On the way to Germany's largest laser cutting job shop

Where others complain, he acts: we are talking about Lutz Abram from Greater Bremen, the driving power behind a so-called laser job shop that yet again, punctually at the end of the year, is giving the competition something to think about. This job shop combines laser systems that had previously been operating as soloists and other manufacturing technologies into an integrated orchestra. Ideas and the requisite know-how he finds at EMO Hannover. His object: Germany's largest laser cutting job shop.

Product individualisation and therefore the trend towards batch sizes of one are on the rise. Nevertheless carmakers manage to manufacture all of their models on the one production line. Accordingly the general trend favours the systematic integration of flexible production methods in process streams.

Yet not only major companies, also medium-sized enterprises are heavily involved. One prominent example is PS Laser GmbH & Co. KG of Thedinghausen near Bremen in Lower Saxony. This company (94 personnel, € 18m turnover) was launched in 1988 as a laser job shop that machined metal plates up to 6 x 2.5 m on a total of twelve laser systems. Its cutting specialities include stainless steel, structural steel, and aluminium.

New orders every day

Unlike many groups that often produce the same components for weeks on end this job shop has to adjust to new orders every day. In other words it needs on the one hand a manufacturing technology that does not limit its operations to particular machining sequences; on the other the job shop can operate efficiently over the long term only when it integrates its solo laser systems in the entire manufacturing process. Lutz Abram, Managing Director for Sales and Marketing, explained: "Manufacturing technology know-how I'll be acquiring next year in the direct neighbourhood - at EMO 2007 in Hannover."

This laser job shop in Lower Saxony depends not only on machine technologies, but also on clever organisation. For instance it is constantly shortening its internal sequences. "A growing number of customer orders are for completely machined components that we are required to deliver faster than before," explained Abram. In so doing PS Laser aligns its operations to so-called insourcing: it takes over external machining operations like milling that it then also links with the laser soloists. How this integration works in practice has already been tested at a second location nearby.

Trend towards integration

Users like Abram are given scientific support e.g. at the ILT, the Fraunhofer Laser Technology Institute of Aachen, one of the world's leading establishments in this field. With a view to integration, the head of this institute, Professor Reinhart Poprawe, sees a trade fair like EMO 2007 adopt a crucial role: "We shall be present at several of our customers' stands where we bring into play the integrative element the laser represents. Visitors to EMO therefore see the laser part that has been integrated in our customers' machines."

These ideas in Aachen are well received not only in Germany. The renowned Laser Institute of America (LIA) based in Orlando, Florida, recently conferred a fellowship on Professor Poprawe.

Background - German laser technology on the up and up

The Fraunhofer ILT adopts a key role in the initiative of excellence launched by the federal government and states. "Aachen proved much more successful in this initiative of excellence than was generally communicated," explained head of the institute Poprawe. "Although the RWTH Aachen did not receive the award for the whole university, two clusters of engineering excellence and an engineering graduate school are being funded to develop postgraduate training at the RWTH Aachen." Together with other institutes like the machine tool laboratory WZL or the Fraunhofer IPT, the Fraunhofer ILT is participating in the Aachen excellence cluster "Integrative Production Technology for High-Wage Countries".

Aachen network - safeguarding jobs

With funds totalling € 40 million this excellence cluster is surely the most extensive research initiative in Europe with the object of retaining production in high-wage countries. We are talking about the Aachen excellence cluster "Integrative Production Technology for High-Wage Countries", the only initiative from the machine construction and production technology sectors to assert itself in the competition for state excellence initiative funds. This excellence cluster unites 18 Aachen professors of material and production technologies and a number of Aachen institutes like the WZL. With this excellence cluster Aachen production technology set up the Aachen House of Integrative Production Technology that provides strategic channels for fields of production technology competence at RWTH Aachen and facilitates in particular the collaboration and integration of companies in R&D activities.

EMO Hannover 2007 will be taking place from 17 to 22 September. It is the largest and most international meeting point for the world's production technologies. EMO presents all technologies used in metalworking, e.g. cutting and forming machine tools as the heart of industrial production; precision tools; surface treatment; software and controllers for the entire production technology range; automation systems and components; measuring, testing, and quality management systems; machines and systems for tool and mould building; etc. The target group of EMO visitors include the major industrial sectors like machine and plant construction; the automotive industry and its parts suppliers; aerospace technologies; precision mechanics and optics; shipbuilding; medical engineering; tool and mould building; steel and lightweight engineering; etc. The last EMO Hannover in 2005 was the venue for 2,000 exhibitors on 160,000 square metres of net exhibition floor space attracting more than 160,000 trade visitors from over 80 countries.

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