MANUFACTURING NEWS - Steinhauer Elektromaschinen AG

SOUTHEAST 

Vol. 16 No. 1 January 2012 Complete Online Digital Editions at www.mfgnewsweb.com 

Haewa Utilizes Steinhauer Machine with 

Siemens Control to Improve Productivity 

Haewa Corporation has been producing 

custom enclosures for a variety 

of applications in many industries since 

1986. The company represents the new 

generation of “metalbending shops” 

and “panel builders” that have utilized 

the latest forming and fabricating tech- 

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Steinhauer eCAB WorkCenter machine with Siemens 802D 

solution line CNC and Sinamics S120 drives package. 

API Donates XD Laser to UNCC 

“Automated Precision Inc. (API) 

continues to advance the cause of 

metrology and precision measurement 

for the future with a recent gift 

to the University of North Carolina- 

Charlotte (UNCC),” said a company 

spokesperson. 

API donated an XD 6 

Laser and complete set of 

accessories to the UNCC 

metrology program for the 

expressed purpose of deepening 

students’ understanding 

of machine calibration 

through access to state-ofthe-art 

tools and training. 

“API is invested in research 

and education. We 

want to help students and 

faculty members pursue 

opportunities that benefit 

nologies to improve 

workflow, accuracy 

and output. Haewa is 

the North American 

operation for an 

international firm in 

Germany of the same 

name. In the U.S., 

Haewa is led by CEO 

Clemens Heinrici and 

occupies a 20,000 

square-foot facility 

from which it manufactures 

and markets 

standard and customized 

enclosures to 

system integrators, 

automation solution 

providers, in-plant 

system designers and 

a variety of OEMs in many industries, 

including machine building, electrical 

and electronic equipment. 

Haewa’s product offering includes 

free-standing and modular cabinets, 

wall-mounted enclosures, cable ducting, 

Continued on Page 36 

them and strengthen 

manufacturing 

Continued on 

Page 12 

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SOUTHEAST MANUFACTURING NEWS 

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Grapevine, Texas 76099-0847 U.S.A. 

IMTS 2012 to be 

Held Sept. 10-15 

Plans are well underway for the 

year 2012’s premier manufacturing 

event, IMTS - The International Manufacturing 

Technology Show, which will 

be held September 10-15, 2012, at 

Chicago’s McCormick Place. 

The show theme for 2012 is “Be 

There” and is a call to action for the more 

than 82,000 industrial decision makers 

from more than 106 countries who will 

attend IMTS to get ideas and find answers 

to their manufacturing problems 

and challenges, but most importantly, to 

stay ahead of the competition. 

Early results on participating 


Reshoring by 

Manufacturers Brings 

New Business to CMT 

The reshoring phenomenon is now 

a reality for part marking and identification 

specialist Columbia Marking 

Tools (CMT). According to Tom Phipps, 

Columbia CEO, “We’ve recently seen 

significant new business for our marking 

equipment as a result of several 

Michigan-based manufacturers intentionally 

reshoring capital equipment 

purchases to local companies. 

“The tsunami in Japan and the 


Hexagon Metrology 

Official Partner of 

Hendrick Motorsports 

Hexagon Metrology Inc. and Hendrick 

Motorsports announced a multiyear 

partnership agreement that makes 

Hexagon Metrology the official 

pro-vider of dimensional metrology 

products and services to Hendrick Motorsports. 

Hendrick Motorsports, winner of a 

record 10 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 

championships, is a longtime user of 

Hexagon Metrology products for inspection 

and assembly of auto body, 

chassis and engine components for 

both pre-race adjustment and post-race 

evaluation. The official partnership, the 


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Feature 

Editorial 

Machinery: 

Metalcutting - Chipmaking 

Makino Offers the New 

PS-Series VMC 

Makino’s PS- 

Series comes 

standard with 

a high power 

33.5 HP, high 

speed 14,000 

RPM CAT40 

spindle delivering 130 ft-lbs peak 

torque. The PS-Series is fully 

equipped and ready to run all of a 

manufacturer’s production parts. 

