The productivity rewards – and therefore the cost savings – being gained by companies of every size and in every industry sector using Starrag machines is probably the best kept secret in UK engineering!
Whatever the component, from 1 gm to 200 tonnes, and whatever the material, Starrag ensures it is consistently ‘Engineering precisely what you value’ to ensure every user gain higher quality components machined in faster cycle times and produced right first time, every time.
“Whether the need is to improve the production processes on existing workpieces or to establish world-class machining routines for new contracts, the Starrag team’s level of commitment and expertise is unrivalled,” says Lee Scott, Starrag UK‘s Director for Sales and Applications. “That includes tapping into the expertise of our engineers in Switzerland and Germany, if appropriate, to complement our UK-based applications engineering skills and lisiaing closely with all interrested parties.
“In every case, we consider the workpiece first and foremost to develop best-in-class machining and production routines – and selecting and suggesting the right machine with complementary technological solutions – to improve customers‘ bottom lines while, for example, guaranteeing 95% uptimes in the most cost-effective ways. Users can achieve significant business benefits; in one case, Heckert HEC machining centres have reduced processing times by around 40% in the machining of screw compressor housings for one supplier.
Starrag machines are for companies of all sizes – and all budgets, says Mr Scott. “UK-based OEMs have been realising enormous benefits from their Starrag partnerships for some years, but I would emphasise that every company of every size in a supply chain can also enjoy similar machining rewards.”
The ‘new’ Heckert range of machining centres have been purposely developed to appeal to the sub-contract market. The machines employ “every technical advancement in the book” to be affordable yet high-performance. These new Heckert models have footprints of up to 30% less than traditional horizontal machines – thanks to a re-positioned swarf conveyor, re-arranged coolant and lubrication systems, and the use of a one-piece sheet metal machine ‘skin’ - which results in an estimated 15% increase in productivity per unit area, and they have:
- Traverse rates up to 80 m/min;
- Tool change (chip-to-chip) times down to 2.7 secs and
- Pallet change times down to 8.5 secs.
Featuring many aspects of Starrag’s well-proven machine construction principles – including a mineral bed for optimum temperature and vibration resistance, linear guideways and a centralised swarf conveyor, as well as unified and easily accessible coolant and lubricant systems – the machines boast minimal downtime and therefore high levels of reliability.
The flexibility of Starrag’s solutions can be illustrated by the fact that the Heckerts, for example, can be supplied as stand-alone units or configured as cells/systems in conjunction with Heckert’s own linear pallet system, a workpiece transportation solution that again is relatively low-cost and therefore adds further cost savings to the equation.
Importantly, too, Starrag UK offers a superlative level of customer service, based on a team of 20 customer-facing service specialists covering the whole the UK and Eire, including 13 very experienced, highly-trained and skilled ‘mobile’ service engineers who each have an average of 15 to 20 years’ experience of the Starrag machine technologies.
The importance of machine reliability – and the role of machine suppliers in enabling users to achieve optimum machine operating levels – is also emphasised by Dr Bernhard Bringmann, managing director of Starrag AG.
“Building and supplying functional and reliable machine tools is not necessarily the main challenge today,” he says. “Rather, the quest is for machine suppliers to create true partnerships with customers where every aspect of the production process is closely scrutinised and continually optimised.
“Starrag has historically been successfully doing this on the global OEM and top tier suppliers platform. It is not a secret! But supply chain companies of every size throughout the UK can also achieve similar rewards.”