SPRINGS

If you have never visited Rochdale in the north English county of Lancashire (yes, the one with the red rose), you can be forgiven, even though two hundred years ago the city with 100,000 inhabitants was one of the first industrial towns in the world and was at least as important as Manchester which, located just 30 miles to the south, is both larger and far better known today – in the same way that Ingolstadt is not as well known as München and Chalon-en-Champagne is not as famous as Paris, although historically the smaller towns were by no means of lesser importance than the larger ones.
To describe its geographic location more precisely, Rochdale is situated exactly between Liverpool and Leeds – that is, bang in the middle of the triangle made up by Manchester, Leeds and Blackpool – in the wide valley of the little river Roch, to which the town – surprise, surprise – owes its name. At least, the footie and rock fans among us are now completely in the picture.
The first steam-driven machines were in operation in Rochdale as early as the 18th century, mostly for the wool and cotton processing industry, but even today, one of the largest still functioning steam-driven machines can still be admired there once a month.
Though the days of steam-driven machinery and the textile industry belong to the past, Rochdale has remained an important industrial city to this day. This is due not least to companies like Hanson Springs Ltd, which has clinched a leading position in its field.
Hanson Springs has attained this high level chiefly thanks to its experienced and highly motivated staff in its workshops and offices, its sales teams and agents, says Malcolm Hanson, who founded the company in 1967. Besides its proximity to its customers, the enterprise also benefits from being privately owned, enabling it to make quick decisions that lead to ideal and individual solutions for its customers.
Thanks to these success factors, Hanson Springs today employs 170 staff, 140 of whom are “blue collar” workers. The majority of employees live within a 10km radius of the two production facilities, both of which are just 2km apart. In the one location smaller lots are produced according to traditional methods, whilst the other facility focuses on larger springs in larger volumes, which is why production there is more highly mechanised. Hanson attaches much importance to training junior staff and thus works closely with regional and national institutions. Rochdale can therefore expect to produce superior knowledge well into the future.
Hanson Springs chiefly manufactures helical compression springs of different sizes and thicknesses. The wire diameters alone vary from 0.2 to 80 millimetres. The materials used mainly include steels, Inconel and other nickel-based alloys, as well as Wolfram and cobalt alloys. All in all, around 3,500 tonnes are processed every year.
To achieve maximum customer proximity and fast delivery, Hanson Springs has set up warehouses in the most important regions of the world. One of them, located in the USA, was recently expanded into a production facility for springs with wire diameters up to 10 millimetres.
At the two facilities in Rochdale 25 spring coilers are in operation, 16 of which are CNC machines. Eight servo-motor CNC machines are from Austria. They include the WIM-4, WIM-8, WIM-12, WIM-14, WIM-20 and WIM-38-type spring lathe coilers for cold coiling produced by Styrian manufacturer Fortuna Federn, based in Pölfing-Brunn, Austria.
Fortuna Federn emerged from a company group which has been making springs since 1975 under the direction of Juray Fofonjka in Styria. The firm transferred production to Croatia in 1989. At that time, the decision was also made to invest its great experience and knowledge in the development of spring coilers – once again in Styria. In 1998 Juray Fofonjka’s youngest son Goran and his older brothers Dalibor and Drazen took over the direction of machinery maker Fortuna Federn which employs more than 50 members of staff.
The product spectrum is broad. It embraces not only the WIM and COM-type CNC spring lathe coilers, but also looping devices, hydraulic looping machines, trimming machines and power reels. In addition, Fortuna Federn provides a service of retrofitting and overhauling such machines. All the machines are configured in accordance with its customer’s wishes.
The WIM CNC spring lathe coilers such as those used by Hanson Springs, are driven by servo-motors and are designed for cylindrical and also sometimes conical helical springs as well as leg springs made from round stock such as rods or rings. Thanks to their servo-motors they achieve high production speeds. They automatically draw in the stock and coil and trim it – even cutting the wire in the middle of the last coil when combined with the additional EXT WCS external cutting unit. The new HMI CNC control from Fortuna Federn is particularly user-friendly despite the many options it offers. It is designed completely in line with Fortuna’s slogan “Set up – start – walk away”. The standard designs of the WIM CNC series extend up to wire diameters of 65 millimetres. On request, Fortuna Federn also develops machines for thicker wires.
The COM CNC series – which Hanson Springs does not use – is also driven by servo-motors and produces high volumes of cylindrical and conical tension and compression springs made of a diversity of materials in thicknesses up to 20 millimetres. The external spring diameter extends up to 120 millimetres depending on the model. In developing this series, attention was also paid to flexible yet user-friendly control.
Malcolm Hanson also praises how quick and easy it is to fit and set the Austrian machines. He also appreciates the many options they offer as well as their reliability. The price to performance ratio is clearly good, providing Hanson with a considerable competitive advantage. “Fortuna Federn gives you great performance and reliability for your money,” says Malcolm Hanson.
User-friendly control is great but it does, of course, require training for both the operators and maintenance staff. “Even here, we can only voice our praise,” confirms Malcolm Hanson. The same can be reiterated when it comes to service, although Fortuna Federn does not have a representative directly in the UK; however, from Graz, Austria’s second largest city, it does not take long to travel to Manchester, which just happens to be the UK’s second largest city.
And cross-language communication also works well – from family-run company to family-run company, from entrepreneur to entrepreneur. The decision-making channels are short and direct, and problems are quickly eradicated.
In a nutshell: The Rochdale-based company is so pleased with the spring lathe coilers from Fortuna Federn that it has already ordered two more WIM-20 and WIM-63-type machines for 2009 – even though, the year ahead promises to be challenging. Having said that, Hanson Springs does not depend on the car industry and is built on a solid foundation, which can also be said of Fortuna Federn.

Name:*

 

E-Mail:*

(Ihre E-Mail wird nicht veröffentlicht)

 

Kommentar:*

 

 

Absenden