See Page 14 for Details 

Special Machinery 

Sciaky Showcases DM 

Technology 

Sciaky’s DM 

technology is 

commercially 

available, 

large-scale 

and fully 

programmable with the means of 

achieving near-net shape parts. 


Applying Technology 

BioTek Instruments Achieves 

Higher Manufacturing 

Capabilities 

BioTek Instruments, 

Inc. is a designer 

and manufacturer 

of microplate instrumentation and 

software for a variety of industries and 

research fields including drug recovery, 

life science research, clinical 

diagnostics and more. 


Digital Readouts 

& Encoders 

Fagor Automation PROKIT 

Digital Readout System Kits 

Each PROKIT includes an Advanced 

Digital Readout as 

well as the precision 

scales with armored 

plug-n-play cable 

assemblies, plus 

DRO arm and bracketry kits. 


Advertiser Index 

Page 43

36 

BioTek Instruments, Inc., in its quest 

for higher manufacturing capabilities, 

set as its goal a 10% productivity annual 

increase. The company further determined 

to increase quality even with the 

manufacturing of more complex and accurate 

components. 

BioTek Instruments also wanted to 

increase on time deliveries, as well as 

provide substantially more support to research 

and development. “Safety, morale, 

labor force, employee health, available 

floor space, current cycle times, current 

setup times, scrap rates and product mix 

Racing and manufacturing are 

strange bedfellows. The mentality required 

to succeed at one can be a drawback 

for being efficient at the other. 

That was the situation in which Brad 

Anderson Enterprises found itself 

when the company installed its first 5axis 

system for porting cylinder heads 

in 1998. The manual programming 

techniques the company had relied on 

for over a decade were no longer 

adequate for accurately and efficiently 

programming its newly acquired 

Bostomatic 5-axis mill. Brad Anderson 

Enterprises launched headlong into 

computer automated manufacturing, 

which not only gave the company efficient 

head porting capabilities but 

trickled down to replace many of its 

previously manual CNC programming 

APPLYING TECHNOLOGY 

Automation • Machines • Spindles • Tooling • Software • Workholding 

BioTek Instruments Achieves 

Higher Manufacturing Capabilities 

Setup that starts with a raw blank in the left most vise and progresses 

through the stations to a completed part in the right most vise. 

Dennis Klimko (a.k.a. “Bullet”), CAM programmer 

and CNC machinist for Brad Anderson. 

were some of the factors we considered 

before trying to answer this challenge,” 

said Jon Kirby, Production Engineer, 

BioTek Instruments. 

BioTek Instruments, Inc. is a designer 

and manufacturer of microplate instrumentation 

and software for a variety of 

industries and research fields. These include 

drug discovery, life science research, 

clinical diagnostics and more. 

The engineering team decided to 

concentrate most of their efforts on eliminating 

or reducing non-productive time 


strategies for more efficient manufacturing 

overall. 

Competitors are Customers 

Brad Anderson’s driving career 

began in the early sixties. 

Over the course of a little more 

than two decades, he accumulated 

24 wins in alcohol funny car national 

events and three Winston 

Championships. His best year was 

in 1984 when he won 23 of the 25 

events in which he participated. 

That was also the beginning of the 

end of his full-time racing career 

as he found it necessary to devote 

more time to his growing business. 

Today, the company is still on the scene, 

racing Promods with Brad Andersondesigned 

and built engines. Brad Anderson 

continues to be active in the 

design and manufacturing of alcohol 

blocks and components based on the 

Chrysler 426 Hemi engine. 

One thing Brad realized early on 

was that he could not get parts to produce 

the kind of horsepower and reliability 

that he needed. So he started 

making his own in his garage. Soon, 

other racers were asking Brad if he 

could make parts for them and that was 

the beginning of Brad Anderson Enterprises. 

Over the years, with its focus on 

always winning the next race, Brad Anderson 

Enterprises grew rapidly, adding 

the equipment and people needed to 

January 2012 • SOUTHEAST MANUFACTURING NEWS • www.mfgnewsweb.com 



Control panel on Steinhauer eCAB WorkCenter shows 

Siemens 802D solution line CNC and programming station, 

which can include a full library of material and component 

specifications to minimize program development time. 

