Weisser is currently among the world’s top suppliers to the major car manufacturers, their suppliers and other metalworking industry sectors. Around 430 employees work at the site in St Georgen in southern Germany. Last year (2016) the company achieved yet another milestone when it celebrated its 160th anniversary.

WEISSER offers a comprehensive and versatile machine model portfolio with its UNIVERTOR and VERTOR series as well as special machines, drawing on a wealth of experience in demanding and complex manufacturing tasks. The focus is on tailor-made, process-optimised system solutions and the goal of complete machining in a single set-up.

“Our headquarters have been at this same location here in the heart of the Black Forest since 1856,” says the Sales and Business Development Director Jörg Weisser. “But we know that Johann Georg Weisser Senior was producing patented lathes for the local clock making industry since around 1830. For the last 20 years we have also initiated some external assembly facilities in nearby towns, and we have cooperative end assembly capacities in Brazil and the USA.”“The business model has evolved,” says Mr Weisser, “but turning has always been the central point. During the last 30 years or so we have integrated more and more sophisticated processes by means of process chain management – often we are technology leaders.

“Today we can produce grinding results that would have required dedicated grinding machines years ago. We achieve this by integrating additional hardturning and a number of secondary processes – and all this in a dry environment. The advantage for the customer is a reduction in the number of machines needed, less variance, fewer interfaces and the opportunity of buying from one single source. Our patented and award-winning ‘Rotational Turning’ goes even further, by offering a kinematics optimised hardturning process, where the grinding quality of the resulting surfaces equals those of bearing surfaces.

“We also work with selected partners to cover complex process chains, such as our cooperation with KAPP for gear hobbing. We feel this gives us more flexibility than other companies who simply buy in the required processes.”

In-house product development

Things have come a long way since the 1950s, when the FRONTOR series of horizontal lathes was making a name for itself. The offer has developed into highly customised machines based on a modular system. There are vertical lathes that operate with the in-house Pick-Up-Principle, with a fixed spindle or a combination of both. But there are also horizontal spindles, and linear or swiveling axis can be added, all while maintaining accessibility and robustness.

The number of new machine types has been growing continually, from vertical centre-drive lathes and twin-spindle end-finishing of shafts through to four-axis double spindles and four-spindles.

The in-house development of the unique Camless Turning enables Weisser to substitute profile trimming of non-round profiles – completely freely programmable. This is particularly attractive to use in space-saving shaft/hub connections, linear guides, tool fitting, curved elements and more.

“We want to provide the optimum system for each production strategy,” says Mr Weisser. “We are called in when the customer realises that it is more important to look at the cost per piece, not at the secondary processing times or the axis speed. Building on our deep experience we can push until we find the best balance between speed and process stability. This is where our claim ‘designed to be faster’ originates – and by the way this is also valid for speed of innovation and adaption of new requirements.”

Customers in many sectors

All Weisser customers – whether they are in agriculture, mining, aviation or energy – are well-known names, and it maintains close partnerships with them in the form of Simultaneous Engineering.

“We are present in the automotive sector worldwide. We follow the expansion of our European customers, with export activities that offer first-class service and ensure machine availability. In South Korea, China and Russia we have direct local customers, which shows that we hold our own in foreign markets too.

“We have a large range of competent supply partners. With Sandvik and Sumitomo we were able to lower the tool costs for rotational turning significantly, which brought the international breakthrough for this technology. In CNC controls we work with Siemens as well as Bosch Rexroth, which helps with the acceleration of camless turning of up to 60g.”

Individual future strategy

Throughout 2017 the company will be attending a number of trade fairs to showcase its latest products and technologies. These include EMO, GETPRO and Hainbuch Technologie-Forum. It will also be working on increasing its global presence.

“We work hard on strengthening our autonomy, standing out from companies who are controlled by financial investors or who are tied into unwieldy groups. We pride ourselves on our flexibility as there is no pressure to grow in a certain way.”