Industrial Machinery and OEM

Bore 20–1000 mm, working pressure up to 500 bar, stroke 6000 mm and beyond, total length up to 16000 mm, operating temperature from -50°C to +200°C; double-acting, single-acting, telescopic and plunger designs, with position, pressure and temperature sensors built in on CANopen, IO-link or analog protocols where the control system calls for them. A press cylinder or a moulding machine clamp cylinder fails from cycling far more often than from corrosion. On these cylinders we forge the rod-eye integrally from the same bar as the rod, with no welded clevis. The forged joint has 3–5× higher fatigue resistance than a welded assembly, and there is no weld at the joint to inspect. Rods for indoor machinery carry 25–50 µm of hard chrome on a C45E or 42CrMo4 rod, induction hardened to HRC 55–62 under the plating. On high-cycle plunger systems and lifting equipment, where seal life is critical, we grind and superfinish the rod to Ra ≤ 0.1 µm. Plunger-type cylinders come with piston feedback and precision seals, and synchronised multi-point cylinders hold a lifting table or a large press bed level across several lift points. Every cylinder is pressure tested at 1.5× working pressure for at least five minutes before it leaves the workshop.

Typical parts

• Press and forming cylinders with forged rod-eye ends
• Clamp and ejector cylinders for injection moulding and die casting machines
• Plunger-type cylinders with piston feedback for machine tools
• Synchronised multi-point lifting cylinders for tables and large structures

Gear, planetary, axial-piston and radial-piston motors with displacement from 0.25 to 8000 cc/rev, working pressure up to 450 bar, speed from 0.5 to 12000 rpm and operating temperature from -40°C to +120°C. Presses, conveyors and material handling drives usually need high torque at moderate speed, and planetary and radial-piston motors are built for that duty. Mounting flanges follow SAE and DIN, so a replacement motor fits the original machine mount without an adapter. Each unit gets a functional test and a pressure test against the catalogue values before dispatch. Motors already running on a production line can be sent in for refurbishment during a planned maintenance shutdown.

Typical applications

• Drive motors for presses and forming machines
• Planetary and radial-piston motors for hoists and material handling
• Pumps and motors for hydraulic power units on automated lines
• Motors for machine tool auxiliary drives

Our Schiess lathes take shafts and housings up to 2 m in diameter and 16 m long. For machine builders we hold ±0.05 mm and IT6–IT7 fits on cylinder components, pump and valve housings and power transmission parts. We cut and grind gears for reducers and drives up to 2000 mm in diameter to ISO 1328, where grade 7 is the usual requirement for a loaded reducer stage, and we also make worm pairs, pinion shafts, gear racks and sprockets for conveyor drives. Hoist and slewing gearboxes on lifting tables and material handling equipment run intermittently under high torque and have to hold the load at every stop. Gears for that duty ship with case and core hardness records, an ISO 1328 geometry report and EN 10204 type 3.1 material traceability. Carburised gears have a case depth of 1 to 3 mm and a case hardness of 56 to 62 HRC, with a core hardness of 240 to 300 HB. When the maker no longer supports an old gearbox, we measure the worn wheel on the Zeiss Contura and cut the replacement from those measurements.

Typical parts

• Cylinder components, pump and valve housings, power transmission parts
• Gears for reducers and drives, up to 2000 mm, with worm pairs and racks
• Hoist and crane gearbox gearing for lifting equipment
• Replacement gears cut from a worn sample

We cast machine housings, brackets, covers and control enclosures in aluminium to ±0.1–0.3 mm with Ra 1.6–6.3 µm, so most surfaces need no machining afterwards. Wall thickness goes down to 0.5–1.5 mm. Depending on part weight, one cycle takes 30 seconds to 2 minutes. A gearbox or drive housing that carries bearing loads is cast the same way, then machined to H7 on the bearing bores and flat on the mounting flange. When the housing needs T6 strength, we cast it with vacuum assist, which keeps porosity low enough for the part to go through the T6 heat treatment without blistering. Anodising, powder coating, painting and T6 heat treatment are available for housings that carry load or sit on a machine frame. We X-ray castings that hold pressure or seal oil for porosity before they go into service.

Typical applications

• Machine housings, brackets and covers
• Gearbox and power-unit housings machined to H7 on the bearing bores
• Sensor and control housings for automated lines
• Enclosures for machine control panels

Small gears, pistons and levers for machine actuators and pump assemblies are usually ordered in quantities where sintering costs less than machining each one from bar, and sintering also uses up to 30% less material. Compaction pressure goes up to 800 MPa and density to 97%. Tolerance is ±0.05 mm as sintered and ±0.02 mm for MIM parts. The same pressing and sintering line makes spur and helical gears, chain and belt drive sprockets and pulleys, pump gears and gerotors for hydraulic power units, and miniature MIM gears for automation actuators. It also makes sintered porous filters in bronze, 316L, nickel and titanium with pore ratings from 0.2 to 100 µm. The filters can be backwashed and are rated for high temperature, so they suit the hydraulic and process fluid systems of a machine. We check density, hardness and dimensions on every lot.

Typical applications

• Sintered gears, sprockets and pulleys for drive trains and conveyors
• Pump gears and gerotors for hydraulic power units
• Miniature MIM gears, levers and latches for automation actuators
• Sintered porous filters for hydraulic and process fluid systems

Guide bushings, wear plates and seal faces in a press or a machine tool wear by erosion and galling. The wear is gradual, and the part goes on working while it loses tolerance, as nozzles and valve seats do in continuous service. We sinter tungsten carbide grades to ISO 513 in-house at 1350–1500°C, from K grades for abrasive wear to P and M grades for cutting duty. Seal faces and guide bores are diamond ground to ±0.01 mm and Ra 0.1–0.4 µm. The range also covers cutting tool blanks, wire-drawing dies and precision molds for press and moulding tooling, and we use HIP densification where a part has to be fully dense. Parts weigh from 0.001 to 300 kg and measure from Ø3 to 500 mm.

Typical applications

• Guide bushings and wear-resistant bushings for slides and workholding
• Wire-drawing dies and precision molds for press and moulding tooling
• Seal faces and pump components for hydraulic power units
• Cutting tool blanks for machine tool tooling