Huge CNC machines for the aviation industry come from the southern Swedish town of Virserum. They are developed and built by Modig Machine Tool. The connection technology also contributes to their high quality. David Modig has grown up with it. Modig Machine Tool is a family business straight out of a picture book: David's grandfather Harry Modig founded it in 1947 together with his brothers Arne, Sture and Erik Modig. Two other brothers also worked in the company, which at the time was still called Modig Mekaniska Verkstad AB.

After Harry Modig's son Percy took over the management of the company, he often took his offspring David with him to the factory floor. "I've been running around there since I was a little boy," says the junior boss, pointing down into the hall, where there are huge steel parts, each weighing many tons, and machine housings that fill an entire hall. Today, David Modig is 39 years old and is the third generation to manage the company. His father Percy (69) handed over the reins to him in 2011, but is still active in the company.

The founding generation in Virserum started out with drilling machines and lathes. And the family quickly succeeded in gaining a foothold on the global market. By the fourth year of its existence, the mechanical workshop already counted companies from England, the USA and South Africa among its customers. Today, some 70 years later, Modig Machine Tool enjoys an excellent reputation not only in the aviation industry. The company has branches in 14 countries in Europe, Asia, North America and the Middle East. It employs 60 people worldwide and achieved a turnover of around 400 million Swedish kronor in 2018, which corresponds to approximately 39 million euros.

Faster than the competition

The Swedes are known for the high quality and performance of their ultra-modern CNC special machines and devices for machining large wing parts. This is why machines from Virserum are standard equipment for well-known companies such as Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier and Cessna. This is because they are powerful, fast and yet extremely precise. For example, a RigiMill, the largest and most expensive machine in the portfolio with a price tag of three million dollars, processes meter-sized metal parts 30 percent faster than machines from other manufacturers. "We even guarantee this contractually," emphasizes David Modig.

Not to mention their durability and robustness: Modig machines manufactured in the 1980s are still doing their daily work today - both at the company's headquarters in Virserum and at customers' premises. In some companies where many of the Swedes' machines are in use, it is no longer "a machine", but "a Modig". Incidentally, a RigiMill takes around 2,000 hours of work, and only one of these machines leaves the factory every three weeks.

Ideas, courage and quality

The ingredients of Modig's success are courage, inventiveness and uncompromising quality. Incidentally, the family has courage in its name: "Modig" means "courageous" in German. And the people in charge still stand for inventiveness: The concept for their machines still originates in the minds of Percy and David Modig. The ideas of the two inventors are implemented using state-of-the-art CAD software.

As is usual for Sweden, Modig naturally attaches great importance to supplying customers with only the best quality. And it goes without saying that the high quality standards also apply to the smallest components. Reason enough to source cables and connectors almost exclusively from Lapp Miltronic AB, the Swedish Lapp subsidiary based in Nyköping.