26/08/2009
Ognibene steering systems saves up to 39% thanks to CERATIZIT!
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In Reggio Emilia Ognibene manufactures steering components for vehicles which necessitate high steering forces such as off-road trucks, fork lifts, earth moving machines and tractors. Thanks to the low torque required to operate the steering wheel, hydrostatic steering systems make vehicle direction control easy, safe and comfortable. Ognibene delivers its high-quality products to big brands such as New Holland, Caterpillar, Komatsu, Bobcat, Claas, Bombardier and Husqvarna.
Another field of application of the Ognibene steering systems are compact design vehicles, e.g. small watercrafts, mowers and small tractors, but here the mechanical connection, between the steering wheel and the steered wheels is much more demanding and expensive. The Ognibene Engineers also work on several special projects, among them is the Ognibene Comfort Steering System™ which aims at making lawn mowers more versatile and easier to use. The primary benefits of such a torque amplifier is to increase the efficiency of the mower and to enable the machine to operate effortlessly at high speed on every surface.
Productivity increased by 25%, cost saving 39%!
The cooperation between Ognibene and CERATIZIT started about two years ago. Francesco D’Agostino, Ognibene Process Engineer: “The first contact we had was through Pasquale Cristallo, CERATIZIT sales engineer in charge, who introduced a turning insert to us. The special HyperCoat coating really represented a big advantage for us.” In fact, HyperCoat from CERATIZIT offers the Italians a particularly heat resistant combination of substrate and coating, namely the innovative carbide substrate of ISO class P and M35 combined with a carbide substrate specially tailored to this application range. This new carbide grade is called CTP5240.
The real breakthrough in production, however, resulted from the CERATIZIT milling systems. Ognibene equipped all four CNC Makino lines with the CERATIZIT HEC milling system, resulting in an amazing 25% increase in production and a fabulous 39% cost saving compared to the previously employed solution. After the successful introduction of CERATIZIT milling tools for roughing, tools for finishing (diameter 100 mm) were also introduced. D’Agostino: ”We were looking for possibilities to optimize the production of a special component made of GS400, of which we produce about 200,000 pieces per year. The HEC (High Efficient Milling) system allowed us to drastically increase cutting parameters when rough milling – a solution we were very happy with.”
Thanks to MaxiMill HEC Ognibene achieves extremely high cutting parameters:
- Material: GS400
- Machining procedure: rough milling
- Cutting depth: 3.5 mm
- Speed: 800 m/min. S=5,000 rev./min
- F = feed rate = 0.15/Z
- F=4.500
The face milling system MaxiMill HEC, recently launched by CERATIZIT, offers maximum cutting performance and milling cutter stability. The MaxiMill HEC accepts CERATIZIT precision-manufactured inserts of either carbide, ceramic or CBN material; these inserts are provided with up to eight useable edges. These inserts are tangentially-mounted in such a way as to ensure maximum cutting performance and cutter stability, while at the same time reducing the power required to operate them at their optimum, making them suitable to a much wider range of machine tools.
Ognibene – from a tractor manufacturer to a steering system specialist
Ognibene was founded by Holmes Ognibene, a machine and tractor builder, in 1953 in the town of Correggio, Northern Italy. Originally the company produced general purpose ‘welded metal parts and machines’. In 1968 the major focus was on hydraulic production - cylinders and power units. In 1997 Ognibene received the ‘Europe 500 award’ as one of the 500 fastest growing companies in Europe. Since 2003 Ognibene has had the largest market share in off-highway power steering actuators worldwide. In 2007 Ognibene achieved a turnover of 73 million euros with a staff of 385 employees.
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