With its waterjet technology, the Swabian company Stimpfle has established itself as a creative all-rounder in metal processing. To give himself and his customers even more scope in the future, owner Matthias Stimpfle has completely renewed his machinery. An STM waterjet cutting system of the latest generation plays the main role here. After 10 years, it replaces the previous STM cutting system and is intended to make the company's creative manufacturing solutions even more competitive - regardless of the material and requirements. After 100 days, it is clear that the plan is working.

Mechanical engineer Matthias Stimpfle actually works in Wechingen, Swabia, but he is far too rarely there. Customers from all over the world now call him when they need new production solutions. And Matthias Stimpfle loves to break new ground in metal processing. More sensible ways. That is why he is also a convinced fan of waterjet technology and, after 10 years of experience as a user, is constantly surprised by the possibilities that this cutting process offers him.

For 10 years, he has been operating an EcoCut system from STM with a 3×2 m cutting table and a high-pressure pump with 4,000 bar and 19 kW output. In combination with a CNC press brake and milling machine, an NC lathe, departments for design, welding, pneumatics, electrical installation, assembly and direct lines to IT specialists, he and his creative mind have created a company with unlimited possibilities. He handles 2D and 3D cutting tasks with batch sizes of 1 - 20,000 and processes granite, aluminum and stainless steel on the fly, almost fully automatically.

He is regularly confronted with new, highly specialized requirement profiles for which he has to develop a production solution. He is constantly challenging his waterjet cutting system with new ideas - and is rarely disappointed. This has earned him a reputation in his core market as a "full-service specialist without limits". "If an idea can be digitized, then we can implement it," says Stimpfle. This is how it should remain in the future, which is why the company has completely renewed its machinery and geared it towards the prospects opened up by Industry 4.0.

When it came to the waterjet cutting system, he opted for the latest EcoCut WS 3020 waterjet cutting system with edge tracker positioning laser in combination with the new Ecotron 40.19 high-pressure pump from BFT. This means that, in line with the principle of "evolution instead of revolution", he has opted for the tried-and-tested system with significantly higher performance. The reason: "STM systems have a smart design and are very easy to maintain. The design is based on the same quality components that we use for our robot technology," states Stimpfle. "I am also impressed by the repeat accuracy and the ingenious price-performance ratio. There was therefore never any question that we would continue to rely on STM in the future."

Help practically in real time

He still congratulates himself on this decision today. The changeover to the new system was no problem thanks to the STM support. "Without understatement, the support was phenomenal. The guys looked after us virtually in real time via remote maintenance over the Internet, no matter how complex the question was." Drawing is much faster and easier with the SmartCut software of the new EcoCut, and the active ramp calculation and software-controlled abrasive quantity dosing also make operation much more efficient.

In addition, the lower pressure fluctuations and the general coordination of the pump and system are perfect, the cutting heads are even more precise and the service life of wearing parts such as nozzles and focusing tubes is significantly longer. "With the same requirements, we now benefit from 25 percent higher power density and 40 percent higher cutting speed, can call up correspondingly higher hourly rates and can also run the system fully automatically overnight," summarizes Stimpfle. "Apart from the economic aspects, we also work in a much more environmentally friendly and convenient way and have more design freedom. This is at least as motivating".

The insight: in innovation-driven markets, very good products can improve so much in such a short time that modernizing the machinery every 10 years pays off. Especially if you can determine the potential for improvement for your own needs in black and white in advance in the test center, as STM does. For Stimpfle, this was reason enough for a radical change. He quickly consigned his old EcoCut to STM and achieved a good price for it. This was despite the fact that the investment had already paid for itself after 6 years. So the restructuring didn't hurt in terms of costs either.

Stimpfle is relaxed about the expected upheavals in the industry. He is practically completely self-sufficient and open to everything, his order books are full. He therefore sees no reason to set himself restrictive goals. The 49-year-old prefers to focus on more personal freedom and a higher aesthetic standard in his design work. He has created good conditions for both with the new EcoCut. In short, things couldn't be going better. Looking back, he has to admit: "At the beginning, everyone said: You'll never use the system to its full capacity. The opposite is true. Getting into waterjet cutting was one of the best decisions of my life. It's a technology of the future that I can recommend to anyone. Provided you are an entrepreneur and not an underachiever. Because you have to have a bit of courage."