DESMA invests in the USA in a new DMU 100 Monoblock 5-axis milling machine from Deckel Maho which is taking up work as of March 2010. With this vertical milling machine, the company receives yet another large machining center capable of producing moulds for its vertical and horizontal injection moulding machines sized up to 1,000 tons of clamping force.
Two years ago, DESMA started in the USA to expand operations by adding an in-house mould shop at the Hebron / Kentucky facility. The market reaction to these domestically produced mould and cold runners is overwhelmingly positive. In 2009 already, DESMA could book orders for its local US-production for the mould shop that exceeded all expectations. "Against the background of the economic situation in the USA, our company has a satisfactory backlog in both the mould shop as well as for our core machinery business" says Scott Early, President and CEO of DESMA in the USA. "At the North American location as well, we are the only supplier of machines with an in-house mould shop and convincing process development".
"The new DMU 100 complements our existing milling capabilities very well" says Derek Langtry, Mould Shop Manager at DESMA USA. "We will soon have two very high-quality milling centers to produce cavity plates, inserts, and cold runners locally and without being affected by currency fluctuations and logistics influences." The USA operations originally purchased a Hermle C 1200 milling center, a DMG CTX 410 turning center and a LGB 1690 surface grinder when the mould shop was first started.
The 5-axis DMU 100 milling center machines mould plates and inserts sized up to 1,150 x 710 mm. The 24,000 RPM spindle speed is perfectly suited to meet any kind of machining procedures. The machine equipment allows for the production of very complex geometrical mould parts such as the production of cavity cores. A tilting head on the machine allows for cavity engraving of large cavity inserts and mould plates.
"We strongly believe this mould-making capability will increase our value as a complete packages supplier to the rubber industry. The next logical steps are reasonable capacity extensions taking an increase in productivity into account" says President and CEO Scott Early.
DESMA USA employed two additional mould makers / CNC equipment operator in January. "We were fortunate to find qualified and talented individuals to help meet our customer's requirements for quality and delivery" stated Langtry. The company also plans to hire further mould designers proficient in Unigraphics to extend the existing design capacity. They expect to fill these positions within the next few months.
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