The Capecchi Srl machine shop is located in Borgo San Lorenzo (near Florence, Italy), where visitors to this 50-year-old family-owned business can ‘read’ its history from a collection of sample parts exhibited in two glass-fronted display cabinets in the foyer.

The company once made components for optical instruments, such as theodolites. Later, it designed and built its own range of optical instruments and gauges. Most of the European companies that once made similar products are now gone, but Capecchi has survived because it has moved with the times.

The most recent parts in the cabinets are seemingly random, complex prismatic components that are made mostly of aluminium, many with features and faces that could have only been produced using a five-axis CNC machine tool.

In fact, the company’s latest investment is a Haas UMC-750 (www.haascnc.com) — a machine that allows it to compete with far larger workshops by producing complex parts without the costs typically associated with multi-axis operations.

Today, Massimo Capecchi and his brother Andrea co-own the company that their father founded in 1962. Under the brothers’ leadership, the business has diversified, survived and even thrived through multiple recessions and in the face of overwhelming odds. Some of the instruments and gauges on which the company made its name remain core to its business.

Indeed, rail industry gauges for testing rolling stock still account for around 20% of its turnover; the other 80% comprises work for sectors that include laser technology, industrial automation, durometry, stereo-cartography and topography, as well as applications in the radar, ophthalmology, textile and bio-medical industries.

The strength of the company is its ability to provide high-quality precision components at affordable prices, with on-time delivery and a comprehensive service that includes design, prototyping, machining, inspection and assembly. To continue to move forward, the Capecchi brothers recently found themselves faced with the daunting prospect of investing in five-axis machining.

Massimo Capecchi says: “It was a few years since we had made any serious investments. We found ourselves looking for machines that would help to increase the productivity of the company — machines that would allow us to make a quantum leap in terms of efficiency and quality. Many of the machines on offer were too costly and too complex, but the five-axis Haas UMC-750 offered a very good relationship between quality and price.

“We knew we had opted for a machine that would allow us to make parts that previously we did on our three- and four-axis machines. We can now complete more work with the Haas UMC-750, because it is better suited to the complex parts that we are increasingly asked to produce.”

Batch sizes range from five to 200-off, although 15 to 20 is typical. For relatively low numbers, the ease and speed of set-up on the UMC-750 are vital to hitting output and productivity targets.

“Our goal is to continuously improve the accuracy and quality of what we do, while at the same time reducing cycle times. We are achieving this because a five-axis machine can approach multiple faces in a single set-up. This is an advantage that bigger machine shops have been able to exploit for some time, but five-axis technology has usually been too expensive for smaller businesses.”

The brothers say that the Haas control proved particularly easy to learn in comparison with other machines, and in recent months the company has been gradually moving more and more work onto the new machine.

“The workpieces currently on the machine have recently been moved there, because we can produce them so much more quickly. However, in this instance, it’s just as much about accuracy. Fewer set-ups mean less opportunity to introduce inaccuracy in the finished part. That means less scrap and more-reliable deliveries, which are essential for any machining business.”

Back on the map

Bosnia-Herzegovina is a country on the rise. It’s been 20 years since the conflict ended in 1995, during which time the nation has recovered and introduced market reforms to help stimulate the economy. Many of the people who left to escape the war have since returned.

Among them is Almir Gvozdar, who in 1996 came back from Germany (citizens of war-affected countries such as Bosnia and Croatia had temporary refugee status in Germany), invested all of his savings in a second-hand CNC machine tool, and started making aluminium components in the family garage (under the company name of GAT).

During his time in Germany, Mr. Gvozdar worked as a technician for ABM Fahrzeugtechnik GmbH, which is based at Breisach (on the border with France). ABM is a leading manufacturer of high-performance parts for the motorcycle industry, and it was later to be GAT’s first customer.

“Working alone, I started producing parts for tuning motorcycles,” says Mr Gvozdar. “I then managed to pick up a few other German customers, and so our story began. Indeed, the German market remains our most important to this day, although we also export to countries that include Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia.”

In 2003, GAT purchased an 1,100m2 facility on a 5,000m2 plot at Sanski Most, in the industrial north west of Bosnia-Herzegovina. In parallel with investing in premises and the addition of more employees, the company also began to step up its investment in the latest CNC machine tools. “I first heard about Haas when I was at ABM, and I knew that the Haas CNC was easy to use.”

Today, GAT has 12 Haas models, including seven VF-2 vertical machining centres, two TL-1 toolroom lathes, and one TL-25. However, the company’s latest additions are two UMC-750 five-axis universal machining centres — the first to arrive in the region formerly known as Yugoslavia (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia). These machines have been set to work producing parts such as clutch levers, which GAT designed in co-operation with its customer.

“We were seeing more and more demand for five-axis work, hence the investment,” says Mr Gvozdar. “Since using the UMC-750s, we’ve seen both productivity and quality increase. We are also achieving a better price for our products.”

Around 90% of the parts made on the UMC-750s are machined from aluminium. Many of them are motorcycle-related — such as components for fuel tanks, air filters and speedometers — and many involve the generation of complex, free-form surfaces. GAT also machines parts for other industries, including the metrology and medical sectors — and it is attracting increasing numbers of customers from Western Europe.

Because the salary for a machine operator in Bosnia-Herzegovina is about 400 euros a month, the company is extremely competitive. That said, GAT often suggests design changes that will cut the price further still. This is a big advantage, particularly for larger batches of up to 10,000-off.

Visitors to GAT today are greeted by an impressive architect-designed building of blue glass — with a water feature in the lobby — and a clean efficient workshop run by well-trained operators making high-quality precision parts (Mr Gvozdar even bought a Haas Mini Mill for the local technical high school, to help train future machine operators).

The general presentation and standards of GAT could easily pass for those of a German or Swiss company, and few would guess that this region was once one of the most war-ravaged places in the world; but companies like GAT are putting Bosnia-Herzegovina back on the map.