RAMPF delivers 6,000th mineral casting bed to DECKEL

RAMPF Machine Systems recently shipped the 6,000th mineral casting bed to DECKEL MAHO Seebach. This is a further milestone in the longstanding partnership be-tween the leading system supplier for machine beds and complete moving systems based in Wangen (G?ppingen) and the specialist in universal and traveling column milling machines from Seebach in the Thuringia region of Germany.

It was 16 years ago, in 1998, that the then purchasing manager of DECKEL MAHO Seebach got hold of the very first issue of EPUCRET News, the customer magazine of RAMPF Machine Systems at the time. He evidently much liked what he read there, as this was soon followed by the first meeting with Manag-ing Director Dr. Utz-Volker Jackisch, the first inquiry two months later, and the first order at the end of the year. “That was the start of a longstanding and very successful partnership,” recalls Jackisch, looking back at the initial business contact.

Mineral casting beds have replaced cast iron
RAMPF Machine Systems delivered the 6,000th machine bed to Seebach just a few days ago. And that’s not just an impressive achievement in terms of quantity but also quality, as the technical require-ments for machine beds have changed dramatically over the past 16 years. “In the beginning, the beds were very simple and their only function was to offer precision surfaces for mounting the cast iron frame,” says Jackisch. “Now, mineral casting beds have replaced cast iron right up to the stand. Machine beds from RAMPF Machine Systems are manufactured to achieve high final precision quality, joined and, in some cases, augmented with guides. Mineral casting beds also perform design functions and are fitted with cooling systems for axles and similar elements. This cuts throughput times, tied-up capital, and storage costs for customers.”

Machining-free replication technology and precision grinding center
This rapid technological progress has been made possible first and foremost by the development of rep-lication and bonding technology for manufacturing machine beds in final precision quality, without the need for machining. In climate-controlled production halls, rigid, high-precision gauges are used to apply assembly surfaces for compact guides, drives, and 5-axis tables to the mineral casting blanks – with an accuracy of just a few hundredths of a millimeter. RAMPF Machine Systems won the G?ppingen district’s innovation award for this groundbreaking innovation, which was introduced at the end of the 1990s.

The opening of RAMPF’s in-house precision grinding center in the Bavarian town of Bessenbach in 2010 was also a key success factor, and DECKEL MAHO was a key driving force behind this. “EPUCRET [as of July 1, 2014, RAMPF Machine Systems] invested in in-house precision grinding facilities at exactly the right moment,” said Günter Dose, Managing Director of DECKEL MAHO Seebach GmbH, at the time. “By establishing its own state-of-the-art plant and high-performance machines for the precision grinding of mineral casting beds, EPUCRET is expanding its market position and thus creating the conditions that will support the ongoing development of mineral casting as a machine bed material.”

With its own precision grinding center, RAMPF Machine Systems offers an end-to-end service concept for high-precision mineral casting, hard stone, steel, cast iron, and ceramic machine components. This innovative, comprehensive service includes all the important steps that make up a complete solution – from technical and design-related consulting to grinding, measurement, calibration, and assembly.

There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all machine bed material
The successful partnership is naturally set to continue well beyond the 6,000th machine bed. RAMPF Machine Systems currently supplies machine beds for a total of ten different DECKEL MAHO machine models – nine made of mineral casting and one made of UHPC concrete. “We’re able to do this be-cause, over the last 18 years, our company has moved from being purely a mineral casting specialist to being a development partner and systems supplier for complete machine bed solutions and machine systems,” says Martin Neumann, who heads the management team at RAMPF Machine Systems to-gether with Utz-Volker Jackisch. “The varied and often highly specific requirements of the market de-mand alternative materials, and we have answered this need with EPUMENT, EPUDUR, EPUSTONE, EPUFIBER, and EPUFOAM. We know there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all machine bed materi-al.”