Schuler press assists with overseas expansion
A planned expansion abroad is a Herculean task for an SME. Nonetheless, automotive supplier Feinwerktechnik hago GmbH has taken the plunge, and just a few weeks ago the company opened a new site, hago Automotive Corp., in the southern USA. The key production system at the plant in Iuka, Mississippi is a 630 ton servo press from Schuler.
“As an SME with little experience in internationalization, it was extremely important to eliminate as many risks as possible“, explains Marcel Wegmann, authorized representative at Feinwerktechnik hago GmbH. “A Schuler press is a dependable, robust competitive premium product which guarantees reliability in the machinery pool.”
For Hago Automotive Corp., it is extremely important that the system can be used in a wide range of applications and is highly productive. As of 2017 it will be used to produce innovative sheet metal parts for body shells, gear boxes and exhaust gas systems for a new off-road vehicle from a premium German manufacturer.
“We see the Schuler press as a type of all-purpose weapon, which covers a very large part of our product portfolio”, says Marcel Wegmann. “It enables us to economically produce large parts in transfer operation as well as smaller parts using progressive dies with maximal stroke rate and accuracy.”
And that is not the only advantage: an identical system is located at hago’s headquarters in Küssaberg, Germany, on the border with Switzerland. “This means that we can also fully break-in and optimize complex dies that we have developed and constructed in Germany at the site in Küssaberg”, explains Marcel Wegmann. As a result, there is no need to run them in at the site in the USA.
“We have had a positive experience with our Schuler presses in Küssaberg in terms of service and product quality, and this tipped the scales decisively when it came to the investment decision in the USA“, adds Marcel Wegmann. “We hope that the new system will now provide us with a considerable competitive edge which we can also build upon over the long term.”