GROB - a strong, reliable partner in the automotive industry

By Niraj M Wanikar, Chief Editor, CNCTimes.com, 2017-03-06 11:58:00

With its acquisition of DMG meccanica, a leading machinery and plant manufacturer for electric motors, GROB strengthens its research and development work in electro mobility, expanding its portfolio, particularly in the automotive industry.

Mindelheim/Turin

At the end of January 2017, GROB acquired 100 percent shares in DMG meccanica, substantially reinforcing the competences and developments in electro mobility which it has been developing for several years. The technologies of DMG meccanica and the new processes developed by GROB will now enable GROB to provide all the vital manufacturing processes and procedures in electric drives for the automotive industry and its suppliers world-wide, and also to supply them for series production in the near future.

GROB and the automotive industry – a long tradition

With its highly complex manufacturing systems involving its own automation processes and with its machining assembly units and fully-automated assembly systems, GROB has always been a reliable partner in the automotive industry. Against the background of automotive transformation and the increasing importance of electro mobility, the number of inquiries fielded by GROB for projects involving electric drives has increased massively. Almost every car manufacturer now has hybrid or purely electrically-powered vehicles in its range, and consequently GROB is currently developing several projects for electric drives in the international automotive industry.

Projects which GROB is able to handle because it assessed market trends at an early stage and built up an independent development department for components and machines for manufacturing electric drives. Today, more than 25 specialists and development engineers work in this field. Working closely with well-known car manufacturers, they have begun advanced development of the vital "electric motor" and "battery module" components and analyzed the multitude of technology processes for the manufacture and design of the stators and brought them to further development. GROB is now clearly in a position to take on further large projects as general contractor for the complete powertrain for hybrid or purely electric drives and to provide machines and equipment for electric motors, battery modules and battery packs as well as fuel cells, and to produce these reliably for series production in the future.

Since GROB is one of the few machine tool manufacturers with high competence not only in the field of machining but also in assembly technology, GROB has evaluated its abilities in the field of electrical engineering and established that the company can achieve reasonable value creation in the winding technology segment. "It quickly became clear that to be able to advance professionally we must either develop winding technology ourselves or buy the appropriate technologies on the market," says German Wankmiller, Chairman of the GROB Board of Management, as he explains the strategy. "After intensive discussions with DMG meccanica, it soon became clear that the Turin-based machinery and plant manufacturer was the right partner for us."

It's a win-win for both partners

DMG meccanica has many years of specialization and experience in machinery and plant manufacture for the production of stators for electric motors, alternators and generators. The technological know-how is based on the tried-and-tested winding process of inserting technology and needle winding. Most of the machinery and plant of DMG meccanica is used directly in the automotive industry. GROB develops and tests new processes, developed specially for the manufacture of stators for electric motors in electric vehicles, in its own development department.

The future cooperation is therefore a win-win situation for both companies. GROB has secured further know-how in the field of electro mobility and DMG meccanica has found in GROB a strong, globally- oriented partner for series production. Further investments to expand these technologies in the field of electro mobility are planned at both sites in Turin and Mindelheim.

DMG meccanica - a well-known partner in machine and plant engineering for electric motors

Mauro Marzolla and the father of Marco Debilio founded DMG meccanica in 1992 from a spin-off of one of the leading Italian providers of winding machines for electric motors. In 2016, their company with a workforce of forty employees achieved a total turnover of ten million Euro. Their customer portfolio includes many well-known electric motor manufacturers and suppliers to the automotive industry. DMG meccanica is particularly well-represented in the important e-mobility market of China. 

Owners Mauro Marzolla and Marco Debilio will stay with the company in future and will continue to be co-CEO´s of DMG meccanica. In addition, DMG meccanica will remain an independent company within the GROB-Group, and all jobs in Italy will of course be retained.

GROB-WERKE - a leading machine tool manufacturer

GROB-WERKE is an internationally active family company based in the Bavarian-Swabian town of Mindelheim, with a product portfolio ranging from universal machining centers to highly complex manufacturing systems including automation, and from machining assembly units to fully-automated assembly lines. GROB is one of the few machine tool manufacturers that produces and supplies both machining and assembly equipment.

Since the production of electric motors demands special assembly know-how, it was logical for GROB to seek a competent partner from the field of electric motor technology. Its takeover of DMG meccanica enables GROB to emphasize more than ever its claim in drive technology to be a leading and reliable partner for the automotive industry. 

Link back to original 

• Follow @CNCTimes