Making it BIG
An order for 50 compressor houses was tempting. But the large, cubical, 2.4-tonne workpieces would send Swiss newcomer PRO-CAM CNC AG into uncharted territory. With help from partner Sandvik Coromant, the company won the contract, and six months later it delivered the goods.
PRO-CAM CNC AG (PRO-CAM) owner Heinz Krähenbühl is passionate about his work. “I must manufacture things or I get all fidgety,” he says with a broad smile. His company’s production facility, situated in the town of Huttwil, 50 kilometres east of the Swiss capital, Bern, is bathed in light, and the floors are spotless. It’s a pleasant work environment, and it’s where the PRO-CAM founder can be found each day, starting as early as 5 am. He runs the company with his wife, Sandra, who manages purchasing and the administration.
Large workpieces have always been PRO-CAM’s speciality, starting more than 20 years ago when Krähenbühl saw a need and started his company. At the time he was still employed as a machine operator in a workshop. “They constantly had to turn down assignments because they couldn’t handle such large pieces,” he says.
Krähenbühl started his business in a rebuilt stable less than 240 square metres in size. “It was one machine and me,” he remembers. Here he could turn pieces up to six metres in length. Demand was high. Investments in new and bigger machines and a move to larger premises followed, and finally Krähenbühl built an entirely new facility in Huttwil, centred around the humongous portal machines that could accommodate workpieces of up to 50 tonnes and 16 metres in length. The company grew rapidly, with orders coming in from customers as diverse as train manufacturers, solar energy companies and even a large machine manufacturer in southern Germany.
Early on, Krähenbühl started looking for new tools and new strategies for machining processes to meet the demands of his customers and his growing company. An intense collaboration began with Max Dreier, the senior technical specialist at Sandvik Coromant in Switzerland. “It was totally outstanding,” says Krähenbühl. He describes Dreier as a “thoroughbred technician” with “decades” of experience, who “came immediately for even the smallest problem”.
The collaboration gained a new dimension in 2015 when PRO-CAM needed to invest in a new machine to be able to compete for an important order for compressor houses. Instead of the typical large, long workpieces, the order required compact, cubic parts of cast iron 1,400 x 1,700 x 1,200 millimetres in dimension with a weight of 2.4 tonnes. “This was uncharted territory for us,” Krähenbühl says.
At the time, PRO-CAM lacked experience in drilling pieces. “For us it was extremely important that we were able to benefit from Sandvik Coromant’s experience,” Krähenbühl says. Together with the Sandvik Coromant technical support in Switzerland, the machinery was planned along with a selection of milling tools and a large number of special tools from Sandvik Coromant for different drilling methods. “Since then we stick together, no matter what,” he says.
Max Dreier looks back on those hectic months. “It was a lot of hard work,” he says. “But we were convinced that PRO-CAM had all the best chances to win the order.” The solution they came up with was to acquire an FPT Spirit. It’s a heavy drill and mill machine with a hydrostatic slide system and two turning tables of 3,000 x 2,000 mm that each can move 2,000 mm and with a work area of 10,000 x 1,500 x 4,300 millimetres, mainly used in areas such as power generation, heavy machinery and shipping construction.
The big investment for the machine and its equipment was a stretch for Krähenbühl. But at the same time, he understood that it was an entry ticket to a whole new market segment. And the return on the investment came quickly: PRO-CAM won the sought-after order of 50 compressor houses over fierce competition from a number of well-established manufacturers who didn’t have the newcomer on their radar.
Krähenbühl is looking towards still bigger things. His next project is to invest in 3D measuring technology, which will allow his company to compete in the highly demanding aerospace industry, where 100 percent accuracy and safety are a must. “For our company we’ll only buy the best equipment on the market,” he says. “A machine that gives customers a ‘wow effect’ when they see it.”
PRO-CAM CNC AG
PRO-CAM is a small Swiss company specialized in machining processing of large work pieces. The company has grown quickly and has invested in new machines that process work pieces of up to 50 tonnes. Sandvik Coromant is the main supplier of tools and a partner when it comes to machine processing strategies.
Investments in new machines, for example with advance measuring technology, shall open for new market segments, such as the aerospace industry where requirements for precision and safety are extremely high. At the moment, Sandvik Coromant is implementing a standard milling tool as HighFeed, among them CoroMill 725. Already in place are productivity enhancing solutions with dampening mill adapters.
