For years, production costs have been heading in only one direction, that is to say, steeply upward, while the demand is for ever-lower manufacturing prices. On top of this, there is a lack of skilled workers. These are the challenges that confront many manufacturers, including WTO, a maker of static and driven precision toolholders. The solution appears to be obvious: a fully automated production hall. In series production, one can always rely on established methods, but for small batch sizes, new automation technologies first have to be developed and integrated into an overall system. Why? Because clamping devices, for example, must be changed over several times a day, which presents enormous challenges in terms of process and safety. Working together with Hainbuch, the Marbach-based clamping equipment manufacturer, WTO has overcome the obstacles by performing a closely coordinated series of measurements and tests. In WTO's new Smart Factory, all processes are automated, with robots inserting the components, changing the clamping devices, and driverless transport systems bringing everything from A to B. Since the end of 2022, production of one of the components of the driven tools has been running autonomously 24/7 in batch sizes from 1 to 100. This is a milestone for WTO and Hainbuch after a 3-year development phase.
