Precision as a sole focus

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industrial

Precision as a sole focus - 160 years of the Société Genevoise d’Instruments de Physique (SIP)

Auguste de la Rive and Marc Thury from Geneva had no knowledge of control electronics, artificial intelligence or computers. Nevertheless, 160 years ago, when they founded the Société Genevoise d’Instruments de Physique (SIP), the scholars and scientists dared to do something unimaginable at the time: build scientific instruments that could measure accurately to hundredths of a millimetre. The company, which is now a Starrag subsidiary, entered the global machine business in 1921 with the introduction of their “Machine à Pointer” jig boring machine, which, according to Wikipedia, was not only the world’s first mass-produced machine tool, but also the first production machine capable of boring to micrometre accuracy.

In 1921, under the direction of Fernand Turrettini, the Managing Director of SIP, the MP4 jig boring machine was created and was considered a very important piece of work: with the extreme rigidity of the portal frame and its precise slide rails, it set standards about a century ago that the company still uses as a guide.

“SIP has lived precision since the very beginning,” says Jean-Daniel Isoz, Managing Director of the Ultra Precision Machining Centers Business Unit at Starrag, looking back. From the very beginning, a special role was played by botany professor and physics teacher Thury, who developed many instruments and apparatuses that were already capable of measuring to an accuracy of ten micrometers. As early as 1865, a dividing machine was created that precisely subdivided measuring rulers to within a few micrometers.

Shortly thereafter, the young company presented a special masterpiece at the World Fair in Paris: a telescope with a high-precision clockwork drive that moved parallel to the Earth’s axis of rotation and thus made it possible to track the path of a star. This innovation from Geneva caused a sensation in the French capital, and de la Rive and Thury received a medal for this mechanical masterpiece.

Adriano Della Vecchia, Head of Product Line SIP

“We manufacture very precise machines because it is a passion for us. Yes, we are proud of it.”

SIP 7000 jig boring machine inclusive palletiser unit.

Precision work with a rare copy of the standard metre

Proud of their medal, the scientists return from Paris to produce tachometres, water motors, gas ovens, refrigeration machines, electricity metres and precision rulers with the same meticulousness. But the two scholars made a name for themselves with high-precision apparatus and instruments. In 1899, de la Rive and Thury were awarded one of the twelve platinum-iridium copies of the third version of the standard metre for their precision work, which was usually only granted to state calibration institutes.

Thus exclusively equipped, over the next few years the Geneva-based company took their next steps in the field of high-precision: its achievements in precision are in demand, for example, by the Swiss Navy, for which a gigantic artillery target is being built. But SIP became famous in 1921 with the introduction of the “machine à pointer” jig boring machine, which, according to Wikipedia, was the world’s first machine tool to go into series production. Its Technical Director, Fernand, Turrettini, described it as a “grand oeuvre”; an important piece of work for SIP. With the extreme rigidity of the portal frame and its precise slide rails, it set standards around a century ago that the company still follows. At the heart of this is a departure in machine production from the empirical process that was customary up to that point. Turrettini transferred the principles of scientific metrology to industrial production without compromising the precision in any way.

Jig boring machine: first mass-produced and most precise machine tool in the world

In keeping with the tradition of the famous watchmaking factories in his hometown, Turrettini relied on manual labor. Without compromising on manufacturing costs, he has specially trained experts scrape all the machine elements that are essential for precision - from the machine bed, linear guideways and ball screws to the spindle heads and axes. This elaborate manual work and the precise assembly of all the elements is possible thanks to the 1921 launch of the jig boring machine. According to Wikipedia, was the first production machine that was capable of drilling to the micrometre. But even in the age of electronics, SIP has maintained their century-long focus on mechanical accuracy; a primary reason for the “long-term accuracy” of machines from this manufacturer of precision machine tools, which is now a subsidiary of the Swiss Starrag Group. “If the geometry of a machine deteriorates over time because of changes in the tensile stresses created during assembly, then no amount of laser measurement accuracy will benefit a user”, explains Jean-Daniel Isoz, Managing Director of the Ultra Precision Machining Centers Business Unit at Starrag. “Only when we have achieved the perfect geometry we do worry about compensating for the last few micrometres with electronics, for example.”

SIP-100th Anniversary publication

"The quest for precision requires practical know-how and theoretical knowledge."

The Machine à Pointer was so well received, especially because of its “longterm accuracy”, that by its 100th anniversary in 1962 SIP had been able to sell 6,000 ultra-precise drilling machines with the abbreviation MP worldwide. The company remains loyal to precision through solid mechanics at its new site in Vuadens in the Swiss canton of Fribourg. “Our predecessors developed the constructive basis for mechanical design in the 1920s, which still proves to be the best way for high-precision engineering,” Managing Director Jean-Daniel Isoz notes in retrospect. “That’s why senior mechanical engineers keep telling us ‘If you want to continue to offer top precision, please don’t change anything!’”

The Geneva-based company developed an artillery sighting device for the Swiss Navy.

Geneva honors SIP with exhibition

However, the city of Geneva is also proud of the former metrology manufactory. In 2005, the Geneva Office of Cultural Heritage and Sites honored the technical and industrial heritage of an important company to which many Geneva residents still have a positive emotional attachment with the exhibition “SIP, from microscope to machine tool” at the Museum of the History of Science. The importance of Geneva for SIP was also recognised by Starrag a year later: after the takeover in 2006, the new owner revived an almost century-old logo, with a stylised G for Geneva once again enclosing the SIP lettering.

The company’s founders would certainly be proud of the fact that SIP machines now rank as top products for the very highest quality standards within the Group’s portfolio. Indeed, the spirit of the famous watchmaking metropolis of Geneva lives on after the relocation to the new Vuadens site in the Swiss canton of Fribourg, where Starrag Vuadens SA has been manufacturing the Bumotec and SIP product ranges since 2017.