High-quality control software optimizes yield

Customers trust in proven WinMax control.

HURCO scores points with customers with the “WinMax” dialog control. Fast and at the same time safe programming creates high confidence in the plants.

Pliening, May 2015: Mechanical engineering trade fairs and symposia are increasingly dominated by questions about the “right” control. The background to this development is the high pressure to optimize with regard to sustainable economic efficiency and customer satisfaction. HURCO GmbH shows how a manufacturer of machine tools and machining gantries can translate this task into a successful machine concept.

“Our WinMax control is completely geared to the performance data of our machines. It is consistently oriented in its design to user requirements,” explains Michael Auer, Managing Director of HURCO GmbH.

The importance of this philosophy for the success of the company’s machining centers is demonstrated by the experiences of HURCO customers.

System and control are safe, we have very good experience with them

Philipp Engelbreit, Managing Director of Engelbreit & Sohn GmbH, was convinced by the detailed options of the HURCO machines and the clear, concise design of the control: “We have been working with HURCO machining centers for seventeen years. This control is so simple in principle that with the WinMax we have an intercultural production tool in our hands. We do not have to teach our workforce a multitude of German technical terms in various languages. A basic understanding of the German language is enough.” The contract manufacturing company’s confidence in the machines goes so far that it is quite possible to have the systems there working unmanned overnight in three-shift operation. “We check the wearing parts beforehand, of course, but the plant and control system are safe. Our experience with this has been very good,” reports Philipp Engelbreit.

Versatility is the competitive advantage

“The versatility of the HURCO control makes complex work simple. Quickly readable data meets a wide range of machine options. We can define up to 9,999 tools,” reports Michael Hamsen, Technical Managing Director of Miratec Kunststofftechnik GmbH. For him, versatility is an invaluable competitive advantage in the production of individual parts. Thanks to the control’s tool and material library option, each tool only has to be set up once. It is then stored in the control and can be called up again for each subsequent job. The very fast and precise handling via WinMax extends from start to finish. This is exactly what he needs every day with hundreds of parts. Thanks to the program database, he can call up and produce repeat parts in detail even years later – even on another machine from HURCO.

Variety of supply options

For Klaus Schmid, Managing Director of Schmid Metalltechnik GmbH, all these aspects are important. But for him, the real advantage lies in the quotation options of the WinMax. The operator can select from them without having to learn a new language straight away, he reports: “The user guidance is like a modern PC in the office: I call up a writing program when I want to write. And a page appears on the screen analogous to the printout later. When I enter “mill” in WinMax, I am also shown on the two screens how and what is being milled.”

Read in DXF data and off you go – quickly and safely

Andreas Husemann, production manager at TBA Projekt GmbH, agrees: “Dialog programming has really taken off for us. We no longer have to spend a lot of time programming and entering data. We read in DXF data, for example, and off we go – quickly and reliably”. Semi-skilled workers can call up ready-written programs, run them and thus handle production peaks in series production. The operator receives a one-time introduction to the control and runs the parts. This is due to the intuitive operation of WinMax using only a few keys, the extensive graphics options and the self-explanatory user interface. HURCO Managing Director Michael Auer knows this scenario well: “From a purely economic point of view, such orders are only attractive for contract manufacturers if they can operate with inexpensive labor. Then these orders pay off and create a competitive advantage. With our machines and WinMax DXF software, we help them achieve this.”

Contact:
HURCO Werkzeugmaschinen GmbH
Alexandra Banek
Gewerbestraße 5 a
85652 Pliening
Phone +49 89 905094 29
abanek@hurco.de