WALDRICH COBURG GmbH
Next generation machines
With roots dating back as far as February 1920, the history of WALDRICH COBURG began with the establishment of the company engaged in the repair of machine tools.
With roots dating back as far as February 1920, the history of WALDRICH COBURG began with the establishment of the company engaged in the repair of machine tools and invested a considerable amount of capital in its manufacturing facility in Coburg, where it continues to produce its line of machines. Over a period of ten years €60 million was invested in new factory buildings and machines, offices, repairs and common rooms. The development further strengthened the trust of the company’s customers, who recognise WALDRICH COBURG as a reliable, strong partner that embodies a long-term perspective. During this time the company enjoyed a great period of success, doubling its sales and increasing its workforce from 500 to 800 employees. Today WALDRICH COBURG operates as a strong global player that maintains a presence within Germany, the US, Russia and China. There the company has provided solutions to many of industry’s leading names including ALSTOM, Caterpillar, Siemens, Volkswagen, MAN, Wärtsilä, China Shipbuilders CSSC and CSIC, Dongfang Turbine, Mitsubishi, Hyundai, Larsen&Toubro and BHEL to name a few.
One of the most recent developments for WALDRICH COBURG was the company’s announcement in March 2015 that it had established an on-site service base within Beijing to enable it to better service the 135 WALDRICH COBURG machines in China. Currently ten employees, including specialists from Germany, support WALDRICH COBURG customers and values in China. Its long-term approach is to establish a service platform for the entire Asian region and to deepen its cultural understanding and awareness of its customers in the region. “We have to comply with the requirements of the market, because the conditions have changed over time. Customers expect fast on-site support and are no longer willing to accept financial losses due to long machine downtimes,” elaborates CEO Hubert Becker. “Another important aspect for us is the immediate integration of Chinese managers in the service business to increase customer confidence and to intensify the business relationship.”
Following the significant growth of the business and a consistent history of investment WALDRICH COBURG is able to continue to develop and provide exciting new machine products to market. During November 2015 it plans to make the official launch of its TAURUS portal milling machine. The TAURUS was premiered at the AMB international exhibition for metalworking during September 2014 in Stuttgart. TAURUS was developed in response to increasing demand for machines in those sizes and represents WALDRICH COBURG’s best price-performance machine tool of all time. “Like other system manufacturers, we have a core business,” Hubert explains. “With this new development, we aim to make ourselves even more future-orientated. We see a lucrative market, which we are sure to win over with our new product.”
WALDRICH COBURG offers a high level of customer orientation with the TAURUS, with three different types of control system available.
The control sets provided by Siemens, Heidenhain and Fanuc are well established in the global market and can be selected according to the customer’s requirement. WALDRICH COBURG therefore offers customers the control they want to use on an individual basis. The machines encompass table sizes of 2.000mm x 4.000mm and 2.500mm x 5.000mm and offers a wide variety of functions, such as the CNC-C axis, integrated in the RAM, tool and spindle unit changer, etc. The customer can choose different spindle units to best suit its machining requirements.
The success of TAURUS relies on the optimisation of the operational processes followed by efficient production throughput with short installation and commissioning times. “As part of our cost management programme we will be building machines in small batches,” reveals Matthias. “By shortening the throughput times, we can produce up to 20 TAURUS machines per year.”
“Our goal is to initially produce ten machines per year, which is consistent with the competitor figures available and we believe this market potential is extremely realistic,” Matthias adds. “The responsible colleagues at WALDRICH COBURG are certain that the new production processes with the relevant test and evaluation fields will guarantee a high output for the TAURUS milling machine.”
Even prior to its official launch, TAURUS milling machines are generating significant market interest. The first two TAURUS machines will be operated in Germany, while a further unit is destined to be delivered to an Indian customer. Indeed TAURUS is already set to make a decided impact within a number of applications. WALDRICH COBURG’s client located in North-Rhine Westphalia is a specialist for forming technology with innovative solutions for the die and mould industry, which represents an ideal fit for the new series of machines. The second German customer from Lower-Saxonie produces high accuracy components for production plants. Long-term precision and short processing times achievable on the TAURUS were the key arguments of these customers to decide on WALDRICH COBURG. Furthermore the excellent support in application engineering including time studies and operation simulations were convincing.
The company of the Indian buyer is one of the biggest suppliers of locomotive and railway equipment. Its facilities are located in the northern part of India (Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh) with a covered space of 30,000 square metres. Due to its state-of-the-art production site, the well-equipped metallurgical laboratories and its high-quality process analyses, it is among the world-leading companies in this field of operation.
The initial customers of the new TAURUS machines represent a varied group of industry sectors, reflecting the wide range of applications for the system. Regardless of its use within the mould and die, general machine or diesel engine production industries, TAURUS delivers the perfect balance of design and strength. The first TAURUS components will be shown during the EMO trade fair in Milan during October 2015. “TAURUS is just what we wanted, a high-quality universal machine for all industries that provides the best possible price-milling ratio,” Hubert says. “In these days of high competition the machine is a useful complement of our product portfolio – the order receipts show this and encourage us!”
WALDRICH COBURG GmbH
Products: Vertical milling, horizontal milling, vertical turning machines and grinding machines
Sites: Germany, the US, Russia and China