Development is already underway on the gantry portal milling machine, which will allow for powerful turning, milling and drilling of even very large components made from high-strength welded steel and cast constructions through the interaction of the 100 kW milling head with a 2 x 111 kW master-slave main drive. The machine has a clearance of 12,600 mm in between the stands, the gantry axes travels over a distance of 14,000 mm, and the ram allows a maximum stroke of 3,500 mm.

The dimensions are visibly impressive to Albrechtsen and his employees Christian Hermansen and Tage Friis during their inspection of the first machine, which almost touches the ceiling of the Bielefeld factory hall at its height of 14 metres. Once it is finally complete, the new creation will weigh around 500 tonnes – as much as 50 bull elephants. It’s not just the size and machine type that are new to HACO, however, but also the location in which the machine is to be deployed. For years now, the company has been working closely together with Valmont SM A/S, one of the world’s leading suppliers of steel components for the wind power industry. Up to now, this company was delivering welded blanks that were transported via heavy goods transport to the HACO plant in Barrit for mechanical finishing all the way from the town of Rødekro, which lies 100 kilometres to the south.