“There is enormous competition in our industry,” explains Alberto Petrella, head of sales and administration at Tontarra Medizintechnik GmbH in Wurmligen. “Not just from the Far East, but also from next-door colleagues. In this part of Baden-Württemberg alone, there are over 400 companies in the medical technology industry. Thus, retaining an edge demands creativity.”
Alberto Petrella: “You can’t be set in your ways. To strengthen your market position, you have to be creative.
Besides common surgical instruments such as artery forceps, needle holders and haemostats, Tontarra also manufactures special instruments that are used in, for example, keyhole and microsurgery. All the instruments are nearly always in stainless steel and are expected to have a service life of many years. Over 80 percent of the company’s production is exported.
Manufacture of these instruments is fascinating. Beginning with the metal blanks and high-technology machining, it finishes with the pure craftsmanship of experienced instrument makers assembling, adjusting and checking the precision products.
Tontarra’s 50 employees have just moved into airy new premises. At 3,500 m2, these represent a doubling of space. In addition to premises, there has also been heavy investment in logistics and machinery. The latter includes a gigantic paternoster for finished and semi-finished goods.
GM Thomas Tontarra relates: “Around two years ago, we started to put a lot of thought into how we could increase productivity. Six months after that, we had equipped an existing Hermle C600U with a WorkMaster from System 3R. The result was, to say the least, positive. From 7 or 8 spindle hours a day to over 20!”
Waiting for finishing – part of the magazine with 120 workpieces.
Consequently, another six months later, a further step was taken. A new machine was purchased and the cell turned into a double cell with one robot serving two Hermle C600Us.
Thomas Tontarra continues: “The manual machine that gave barely 2,000 hours per year has now been transformed into a highly efficient production cell that delivers over 12,000 spindle hours. This has made itself felt not least in the workshop’s total productivity, which has increased by almost 80 percent!”
The production cell has a magazine for thirty GPS240 palettes per machine. Each palette holds two workpieces. These are secured in Tontarra’s modular, in-house developed, fixture systems.
Series sizes run between 30 and 500 items. Average machining time per item is from 20 to 30 minutes. The short series begin not with a blank, but with machining directly from a piece of steel. Tight tolerances go without saying for these quality products.
Jürgen Marchisella: “The cell works all day round, even over normal and long weekends.”
The highly efficient production cell – two Hermle C600Us and a WorkMaster.
Department manager Jürgen Marchisella relates: “We have a two-shift system for the manual machines. The automatic production cell, on the other hand, produces virtually all day round. Besides a schedule for loading the cell over normal and long weekends, we also have an ‘on-call team’. Via the production control system, which monitors everything, this is brought in whenever necessary.”
Moving the automatic production cell to the new premises and installing it there took scarcely a week – an excellent example of its user friendliness!
The results from the automatic production cell have been so good that it is now planned to re-equip a five-axis Haas VF1 as an automatic cell. However, conversion is here to be achieved using not a WorkMaster but a 60-position WorkPal Compact, which will handle small workpieces on Macro palettes.
“Of course, there is one disadvantage with the automatic cell. The high yield of spindle hours means the machines can claim their pensions far earlier,” concludes Thomas Tontarra, with a gleam in his eyes.
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