pso GmbH in Diepoldsau, Switzerland, stands for high-precision machining incorporating state-of-the-art equipment. Since its foundation in 2016, the company has quickly developed into an efficient partner in milling, turning and measuring – with innovative and customer-specific manufacturing and quality control. With this focus, pso GmbH positions itself not only as a manufacturer of individual parts, but also as a reliable service provider for serial production, consistently meeting and further developing the requirements of its customers in mechanical and plant engineering. Accordingly, manufacturing processes are optimised for efficiency and process reliability wherever possible in order to reduce throughput times and manual rework.
New innovative approaches were required for the production of two workpieces that are ultimately used in the energy industry. The burrs on the four holes were previously removed by hand on both sides using a standard countersink tool, however, this carried the risk of forgetting to deburr some areas, which in turn could lead to customer complaints. Manual machining also meant that the deburring results were not consistent. In addition, the process was very time-consuming and took up around an hour of an employee's time every day. Around 12,000 pieces of one workpiece were required annually, and as many as 15,000 pieces of the other – a total of around 108,000 bores that needed to be deburred on both sides. It quickly became clear to managing director Philipp Sonderegger that a superior solution was needed.
As an experienced machinist, he contacted the deburring specialist HEULE, whose headquarters are located just ten minutes away from his production facility. Together with the Swiss representative, Eisenbart GmbH, various solutions were evaluated. The positive aspect for finding a solution was that the drill diameters were identical for all bores.
The first option was the SNAP chamfering tool, which reliably removes burrs by chamfering both edges of the bore after the drilling process. The mechanical tool could be easily integrated into the available machine and the existing process. This completely eliminated the manual operation, which greatly improved process reliability.
As an experienced problem solver, HEULE had another solution ready for pso GmbH: the VEX combination tool, which combines drilling and deburring in a single tool and thus in a single operation. This eliminates the need for another tool change, further reducing the cycle time.
The responsible persons at pso GmbH were enthusiastic, and initial tests were carried out. The tedious process step of manual deburring was eliminated, and process reliability increased significantly. The cycle time per workpiece was reduced to just 17 seconds, and the service life is also impressive: the blade has lasted for 15,000 operations. Philipp Sonderegger is convinced:
All of these results are in line with pso GmbH and its high standards for optimised production.