"We have already been able to reduce our inventories in the first few months and expect the investment in the WinTool and Toolbase systems to pay off within a period of six to 12 months," said Manfred Mayr, Plant Manager at the Motzenhofen production site and a HAIMER employee for over 45 years.
Since 2023, HAIMER has been offering its hardware products for machine tools alongside a powerful digital range consisting of the WinTool software, an independent tool management system, and Toolbase, a smart tool dispensing system with software and hardware components. In order to realize this, HAIMER entered into a competence partnership with the TCM Group, which includes WinTool AG and Achterberg GmbH, developers and producers of the WinTool and Toolbase solutions. The partnership has now been anchored long-term by the 25% shareholding in WinTool AG and consolidated by further global distribution agreements. This enables HAIMER to offer and distribute both product lines to its worldwide distribution partners and customers.
HAIMER first tests new products that they are bringing to market in its own production facilities. "We are a manufacturing company ourselves, producing up to 4,000 toolholders a day at our headquarters. We also produce our 3D sensors, shrinking, balancing and presetting machines ourselves. We are therefore also very interested in constantly optimizing our tool management," said Andreas Haimer, President of the HAIMER Group.
HAIMER succeeded in introducing the WinTool software, including the Toolbase dispensing system with fully integrated connectivity to the HAIMER devices, in a very short period of time. "The simple implementation of these products is already an important initial factor," explains Stefan Echle, Head of Product Management at HAIMER, who acted as project manager and interface between suppliers, IT, tool room and production during the introduction. "In the short time available, we entered all of our existing tools, spare parts and C-items,Äîno less than 10,000 items,Äîas a digital twin in a central WinTool database and also digitized the HAIMER application data for each job. This means that the information is always available to us, regardless of the user. We have also connected our existing large vertical lift cabinet systems with Toolbase and put additional lockable Toolbase cabinets into operation, giving us a decentralized supply network for the consumables in our production."
As a software solution for tool and data management, WinTool enables the collection and use of tool, master and operating equipment data as well as CNC machine programs and processes. Due to its modular structure, users can start small with WinTool by initially only entering their cutting tools and toolholders. WinTool provides an open database that can be used to import existing data from other data software systems. 2D and 3D data provided online by manufacturers can also be easily imported.
This first action alone provides the user with an overview of which tools and sister tools are available in production and where they are located. In a second step, the user can clean up the initial stock and further optimize their tool stock based on the consumption determined over time.
"The respective tool life can also be stored in WinTool, which is essential for maximizing cutting tool usage in machining," said Echle, adding another strength of the system: "Assembling complete tools in 3D is much easier in WinTool than in a CAM system."
For the subsequent transfer to CAD/CAM, WinTool offers 25 direct interfaces to all common systems,Äîideal for companies like HAIMER that use more than just one CAD/CAM system.
Thimo Rotter, Area Sales Manager at WinTool, said: "WinTool is the optimal data hub for all tool information and, due to the connection to CAM, ERP, Toolbase, the presetter and other software systems, the customer has access to uniform and relevant data anytime and anywhere."
WinTool can also do much more, and HAIMER will expand its use step by step. The software can be used as a library for working materials as well as for CNC data, process and inventory management. The benefit: shorter programming and set-up times, reduced tool inventory, integrated documentation and, ultimately, higher productivity.
The complement to the tool management system is the smart Toolbase dispensing system, an easy-to-use software-supported tool dispensing system.
"We have also equipped our existing dispensing cabinets with Toolbase software," said Echle, "and are extremely satisfied. The dispensing system saves us cost-intensive processes, such as searching for the right tool, ongoing stock control and determining consumption requirements."
Ideally, Toolbase as a logistics module is combined with WinTool, as the interface is available and has been tested. However, Toolbase can also be combined with other tool management systems or operated manually as an entry-level solution. Echle pointed out that for small and medium sized companies the combination of a HAIMER Microset tool presetter with a Toolbase dispensing cabinet is a beneficial solution: "Many processes can be made leaner and more efficient with slimmed-down management and automated warehousing."
The Toolbase software allows user access as well as searching via barcode, RFID chip or manual input and enables tools and consumables to always be withdrawn correctly without time-consuming searching. The gains in terms of time and process reliability are noticeable from day one. Accurate consumption data also creates transparency and is the key to more efficient warehouse management and a reduction in storage costs.
All HAIMER Microset tool presetters can be supplemented with WinTool as a standard in the future. If the master data is available in WinTool, a digital twin of a complete tool can be created and used for simulations in just a few minutes without any complications.
As far as the master data for HAIMER cutting tools and toolholders is concerned, the company has already created all parameters, STEP and DXF files in accordance with DIN 4000 and ISO 13399. The data is available for download on the HAIMER website and the Tooltracer platform.
For more information contact:
HAIMER USA
134 E Hill Street
Villa Park, IL 60181
630-833-1500
haimer@haimer-usa.com
www.haimer-usa.com