For many years, Miguel Plantada worked as a lathe operator for a large machining business in Spain — until it went bust. At that time, his eldest son (Xavier) was a machinist running a vertical milling machine, while his youngest son (Jordi) was finishing his studies. It seemed a perfect time to begin working together, so Taller Compla SL was formed (in 1999).

Jordi Plantada says: “We started out by making a lot of parts for plant maintenance and spares, using three manual mills, but we didn’t want to be just another sub-contract machining business — we wanted to diversify.”

The company was based next to a Haas Factory Outlet (www.haascnc.com), and the family team would occasionally drop in and talk to the distributor about Haas machines. “We bought our first one — a VF-4SS Super Speed machine with a 12,000rev/min spindle — in 2004. Our experience with this convinced us to become a Haas machine shop, and we next bought a VM-3 followed by a VM-6. These allowed us to move more towards mould and die manufacturing.

“We also make parts for machines used for plastic packaging. These include three components for an assembly used to blow air into a blow-moulding machine. The material is 7075 aluminium, and the tolerances are less than 0.01mm, which the Haas machines easily achieve. We now have a Haas trunnion table on the VM-6, which gives us five axes of
machining and allows us to offer very competitive prices.

“Many of our clients are now requesting more-complicated parts. They’re very happy with the service and quality that we deliver, and with our ability to resolve complex machining problems without charging extremely high prices.”