LEADING IN POWER
HYDRAULICS Created in 1945 as the National Tractor and Agricultural Machinery Company, and following a number of production-focus changes over the decades, Hydrotor S.A. is today one of Poland’s leading manufacturers of power hydraulics appliances. The Hydrotor Group employs over 760 people, while Hydrotor S.A. has 340 staff. Piotr Sadowski writes for ‘Industry Europe’.
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ydrotor’s core area of manufacturing lies in constructions based on innovative technological and engineering solutions; the product range includes high pressure pumps, gear pumps, control valves, selector valves, hydraulic aggregates and cylinders, power sources and flow meters. “We also produce parts for machinery and appliances,” says Marcin Andrearczyk, representing Hydrotor S.A. “In order to fully meet the demands of the market we are currently working on modernising our machine park and plan to expand the scope of production to include new types of gear pumps, valve blocks and valves, as selector systems. In mid-2012 we started the operation of a new large element processing unit as well as a low noise level pumps project.” Hydrotor’s offer also includes the renovation of elements of power hydraulics – pumps, actuators, selectors and other elements of hydraulics, something that the company has been carrying out since its beginnings nearly 70 years ago. Over the decades it has established its own, unique methods of renovating hydraulics elements. “We offer one-year guarantees on our renovated elements, which should be a strong confirmation that they are highly reliable,” confirms Mr Andrearczyk. “In recent years we have also gained a lot of experiences with orders for repairs coming from foreign manufacturers.”
Large-scale investments As Mr Andrearczyk points out, the continuous expansion of manufacturing capabilities is what the market and the clients expect of Hydrotor. Every year, the company plans new investments in its machine park. “In 2012 we completed and launched our biggest ever investment – the Centre for Precise Processing of Large Elements – worth over PLN 28 million,” says Mr Andrearczyk. “The Centre was a result of R&D activities carried out together with the Technological and Environmental University in Bydgoszcz as part of activities 1.4–4.1 of the Operating Programme ‘Innovative Economy’. The result of this work is the Centre which enables us to carry out the most complex and precise processing of large-size elements at the highest levels of quality and capability. Owing to their size and weight, these elements would be impossible to process without the operations of the highly innovative and modern Centre, which employs the latest technologies which, in turn, guarantee long-life elements, easier assembly as well as new methods for repairing and regenerating parts.” The machine park where high-precision processing takes place is equipped with two MIKROMAT 20V portal centres, where manufacturing processes take place in an air-conditioned production hall at a temperature of 19.8°C, with variations being no bigger than 0.48°C/2 hours. The company
is able to process elements (up to sizes of 5000mm/2500mm/1850mm and maximum weight of 15 tonnes) to the precision of several micrometres. “We regularly process elements of machinery from such well-known producers as Kovosvit MAS – one of the largest manufacturers of CNC processing appliances in Europe, and SW–Schwäbische Werkezegumaschinen GmbH, a major producer of CNC processing machines for the automotive industry, but we also focus on processing elements used in industrial sectors such as aircraft, wind energy and other areas where the highest precision is required,” summarises Mr Andrearczyk.
Excellent technological equipment In addition to the Centre, Hydrotor also operates the largest CMM Zeiss MMZG machine in Poland for measuring processed elements, as well as for carrying out external measurement services. The MMZG 30/60/20 machine, manufactured by Carl Zeis consortium, enables measurements to be carried out in the range of X-3000mm, Y-6000mm, Z-2000mm, at the highest precision. The Maximum Permissible Error for Length Measurement is 3.5+L/400μm. In order to increase the possibility of measuring large elements, the machine has been mounted on 700mmhigh pillars, thus increasing the clearance over the portal to 3200mm.
