The owner-managed company Schweiger in Uffing am Staffelsee in Upper Bavaria focuses on one of the most demanding industries: the automotive industry. For Managing Director Anton Schweiger and his approximately 75 employees, this means that every injection mold produced must meet the highest standards of precision and quality. This means facing up to global competition, which is subject to enormous cost pressure, among other things.

However, the trained toolmaker and his team have adapted to this and positioned themselves accordingly. They rely on an automated and reliable process chain that results in injection molds that meet all requirements. In 2016, the company built a new production hall and invested in two DMC 210U and 270U 5-axis machining centers from DMG Mori, which are able to completely machine even XXL components in a single clamping operation. Equipped with appropriate pallet automation, the machines run around the clock, seven days a week - with a single-shift operation. The weekends are completely unmanned. This requires maximum process reliability across all relevant components and functions.

In this respect, Anton Schweiger has also focused on tool clamping technology, the often underestimated interface between spindle and tool. It bears great responsibility for the quality of the machining, the service life of the spindle and the service life of the tools. The milling specialists at Schweiger swear by their collaboration with Haimer in this respect.

Quality makes the difference

For Schweiger production manager Andreas Orterer, the main argument for the intensive cooperation is the quality: "With Haimer products, we can be sure that we always get the quality that meets our high requirements." Schweiger now uses a four-digit number of Haimer tool holders with shrink-fit technology. There are also two Power Clamp shrink-fit units and a Tool Dynamic balancing unit in production. Orterer adds: "Haimer provides us with everything we need for tool clamping from a single source, which is very convenient for us. You can also tell that the shrinking and balancing devices have been developed by experts. They are easy to operate and produce quick results."

This also applies to the Microset tool presetter Uno autofocus 20|70, which is located between the shrinking and balancing devices at Schweiger. This is now also a Haimer product, after the Bavarian company took over the Microset tool presetting technology in Bielefeld in 2017. Compared to the manual version, the Uno autofocus is able to automatically focus the cutting edge to be measured in the C-axis. This option is particularly time-saving for tools with several cutting edges on the circumference. The bottom line is that the device allows set-up times to be reduced by up to 70 percent thanks to presetting outside the machine.

Andreas Haimer, Managing Director of Haimer, says: "With the acquisition of Microset tool presetting technology, we have become a system provider for tool management. Microset perfectly complements our existing portfolio of high-precision tool, clamping, shrinking and balancing technology."

Anton Schweiger, who is also Vice President of the Association of German Tool and Mold Makers (VDWF), has been using Haimer tool holders for more than two decades. When the toolmaker bought his first HSC machine around 20 years ago, he switched from mechanical collet chucks to the shrink fit chucks offered by Haimer due to their improved concentricity. He was impressed by the high quality of the shrink fit chucks. "With the shrink fit chucks, for example, this is noticeable in the concentricity, which is consistently below 3 µm as standard."