Agricultural machinery manufacturer Pöttinger has replaced an ageing flexible production system with four Heckert H75 horizontal machining centres from Starrag, integrated with automation from Promot. The complete system was installed and commissioned in just 12 weeks, while minimising disruption to ongoing operations.
Based in Grieskirchen, Austria, Pöttinger manufactures equipment for grassland management, farming and digital agriculture. Its products are customised, making flexible manufacturing essential. Components range from small structural steel parts weighing around 300 g to gearbox housings weighing 27 kg, with some requiring micrometre-level accuracy.
The company selected the Heckert H75 for its combination of precision, rigidity, energy efficiency and generous working envelope, despite a compact footprint. Promot integrated the four machines with a five-level, 134-position pallet storage system and a master computer linked to SAP.
A key advantage is the shared tool management system. Each machine has a 260-position tool magazine, with Promot’s gantry loader enabling the exchange of tools between all four machines. This capability provides access to 1040 tools and allows production control to allocate components to whichever machine is available.
Meeting the demanding 12-week installation deadline required extensive preparation. Starrag supplied digital twins of the machining centres, while Pimpel’s CHECKitB4 software enabled the simulation and checking of NC programs before installation. Pöttinger programmers also tested machining operations on the actual machines at Starrag’s Chemnitz factory in Germany.
Further productivity gains came from moving workpiece cleaning outside the machine. While a completed component undergoes cleaning at a dedicated set-up station, machining can continue on the next part. This workflow saves at least one minute per pallet change, equivalent to almost 20% of the cycle time.
Pöttinger can manage the four identical machines as a single production resource, allowing the flexible distribution of orders.
More information www.starrag.com
