The tool and mold maker Hirt trusts in CAD/CAM from Missler Software since 2004 to stay competitive in the fast moving market of tool and mold makers.
The family owned company Hirt, based in Baar, Switzerland was founded nearly 60 years ago and is today managed by Martin Hirt and his wife. With 6 employees Marin Hirt is always searching for innovation in design and tool making. The company is specialised in the manufacturing of injection molds, blow molds and polymechanics. The tools and molds are mainly produced by CNC milling and grinding operations. The company’s range of machines has been completed by a CNC turning machine which is able to machine round molds and shaped parts.
Hirt’s customers belong to different industrial branches, but are mainly based in the automotive sector, device manufacturing and packaging industry. Due to this diversification Hirt often handles special orders like deep-drawing tools or foam forms. Furthermore the company’s customers appreciate the reliability, flexibility and polyvalence of the company. The tool and mold maker opted for TopSolid to reinforce its marked position and to react even faster to customer needs.
At the end of 2004 Hirt needed to change its existing CAD/CAM system to an integrated digital system. Now the company executes its projects much faster and withstands the competition.
Hirt owns one TopSolid’Mold CAD workstation. Tools and molds are designed internally either based on plans or drawings or based on existing digital customer data. TopSolid has many different interfaces. This is a big advantage for Hirt, there are no more difficulties with the input and output of different formats like: IGES, DXF, STEP, SAT und Parasolid. also In addition, direct interfaces to many well known CAD/CAM systems are available with TopSolid.
With the help of TopSolid’Mold Martin Hirt and his team design complex shapes and geometries. The users also appreciate very much the possibility to visualise cuttings and cooling circuits. For Martin Hirt this offers security and time gains, that was used before for calculations and controls.
After the CAD design the data is transferred to the CAM module TopSolid’Cam. TopSolid’Cam generates the machining cycles that are sent to the CNC machines thanks to machine specific postprocessors. After that the machining process is done automatically. TopSolid’Mold enables the design and printing of detailed tool drawings. They are of a great use for the Hirt employees to better visualise complicated forms or in order to do micro adjustments on the machine.
CAD and Cam are completely integrated which represents a big advantage of TopSolid Modifications in the tool design are transferred directly to the CAM. This saves a lot of time and resources.
Currently Martin Hirt works with 2 CNC milling machines, but new CNC turning machines will be purchased soon. The company is proud to work only with European high quality machines.
In the automotive sector Hirt manufactures ready to use ventilation and supply pipes.
For the packaging industry Hirt produces the molds for oil cans via 3D-milling.
In the family owned and managed company the employees are very satisfied by the good relationship with the management. Just as a small example, there is no problem to work on a personal project, the manufacturing of a blade for a Kitesurf by one of the employees who is going to participate soon in a Kitesurf competition.
The blade is designed with TopSolid on the basis of the broken original part and afterwards manufactured in several stages on the CNC milling machine.
Manufacturing of the kitesurf blade
The design of the aluminium blade with TopSolid’Design only took 60 minutes and the manufacturing process on the TopSolid controlled milling machine 75 minutes. This corresponds to 1/10 of the time needed before the CNC technology.
So working with the integrated digital chain from TopSolid is a huge benefit for Hirt.
When choosing the future CAD/CAM system to be used Martin Hirt took his time. He and his employees compared more then 20 different systems. The decision was taken in favour of TopSolid. TopSolid offers many technical advantages, an easy operability, a gain of time and resources and functional stability. Furthermore Hirt was convinced by the customer service of Missler Service and Hesotec, the Swiss TopSolid Dealer.
The local dealer Hesotec, Oberurnen, organises personalised trainings and workshops and is Hirt’s first contact for technical questions.
www.hesotec.ch, Tel : +41 (0) 55 610 28 56
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