User report: Reduced personnel deployment and increased machine availability

Druckguss Westfalen from Geseke has been serving its customers for over 50 years. As a specialist in aluminium die casting, the company primarily produces components for the automotive industry, both for electromobility and for combustion engines. A customer order pushed the machinery to its limits: A new machine was needed - and the supply chain problem didn't make it any easier. This is where Grob-Werke came into play with the G520F.

Group of men stand in a factory and talk — Martin Simon (right) and colleagues from Druckguss Westfalen are delighted with the high availability of the system.

An order from a major German car manufacturer presented Druckguss Westfalen with new challenges that could not be met with the existing machinery. The components included in the order were larger than any parts previously produced by the company. In addition, the machine market was heavily overheated at the time of purchase. The enormous demand for machines, combined with global supply chain issues, meant that some shortlisted suppliers were out of the question due to delivery times.

Commissioning within three months

Grob stood out from all the other suppliers and responded to Druckguss Westfalen's enquiry on the same day. An invitation to the machine manufacturer's main plant followed just one day later to clarify all the details. ‘And two days later, we were actually already at Grob in Mindelheim,’ says Martin Simon, Production Manager at Druckguss Westfalen, still marvelling today when he thinks about how quickly everything went. After intensive discussions, the decision was finally made in favour of the G520F for the flexible 5-axis machining of frame structure and chassis parts.

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a white and blue alluminum die casting machine — With its two spindles, the G520F can machine two workpieces in parallel.

Within three months, the system was installed in the hall at Druckguss Westfalen and could be commissioned and production started. The G520F was integrated into the existing production environment within a production island. The production island is used for milling, washing and differential pressure testing. The system is used to produce aluminium housings for a car manufacturer, in which the power electronics are housed.

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Parallel machining of two workpieces

Due to the component size of 280 mm by 800 mm, Druckguss Westfalen ultimately decided in favour of integrating a swivel changer. On the one hand, to reduce the ergonomic strain on the employees and, on the other, to increase productivity many times over.

The G520F was specially developed for the machining of frame structure and chassis parts, as well as battery housings, and was therefore predestined for the application at Druckguss Westfalen. The G520F is a twin-spindle machine for parallel machining of two workpieces. It has an interference circle diameter of up to 1,200 mm in the B-axis and 1,200 mm in the A-axis (without restriction), with a maximum workpiece length of up to 1,500 mm (with restricted axis swivelling range). The A/B axis combination in the table guarantees free chip fall and optimum heat dissipation, which is ideal for MQL machining. The machine can also be flexibly automated, as was the case at Druckguss Westfalen.

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Drohnenaufnahme einer Fabrik — Druckguss Westfalen in Geseke has been there for its customers for over 50 years

Expansion of the machine park planned

By integrating the G520F, Druckguss Westfalen was able to reduce the number of employees by one person per three-shift period. As a result, and by increasing the running time and availability of the system, the overall system efficiency was increased to 90 per cent. Grob Service and Technical Support helped Druckguss Westfalen achieve this: ‘During production, we actually had two issues where we needed Grob's full support. The fast and competent help was a great help and everything was solved immediately,’ reports Martin Simon.

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Druckguss Westfalen is planning to further expand its Grob machine park and is increasingly calculating new enquiries on machines from the Mindelheim-based company.

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