A castle ruin, a hammer and pliers: The coat of arms of Steinbach-Hallenberg clearly points to the town’s specialities. According to the town’s website, “the long tradition of the local smithery is still being perpetuated with great enthusiasm, exemplified by the impressive metal working museum and the only corkscrew workshop in the world”.

Just as impressive is the 60-year-old SWM tool factory, which has been a part of the Wuppertal-based STAHLWILLE Group – one of Germany’s leading tool manufacturers – since 1996. Since then, the die forge in South Thuringia has supplied the entire group with forged parts for the production of high-quality screwdrivers and gripping tools as well as for the manufacture of intelligent torque technology. Die forging is one of SWM’s particular strengths, as the tools have always been made in-house in Steinbach-Hallenberg. Combined with decades of experience, the integrated CAD-CAM chain ensures efficiency and quality. This is especially evident when the tools are fed into one of the partially automated production lines.

At the centre of the newest, cutting-edge SWM production line is the new Starrag Heckert H55 machining centre. Those involved in the manufacturing industry are probably surprised to hear that a die forge uses a high-precision compact machining centre. But the reason is obvious if you know both the engineer who devised this production line and his ideas.

Anyone who is familiar with the world of Disney comics knows that even a technical genius like Gyro Gearloose doesn’t work alone. And while Gearloose gets his help from a lightbulb with legs, Danz looks to Jan Hilpert of Schmalkalden. The Managing Director of automation specialist ROBOTICS was, as usual, one of the first to hear about Danz’s latest plan. “When he presented me with his idea for the new production line, I immediately understood the challenge”, he recalls. “How can we achieve an automated shift with a planned product range of 26 different workpieces and an average processing time of 30 seconds?” Danz adds: “While Jan was thinking about automation, I was designing the fixture on which at least four different workpieces can be clamped”.

Why does SWM not involve fixture design specialists in the project? Danz was quick to dismiss this: “All the fixture manufacturers I found had little experience with forged parts and their tolerances”. “In our case in particular, there were fluctuating manufacturing tolerances due to the shrinkage rates during die forging.  Basically, this was not their area of expertise. That’s why it was probably the wisest decision to use our own expertise and planning capacity”.

The machining centre not only scores in terms of stability, but in terms of flexibility too. “For me, the loading mass is also ideal in terms of flexibility, because it gives me more design options for the fixture”, says Danz, adding another example of flexibility gains: “I used to have some parts mechanically machined manually in half a shift. Today, thanks to the Heckert, I can changeover so quickly that I can actually automate the process and deploy the employee elsewhere. The changeover takes just over half an hour, by which time the next part is already running. In pallet sequencing mode, it is easy to quickly have two, three or four parts”.

When asked what he particularly likes about the Heckert, “everything” is his first response. But he eventually adds: “The Heckert is a workhorse. It has allowed us to open up countless new possibilities, with more being discovered all the time. This makes me smile every single time. With this knowledge, I can now start to rethink completely different areas of our portfolio, which makes the future even more exciting. Incidentally, this is based on investing in a second Heckert H55 which is identical in design”.