EROWA Report - SPÜHL GmbH

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REPORT - SPÜHL GMBH

Top equipped into the future At Spühl, everything pivots around springs. Literally. And has done so for more than 130 ­years. At that time, the first patents for coiling machines for the production of all kinds of furnishing and mattress springs were submitted.

Since 2014, the company has manufactured such facilities according to the insights of „Lean Manufacturing“. ­Just-in-time is not merely a buzzword, but a program.

Production in Switzerland r­ equires the highest degree of efficiency. An important component of this is EROWA‘s FMC ­manufacturing technology.

The company primarily serves its parent group, Legget & Platt, which runs operations all over the world. A s­ maller part of the machines it produces are sold on the free market. Under the brand of Spühl Production Services, services for general machine-building are provided in the German-speaking area. On the one hand, this ensures that the capacity of the production units is put to optimal use; on the other hand, the company‘s presence in the free market enables it to retain its fitness with regard to delivery speed and cost optimization.

Top equipment „If you want to be and remain competitive today, m ­ odern facilities and the constant improvement of the ­planning and production processes are indispensable,“ says ­Production Manager Patrick Jung, and illustrates this with an impressive guided tour of the production halls. „The standardization of components and processes provides us with planning security.

In this way, we lay the foundation of quality, adherence to delivery dates and c­ ompetitiveness. It‘s an impressive feature of our production that it covers a wide range of dimensions and manufacturing p ­ rocesses. This enables us to optimally process orders involving different requirements on our own premises. To survive in a „high-price island“ like Switzerland, the facilities must be automated in a way that enables us to change from one order to another flexibly and with the least amount of work, regardless of the batch size. With the new ­facilities by HELLER and EROWA, we‘re able to do so at an extremely competitive level. But what‘s equally important are: „

EROWA LoadMaster Compact loads HELLER FP14000. The walk-in setup station for user-friendly preparation of the workpieces to be machined.

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REPORT - SPÜHL GMBH

Top employees When asked about the support given to the entire Spühl team, Patrick Jung explains: „We regard our employees as our most important asset. Regular investment in basic and advanced training contributes to their personal development. This, in turn, results in satisfied and motivated people. Currently, we employ 200 people. We‘re also looking after the next generation: our trainees are the foundation for our future success.“ Digital twins The big challenge in the manufacture of one-off parts is automation with the smallest amount of effort. Spühl succeeds in this by means of a completely digital simulation of the production process. Some of the conditions required by this simulation are created with the use of the EROWA tooling system. Fixtures for the accommodation of workpiece blanks are mounted on precise pallet systems. Thus their position on setting-up stations and in machines can be repeated at any time. A further condition is satisfied through the unconditional standardization of data models, machines, tools, fixtures and components. Known values in all these fields create a situation whereby the simulations for the production process can ultimately be so close to reality that one-off parts can be produced with a minimal trial run. This saves presetting and setting-up time!

Automation has tradition The signs of the times were ­recognized by Spühl a long time ago. Back then, the company purchased HELLER machining centers with integrated automation. When the new generation of machines without automatic loading/unloading facility came onto the market, Spühl opted for the SCHULER linear storage system. The first facility with two-level linear storage was procured in 1998. By 2014, this had evolved into nine loading facilities of ­different types. The impressive thing throughout their operation was the high quality

of the facilities and the simultaneous trouble-free availability.

In 2019, Spühl acquired the first facility (HELLER HF 3500) with an EROWA Robot Dynamic 150 L. The selection process for this investment was absolutely open since Spühl was pursuing a new manufacturing strategy. „Our experience of an EROWA robot combined with a HELLER 5-axis production cell was very positive. By then, EROWA had taken over SCHULER‘s „LoadMaster“ product line. So we ordered the latest HELLER FP14000 with the LoadMaster Compact Extended by EROWA,“ says Patrick Jung.

LoadMaster Compact Extended In constant pursuit of improvement, Spühl regularly subjects its existing machines to critical assessments and replaces them if necessary. In this case, this concerned a plano milling machine with a travel range of six meters (one of the few machines without any automation). Since the main point is not buying a great machine but machining the most frequently occurring

Floor rack for innerspring production machine.

The components are 2.9 m long and 1.8 m wide.

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REPORT - SPÜHL GMBH

EROWA LoadMaster easy transfers palletized workpieces weighing up to 3000 kg to the machine. The production cell contains on two floors 10 storage spaces for pallets 1000mmx1000mm.

workpieces, Spühl first analyzed all the components with regard to size and machining requirements. As the company was used to ­dealing with large volumes, the widest interference circle of palletized workpieces was set at 3 meters. Thus the dimensional area would contain 80% of the parts to be expected, which meant that the value creation of a great proportion

of products would remain in-house and contribute to economic success. The procurement of the new 5-axis machining center with an automatic loading/unloading facility that was evaluated in this way replaces two older machines. However, this is only successful if the autonomy and thus the efficiency of the cell can also be realized.

High standards to be satisfied The new production cell has to face quite a few c­ hallenges. Components 2.9 meters in size have to be palletized, the storage system must be able to accommodate at least 10 pallets and should be able to be extended for further places. It must be possible for the workpieces, which weigh up to 3 tons, to be prepared on a walk-on presetting station.

The 5-axis machining center must be linked up with the existing ERP with a process control system that provides a clear overview.

Alexander Winter, Sales & Key Account Manager EROWA, Patrick Jung, Production Manager Spühl GmbH, Christoph Andris, Area Sales Manager HELLER Switzerland (f.l.t.r.)

Flexible use „Owing to the modular design of the automation unit, a­ daptations to our requirements with regard to

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REPORT - SPÜHL GMBH

the interference circle are very simple. Also, EROWA‘s process control system enables us to keep an overview of the complex order processing system. The operation of this control system is intuitive. You can see at once that the developers at EROWA let themselves be guided by practice. Thanks to the link-up with our ERP system, the operator knows at all times how far the orders have progressed and which ones are next in line for processing.“

The result Setting up such a big plant takes some time. In the case of this specific facility at Spühl, it took about two months. The installation proceeded well, however, the individual components are standardized and have to be connected with each other according to the „plugand-play“ concept, Cooperation between HELLER and EROWA went without a hitch. „The machine operators got the hang of things very well from the very first day,“ says Patrick Jung. Their experience of the EROWA automation and the JMS 4.0 process control systems could be applied 1:1 to the new facility.

According to HELLER‘s motto „If you want to complete as many tasks as possible with one single machine and want your production to be safe not only now but also in the future, then the purchase of a HELLER 5-axis machining center of the F series is the right decision“ and with the good experience gained with EROWA‘s automation, Spühl cannot fault anything connected with the cell to this day. The operators are highly satisfied with the ergonomics and the easily manageable software. The production management is pleased that it is able to rely on plannable production hours.

Copyright © 2021 - EROWA AG Spühl GmbH Maschinenfabrik Grüntalstrasse 23 CH-9300 Wittenbach SG info@spuhl.com www.spuhl.com

The EROWA process control system is intuitive and easy to use.

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