CMM Designer And Builder, Wenzel Gmbh, Acquires New Granite Processing Operation
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Company's vertical integration strategy enhances ability to improve the delivery of new CMMs by producing critical machine components faster.
At a time when CMM manufacturers worldwide are becoming less vertically integrated as they attempt to reduce costs by outsourcing critical CMM machine components like granite plates, Wenzel GmbH is doing just the opposite. They recently purchased a granite processing facility in Weisel, Germany and added a new $1.6 million Favretto grinding machine that will more than double their production capability for the granite base plates, cross beams and quills that are exclusively used in Wenzel CMM machines.
Frank Wenzel, Wenzel GmbH managing director says " This new acquisition will significantly reduce our delivery lead times, particularly for our large volume CMMS. Recent past history has shown that we have experienced up to six months lead time to get rough-machined granite blocks to our production facility...and this is not acceptable. We made a strategic decision to not follow the direction of the majority of our competitors who continue to outsource not only granite plates, but also high value parts, sub-assemblies and even complete machines to manufacturers in China. Wenzel will not compromise its level of quality and performance, which insures our sales partners like Xspect Solutions that they can count on the consistent high level of quality and accuracy that industry expects from Wenzel CMM equipment. Our new granite processing facility has the ability to machine up to 10 meter granite blocks weighing up to 32 tons."
Keith Mills, president of Xspect Solutions, Inc., Wenzel's North American sales and service organization, adds, "The ability to shorten lead times will be very advantageous to us here in the USA because we sell a good number of larger table CMM machines, particularly in the off-highway industry. Without question, Wenzel builds the most intrinsically accurate CMMs, and much of that accuracy is attributed to the African black granite that provides the machine's precision, dynamics and stiffness."
Material Specific Weight Expansion Temperature Elasticity Module Material
(Kg/dm3) Coefficient Diffusion (103N/mm2) Metrology
(I/K) Rate (W/mk) Ranking
Steel 7.25 10.4 x 10-6 42-63 90-180 +++++++
Aluminum 2.7 23.8 x 10-6 210 72 +
Ceramic 3.85 8.0 x 10-6 28 370 +++++++
Granite 2.8 6.5 x 10-6 3.5 0 ++++++++++
Table refers to the use of Metrological Materials for CMMs
Wenzel GmbH is the 4th largest CMM builder in the world and manufacturers its CMMs intrinsically accurate, negating the need for the huge error compensation files to achieve quoted accuracies which have become the norm in past years from most CMM manufacturers. Wenzel is represented in North American by Wixom, Michigan-based Xspect Solutions, Inc.
Xspect Solutions, Inc. headquartered in Wixom, Michigan is the Number 3 supplier of CMMs in the North American metrology market including; new Wenzel CMMs, and is the world's largest supplier of pre-owned CMM equipment, all equipped with its benchmark OpenDMIS(TM) software.
For Further Editorial Information:
Allan G. Hall, Hall Industrial Publicity, Inc.
1261 Romney Road, Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304
Tel: (248) 705-8272
Fax: (248) 645-0906
alhall@industrialpublicity.com
Send all Inquiries To:
Keith Mills, Xspect Solutions, Inc.
46962 Liberty Drive
Wixom, Michigan 48393
Tel: (248) 596-1193
Fax: 248-596-1194
kmills@XspectSolutions.com
