Over the past 20 years international usage of machine tools has risen by 70 per cent. Half of all such machines come from Europe alone and are supplied to more than 70 countries. These are figures published by the VDW, the German Machine Tool Manufacturers Association, and they indicate a major opportunity for suppliers of production technology. But in the global competition who really is ahead?
GUIDO BORN (Product Manager Workpiece Clamping Systems at ROEMHELD’s Hilchenbach site): The theme of this year’s EMO 2013 held by the VDW was “Intelligence in Production”, so it required intelligent solutions for production technology that are sustainable into the future so that they can cope with the enormous pressures on costs and the ever-increasing demands for efficiency and environmental sustainability. I think that we in Europe have a certain leadership role to play here in all of these aspects, and that we are ahead of the global competition.What does that mean for your particular sector - clamping technology?
GUIDO BORN: We are constantly striving to reduce clamping and set-up times for our customers in the machining of their workpieces. At EMO 2013 in Hanover we once again demonstrated some innovative automation solutions for workpiece clamping, and these were very well received. Shorter clamping and set-up times, longer machine runtimes, greater accuracy of workpiece machining and precise repeatability of every clamping force and positioning routine are the most significant advantages of this automation solution and they were a clear focus of our design work.
