn uses proprietary grinding cells from DMG Mori, which are autonomous and fully automated, to produce the geometry for its inserts.
Every two years, precision cutting tool and accessory manufacturer Paul Horn throws open its doors at the factory in Tubingen, Germany, for Technology Days. I’ve attended each event except one and witnessed the event grow along with the company.
This year was no exception. Since I visited two years ago, Horn has doubled its production floor with an investment of 70 million Euros. How they got this expansion done so quickly is mind blowing, but they did.
The company has a product range that includes more than 120,000 variants with a ratio of standard and special tools that is around 50/50. They produce 9 million inserts annually in lot sizes of 100 pieces on average. The company’s managing director, Lothar Horn, describes the company as a small, medium-sized producer.
“We don’t see our Technology Days as a promotional event,” Mr. Horn says. We want to engage our customers in to advance technology, innovate and pool our knowledge. This why the technical presentations that are part of the event are application-specific rather than product-specific.”
Having experienced these presentations, I can assure you that what Mr. Horn says is true. There was a total of eight technical presentations, and my plan is to present them in Production Machining through the next few months. Its good stuff that I think you will enjoy reading.
Horn USA has a manufacturing facility at Franklin, Tennessee, which is scheduled to triple its manufacturing capacity in the next couple of years. This company is poised for continued growth.
