The Hungarian manufacturer of aluminium die-cast parts, Femalk, says it processes 4 000 tonnes of aluminium per month and supplies OEM plants worldwide with, for example, chassis parts, engine and transmission mounts and electronic housings. The weight of the castings is between 30 and 4 000 grams.
In cooperation with a specialist for clamping technology, Andreas Maier GmbH & Co. KG, the company has now partly automated 15 machining centres and equipped them with zero-point clamping systems.
The clamping technology eliminates the need to fasten the part with screws, position it using sliding blocks, align it and determine the zero points.
As a result, the supplier has reduced the set-up time for large and small series to such an extent that machine utilisation has increased.