Continued from Page 1 

climate control systems, fire protection 

and thermal enclosures plus a variety of 

highly customized consoles for industrial 

and even cleanroom environments. 

The company’s latest development is its 

patented 180-degree concealed hinge, 

which is fully compliant with UL 508 

and UL 50 standards of safety for industrial 

control and electrical safety 

equipment. Enclosures and cabinets 

keep pace with the demand from a 

growing base of admiring competitors. 

“The game is to achieve a competitive 

advantage and then sell it 

to everybody. That’s our business 

model,” said Dennis Klimko (a.k.a 

“Bullet”), CAM programmer and CNC 

machinist for Brad Anderson. 

Starting at a High Level 

CAM wasn’t on the company’s 

radar screen until they absolutely had to 

have it to port cylinders with their 5-axis 

CNC. Getting this system to work was 

one of Klimko’s first responsibilities 

when he began working at Brad Anderson. 

The first thing he tried was outsourcing 

the programming, but this 

solution only caused delays and frustration. 

Klimko decided that he would have 

to acquire the best programming tools 

Brad Anderson Enterprises racecar. 

here are fabricated 

from steel, aluminum, 

stainless, galvanized 

and fiberglass. 

Traditionally, such 

companies would stock 

a variety of standard 

enclosures and cabinets, 

then modify them 

with hand tools to suit 

the particular customer 

requirements. This scenario 

often causes 

a bottleneck in the 

production workflow 

at the company. At 

Haewa, this issue was 

recently addressed 

with the company’s acquisition 

of a Steinhauer 

CNC milling, drilling and 

engraving machine. Having been a supplier 

to Haewa in Germany, the companies 

were quite familiar with each other. 

Steinhauer began in the Aachen region 

of Germany in 1920 and was purchased 

by the Nagel family in 1983. 

Today, Hermann and Robert Nagel run 

the business, which has two branches, 


CAM Software Supports a Unique Drag Racing Engine Manufacturing Business Model 

available and learn how to do it himself. 

“So instead of learning CAM from 

the bottom up, we started at the highest 

level, 5-axis machining,” Klimko said. 

He decided to investigate Mastercam 

CAD/CAM software based on the recommendations 

of other racers who were 

using it for head porting. After discussing 

his problems with Tom Shelar of 

CAD/CAM Consulting Services, Inc., he 

purchased a seat of the product. Shelar 

was quickly on the scene writing a postprocessor 

for the Bostomatic that makes 

it easy for Klimko to switch between the 

probing and cutting operations that are 

unique to porting applications. He also 

arranged for Brian Semprebon, a Mastercam 

engineer with exceptional 5-axis 

programming and porting expertise, to 

come out and spend more than a week 

Continued on Page 38

40 




one serving the electromechanical repair 

and retrofit need for local customers and 

the other being a machine building 

group dedicated to serving the needs of 

panel builders worldwide. Steinhauer 

offers five standard lines of equipment 

for sheetmetal processing, material cutting 

for ductwork and mounting rails, 

wire routing, component assembly and 

final installation of a control panel into 

an enclosure. All equipment is marketed 

under the “Steinhauer eCAB” brand 

name. 

Haewa recently purchased an eCAB 

WorkCenter for its sheetmetal processing 

at the Duluth location from 

Steinhauer. This machine performs machining 

and engraving tasks, as well as 

materials handling, all controlled by a 

Siemens Sinumerik 802D solution line 

CNC plus Sinamics S120 drives. 

Hermann Nagel of Steinhauer said, 

“The choice of a hardware-based CNC 

technology on our machines results in a 

very flexible, easy-to-learn and very 

maintenance-friendly machine operation. 

