A challenging niche business

Almost all the bolts, screws and furniture fixings one finds at DIY-stores all over the world are made using traditional metal-removing techniques such as turning and moulding. Due to labour and material costs, an increasing number of manufactures switch from traditional metal removing techniques to cold forging or a combination of the two techniques, especially when it comes to producing more complex fasteners such as those used in the automotive industry.

High-precision complex metal objects

“Cold forging means deforming a simple piece of metal until it has exactly the required shape,” explains Peter Janssen. “It’s a very versatile technique, enabling us to produce almost any object imaginable, including complex high-precision elements such as cogwheels and screw threads. Starting from a simple metal cylinder it requires four to six deformation stages to produce the fastener, depending on the complexity of the target object.”

An additional advantage of cold forging compared to traditional methods is speed. Peter Janssen: “These machines have an output speed ranging from 75 pieces/min to 300 pieces/min where conventional machining may take several minutes for one part. In addition, during the cold forging process the material gains in strength. And finally, cold forging produces no waste such as the metal chips coming from conventional machining. The forged part has exactly the same weight as the initial cylinder. In large quantities this means a substantial saving on material costs.”

Tailor-made processes

The only drawback of cold deformation is the higher engineering and development cost. “Our machines are tailor-made,” says Janssen. “Manufacturers come to us with a prototype of what they want to produce. We then figure out how to manufacture that object using cold forging. It requires about 500 hours of engineering work to develop the entire production process. The end result is a machine measuring up to 20 by 4 metres, weighing 15 to 275 tonnes and containing 5,000 to 12,000 high-tech components. You can imagine that this represents a big investment. Customers need a production volume of at least 150,000 pieces/part to make it profitable.”

Twelve weeks lead time

Janssen remembers the days when Nedschroef could take about a year to produce such a machine. “That was how we did business fifteen years ago,” he says. “Those days are gone. Nowadays machines are ordered just in time, based on signed contracts for end product delivery in order to assure investment profitability. This gives us a lead time of at most twelve weeks, with penalties in the event of a delay. And the market has become more demanding in other respects too. For example, we’re expected to deliver fully operational production processes now, rather than bare machines. That means that at delivery we must demonstrate the machine’s productivity rather than its compliance to specifications.”

Remaining a best performer

Nedschroef Machinery has gradually adapted its organisation in the past few years to meet these new demands. For example, they have set up a new Techno Centre where customers are invited for training and to carry out tests in the context of production process development. In addition, logistics have been completely reorganised and extra storage space has been built (see also ‘Caring for every detail’). Peter Janssen explains: “In contrast to several years ago, we now store a significant proportion of our components based on sales forecasts. We also purchase some of the components well in advance, because that allows us to negotiate a much lower price. These are the things that enable us to stay among the best performers in our market.”