Betrouwbaar, ook bij zwaar gebruik

Lemken is a maker of agricultu- ral machinery based in the town of Alpen in the lower Rhine region, 50 km north-west of Düsseldorf. The company‘s products have one thing in common: they face hard usage. They must do their work reliably for year after year, even in sandy, hard and dry ground. Out in the field, the hardness and wear resistance of the materials, combined with a degree of elasticity, is what matters.
“For many components, we use special steels, with hardness figures of up to 65 HRC. All the normal options for metal cutting are exhausted above 60 HRC“, explains Karl Heinz Burchartz, the responsible specialist engineer in the metal cutting department. „Not just anybody can drill holes or mill materials like that – anyone who wants to machine steels that are this hard needs very special know-how. They also need the right stock of machines.“ The blades of Lemken‘s „Thorit“ cultivator, for instance, are made from a highly wear-resistant steel of this kind. A HEDELIUS CNC control stand centre from the RS-100 makes several holes in each blank. 24 hours a day. Day after day. With absolutely reliable, long-term precision.

Reduced idle time

Thanks to „shuttle machining“, the machine is in constant use: while cutting proceeds in the left-hand part of the machine, the push of a button opens the large sliding door on the right, and the operative can clamp the next workpiece into place. Unproductive idle time is thus reduced to a minimum. „The HEDELIUS is fast, flexible, and above all highly accurate“, explains Burchartz. „It might just have been made for our product range.“
When extremely hard materials are to be machined, it is important that the machine is unusually stable, is very stiff, and that vibrations are damped by optimally matched components. Here again, the HEDELIUS machining centers have impressed the cutting experts at Lemken.

Lemken took the decision to purchase a machine democratically: the family concern puts a lot of value on open, trusting communication with employees and business partners. Before buying the HEDELIUS BC 100, department manager Karl Heinz Burchartz discussed the performance that would be needed from a new machine with the company‘s machine operators.
And what did Lemken‘s machine operators like? Every HEDELIUS machining centre is ergonomically designed, providing easy, fast access to the clamping equipment and tools. The height of the machine table, the doors, the operating panel, the pivoting NC terminal – everything has been designed with the user in mind. Control and monitoring facilities such as laser tool monitoring, tool life monitoring, tool wear monitoring, 3D sensor and motor-driven doors all increase the level of automation in the production process and preclude operator errors.
Close contact with the machine maker along with competent, fast service were very important for the agricultural equipment builder. „We supply an urgently needed spare part to our customers within 24 hours“, explains Burchartz. „And HEDELIUS does the same – they are like us.“ He gets the impression that HEDELIUS does not merely react to the user‘ needs, but works hard to have those needs steer product development.

Something that Lemken‘s managers value on top of the collaborative partnership and highly personalized approach taken by HEDELIUS is the good price/performance ratio. This has been achieved through the platform strategy, adopted by the machine builder from the automobile industry some years ago. Machining centers for highly varied requirements can be assembled with great efficiency from standard subassemblies. Expensive special solutions are therefore only needed in very rare cases.

The Meppen firm delivered the first HEDELIUS to Alpen more than five years ago. Six CNC-controlled machining centers, from various performance classes, are now in continuous use at Lemken – so far there has hardly been any down-time.

At a glance

Reduce idle time

The RS-100 series has a divided working chamber: while machining is going on in the left-hand part of the machine, the operator can already be clamping the next workpiece in the right-hand side. Unproductive idle time can be reduced to a minimum by „shuttle machining“ of this kind.

In profile

Lemken

Lemken Lemken is one of Europe‘s leading makers of agricultural machinery, and employs 750 workers. The firm has been in the hands of one family for 227 years. In Germany alone, every third turnover plough and every third cultivator is made by Lemken. 9000 professional machines are shipped from the family firm each year: ploughs, cultivators, devices for seedbed preparation, circular spike harrows, seed drills and crop sprayers.

Lemken GmbH & Co. KG
D-46519 Alpen
Phone: 02802/81-0
E-Mail: info@lemken.de

Fertigung - The trade magazine for metal processing/10/2007

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