Whether for food, beverages, pharmaceuticals, chemicals or water, anywhere liquids are processed will typically see a separator or a decanter at the heart of production. At GEA Westfalia Separator Group’s largest production site in Oelde, Germany, where 1900 people are employed, 120 centrifugal separators are produced every month with the help of 15 machine tools supplied by DMG Mori. These include turn-mill centres and five-axis machining centres and with a high degree of process integration.

One of the latest machines to be installed is a CTX gamma 3000 TC multi-tasking, twin-spindle, B-axis CNC lathe with MATRIS robotic loading and unloading, which supplies spindles to the drives production department in Oelde.

Various spindles undergo production, requiring combinations of turning, gear milling, deep-hole drilling, grinding and in-process measuring. The previous production route involved separate milling machines, turning centres and a cylindrical grinding machine, so work-in-progress and inter-machine handling were inherent in the process. The CTX gamma 3000 TC integrates all of the processes, including grinding, into one work area. Throughput times are considerably shorter and the original machines are free to perform other production tasks.

“The biggest advantage is the fully automated production of entire batches,” says Dennis Hartmann, head of industrial engineering in the Separators Business Unit. “The MATRIS system is designed to be served via four component pallets that are wheeled by pallet truck in and out of the loading area. The robot takes the raw parts and aligns them so that they can be clamped correctly in the chuck and steady rest. The finished parts are then placed back on the pallet.”

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