The specific challenge of our typi- 

January 2012 • SOUTHEAST MANUFACTURING NEWS • www.mfgnewsweb.com 

cal panel builder customer is that there 

are often no specially trained CNC operators 

on staff, as the classic lathes and 

mills found in a machine shop are absent 

at most customers. This means the 

controls can’t be over-engineered and 

too complex to be quickly learned and 

implemented.” He went on to explain 

theSiemens advantageon themost critical 

concern of his customers. “The panel 

builder lives in the world of ‘time to first 

hole in the workpiece’ and this results 

from thefact that thework product quite 

often comprises unique built-to-order 

jobs. Therefore, the programming must 

bedonequickly to avoid back-ups during 

production.” 

Hermann Nagel, owner of Steinhauer. 

Haewa’s Heinrici confirmed this is 

the norm at his company. “We needed 

the Steinhauer machine to customize 

our work orders to respond to the very 

short lead times from most of our customers. 

That’s the rule, not the exception, 

for us,” he said. Haewa typically 

maintains an assortment of standard 

sizes and configurations of enclosures 

and cabinets, then modifies them as 

needed, per job. The machine can 

process both flat sheetmetal and prefabbed 

boxes. A single, versatile cutting 

spindle works in tandem with a sidemounted 

tool magazine to perform all 

the operations. 

“Since the panel builder almost 

never works on the same job twice, the 

programming on a machinesuch as the 

eCAB WorkCenter is a big advantage,” 

said Nagel. “The Siemens control can be 

programmed in less than ten minutes, 

typically, for new jobs. On older orders, 

the specifications can be quickly 

adapted and input on the control 

(CNC).” Steinhauer customizes the 

Siemens logic with its own PC software 

set, tailored to the specific language and 

machining requirements of the panel 

builder. Nagel considers this “a very 

strong CAD/CAM team for our customers, 

so their programming can be 

donequitequickly for each job.” Hefurther 

noted the CNC offered his engineers 

theability to customizethecontrol 

and enhance the functionalities to a 

great degree. 

For Haewa, the company’s use of 

the Steinhauer eCAB WorkCenter has 

resulted in more than a 50 percent savings 

in that critical “timeto first holein 

the workpiece” scenario, allowing a substantial 

increasein theproduction at the 

company, the company said. The machine 

allows this panel builder to offer 

its customers various cut-outs for filter 

fans, air conditioning units, pushbuttons, 

even threaded conduit connectors, 

whether positioned on the doors, sides, 

tops or bottoms of the enclosures. Back 

panels for consoles can be drilled and 

tapped, as well. 

Functionally, as Nagel said, the 

eCAB machine is used by panel builders 

worldwide to cut mild steels, stainless, 

copper, aluminum, all types of plastic 

materials including fiberglass and even

Control cabinet on the machine; note the Sinamics 

S120 drives package at the bottom left, which initiates 

the various motions of the spindle axes, tool changer, 

chip catcher and automatic lubrication system. 

BioTek Instruments 

Achieves Higher 

Manufacturing 

Capabilities 


while improving flexibility and repeatability. 

“We defined non-productive time 

as machine setup time, and because our 

cycle times were so short, operator wait 

time,” said Jon Kirby. “We felt it would 

be beneficial to decrease setup and per 

piece cycle times while increasing the 

number of components completed per 

program execution, hence increasing 

program execution time which frees the 

operator to perform other duties.” 

The team decided to eliminate all 

repetitive procedures the operators were 

performing during the machine setup 

process. They divided these into two categories: 

physical setup of the machine 

and part inspection of the first components 

run. 

Solutions under consideration included 

CNC equipment, pallet changers, 

automation devices and rotary axis 

options with quad vises for the existing 

machines. However, due to space and 

axis limitations most of the options 

were impractical. 

“We realized the need to reconsider 

all of our current workholding devices, 

and were encouraged to redefine how 

we setup and run our components,” 

said Jon Kirby. “Much of the setup time 

was spent on setting vise stops and 

picking up tool and work offsets to run 

the next job. We challenged our tooling 

suppliers to find us a machine vise that 

was more accurate, had more capacity 

and utilized quick change jaws, which 

would all but eliminate the need for an 

edge finder and dial indicator during 

setup process.” 

the hard paper sheeting used 

for electronic circuit isolation. 

“With this large assortment of 

materials and processes 

needed, the program storage 

requirements we maintain are 

quite substantial, so the organization 

of files is done on a 

Windows-based format with a 

Windows file system.” 

