The challenge was a variety of small parts that had to be manufactured in unmanned operation. Following intensive tests, people at Nedinsco B.V., located in Venlo, The Netherlands, decided to invest in the machining center FEHLMANN PICOMAX 90. The machine ran without any problems and in combination with the Erowa automation almost  4,000 spindle hours per year were achieved.  Against the background of these positive experiences, the company purchased another two PICOMAX 54 for their prototype  workshop. In 2014, the next project was on the horizon in Venlo, and although Wim Peters, Manager Production at Nedinsco, describes the Fehlmann machines as low-maintenance, stable and precise, this was not going to be a sure-fire success. Quite the contrary, the tender was addressed to five premium machine tool manufacturers - all top-league players. Investment was finally made in the machining center FEHLMANN VERSA 825 in connection with the Robot System ERS by Erowa and the job management system JMS Pro. For Wim Peters, this was a decision which has been paying off in every respect until today: „Premium machine or low-cost ... this is not an alternative for us. At that time, the machining center VERSA 825 was the perfect machine for us, as it provided us with a high degree of flexibility and we were able to achieve the requested accuracy of two µm. Also, reliability was of great importance to us, as our machining shop is a supplier of the assembly department.  Any delay in delivery due to a machine failure would be disastrous. It may well be that we could have bought a less expensive machine, but then one has to start doing one's homework considering that we machine cost-intensive parts in small lots. And this with such small tolerances that we absolutely cannot afford to produce a single defective part.“
According to Wim Peters, low-cost alternatives are a tricky business, anyway, as it has become almost impossible to compare the offers of the machine tool manufacturers with each other. While the Fehlmann machine is an all-inclusive package equipped with everything, including the requested precision, other suppliers often charge extra for optional equipment, without which production of high-precision parts would not be possible at all. Moreover, people in Venlo regard production reliability as another big advantage of the Fehlmann machine. The older machines by Fehlmann demonstrate in an impressive way what reliability actually means. Since the year 2000, the original range of workpieces has been machined on these machines within a tolerance of a few hundredths of a millimeter.

Blind understanding supports high turnover
And the current VERSA 825 is in no way inferior to them in this respect. Meanwhile, 5,000 machine hours have been achieved in two shifts including unmanned production - effortlessly cutting cast parts, steel and aluminum. Tools do not have to be changed anymore thanks to the high-capacity rack magazine, with space for up to 218 tools. This also eliminates a source of mistakes.  While one operator is solely responsible for loading the system, a second operator also takes care of loading plus programming. This "blind understanding" of the system is one of the reasons for the extremely high turnover of the machine. This turnover will also be required for the tasks to come. Older machines are to be replaced with newer ones. According to Wim Peters, there is a simple reason for people at Nedinsco again tending to decide in favor of a Fehlmann machine: „As long as our range of workpieces will not change in terms of tolerances, size and complexity, one has to come up with really good reasons to convince us not to invest in Fehlmann.  Plus, where automation is concerned: When thinking about purchasing a new system, you really would like to avoid spending even more money on new clamping devices and fixtures or pallets. In other words - for us, the combination of Fehlmann and Erowa is made-to-measure.“
In addition to this, the decision-makers in Venlo are planning a new workpiece range which is to run for three years. Again, this project is subject to the closest of tolerances, but follows a different principle.  Instead of the current flexibility, the focus is placed on piece numbers and unit costs.  This is project for which time studies, clamping devices, automation solutions, etc. are still being created or analyzed. The declared target is to involve as few employees as possible in this new system.  In view of all of the positive experiences, it almost goes without saying that intensive talks are already being held with Fehlmann in connection with this project .

Nedinsco at a glance
The company was founded by the German manufacturer Carl Zeiss Jena in 1921. Since 1953, the privately owned company has concentrated on the development and manufacture of optical, electronic and mechanical systems and cameras for the industrial sectors of diagnostics & semiconductor technology as well as for civil and military markets. With more than 100 employees, however, Nedinsco also offers additional machining capacities, among others in the fields of turning, milling, honing, grinding, lapping as well as in electrical discharge machining or gearbox production.  Additionally, processes like anodizing, chromating and galvanizing count among the core competences in surface treatment.

Performance limits far from being exhausted
In Venlo, the FEHLMANN VERSA 825 is used for machining all materials like glass, steel and predominantly aluminum. Until then, the full machine performance had not been required to perform such processes. 

By the way ...
Wim Peters: „When considering an investment in the VERSA, we also compared the potential automation solutions. In contrast to other concepts, the combination with Erowa made the system easily accessible from all sides and simply the perfect solution for all our requirements.“

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