In a typical job lifecycle, 

Nagel said, the first step is 

planning the simple x/y coordinate 

work or use of the more 

powerful CAD functionalities, 

as both are available on the 

Steinhauer CAD/CAM system. 

Next, the workpiece is 

loaded and the program is activated. 

Upon completion, the 

workpiece is unloaded and the 

next job can start. Owing to 

the substantial program storage 

capability and easy language 

commands on the CNC, 

fast call-up of particular job 

specifications is enabled. Plus, 

as Nagel said, “the Siemens 

CNC gives the operator the 

ability to interrupt, stop and 

restart a job, if needed. The 

human machine interface 

(HMI) is easy-to-operate, self- 

After looking at a variety of vises, 

they came upon the Toolex ReLock Vise 

Systems from TE-CO. “We were literally 

blown away by the sheer amount 

of accessories which they had for it,” 

said Jon Kirby. “This thing seemed to 

have it all: accuracy, two-station vise, 

quick change carrier jaws, integral parallel 

and work stops, snap-on machinable 

jaws and fixture plates and more. 

We immediately saw the potential of 

this system to the point that I think the 

manufacturer failed to realize. These 

vises, married with a zero-point chucking 

system, would be the revolutionizing 

solution we were looking for. It 

would give us the ability to quickly 

change all of our workholding fixturing 

on the machine and never have to 

pick up another work offset again.” The 

team quickly built a library of fixtures 

and vise configurations with dedicated 

work offsets that could be loaded via 

the program or permanently stored in 

the machine memory. 

Since implementing the changes 

four years ago, BioTek Instruments has 

realized 30% reduction in the cost of 

components they machine. “Although 

not quite meeting the 10% annual goal, 

it is still substantial, and this vise system 

played a major role in how we 

achieved what we did,” said Jon Kirby. 

“We use fewer setup pieces because of 

the repeatability and ease of setups, 

and achieved increased capacity because 

of the reduction in setup time. 

The machinists like it much better because 

they don’t have to fumble around 

with difficult to set stops, and they always 

know exactly where the fixturing 

is located on the table. And, unlike our 

old vises, these new vises have a very 

good feel to them for delicate parts.” 

The machines used include five 

Haas VMCs and a Mazak VMC 


explanatory and quite powerful.” 

Onboard the eCAB WorkCenter, the 

CNC is operating a three-plus-one axis 

working tool. The working tool is specially 

designed for the flat materials 

processed and the specific enclosure 

modifications performed by the typical 

panel builders such as Haewa. The control 

performs all the various milling, 

drilling, tapping and engraving 

processes needed. 

Lastly, Nagel commented on the 

support provided by the control supplier. 

“One of the major benefits of using 

the Siemens control and drives package, 

besides the technical superiority of a 

hardware-based CNC system, is the 

service availability all over the world,” 

he said. “This helps us convince our customers 

everywhere that the use of our 

machines will never pose a maintenance 

or service problem. Since we calculate 

the life expectancy of our eCAB Work- 

Center machines to be ten years-plus, 

that’s a big advantage for our customers.” 

For more information contact: 

John Meyer 

Siemens Industry, Inc. 

Drive Technologies - Motion Control 

390 Kent Avenue 

Elk Grove Village, IL 60007 

847-640-1595 

SiemensMTBUMarCom.sea@ 

siemens.com 

www.usa.siemens.com/cnc 

Clemens Heinrici, CEO 

Haewa Corporation 

3764 Peachtree Crest Drive 

Duluth, GA 30097 

770-921-3272 

clemens.henrici@haewa.com 

www.haewa.com 

Hermann Nagel, CEO 

Steinhauer Elektromaschinen AG 

St. Jobster Strasse 47a 

52146 Wuerselen 

Germany 

+49 2405 46 95 26 

hermann.nagel@Steinhauer.de 

www.Steinhauer.de 

www.mfgnewsweb.com • SOUTHEAST MANUFACTURING NEWS • January 2012 41

MANUFACTURING NEWS - Steinhauer Elektromaschinen AG

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