Like all companies in the German machine tool industry, Heller was affected by the economic difficulties of recent years, but it bounced back with a record turnover of 592.4 million euros in 2012.

At 532.7 million euros, its turnover in 2013 was 59.7 million euros lower but still the second highest in the history of the Heller Group — and some 30% greater than the average of the past 10 years. The decline in 2013’s order intake was largely due to a drop in automotive project work, particularly during the first six months of the year.

During the second six months, the tide turned and the company’s order intake increased significantly, ending up higher than had been anticipated in its annual plan.

In the first three months of this year, Heller recorded an order intake of 187 million euros — some 120% greater than the same period in 2013.

Moreover, the positive trend continued into the second quarter; and for the year as a whole, the company is expecting to take orders worth more than 500 million euros. It is also worth noting that Heller is now debt-free — a situation that the company says will allow it to offer customers attractive finance solutions.

Record investment

Heller’s 2013 investments exceeded 16 million euros and were focused on its assembly plant in China, as well as the modernisation of the company’s operating and business facilities; and in response to the growing market in Eastern Europe, Heller is expanding its sales and service activities at its facilities in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

Another area of priority was the expenditure on machine development, which at 14.1 million euros was 10% up on 2012 and focused on diversifying the machine range, so as to attract customers from outside the automotive industry — the company’s mainstay.

Three major revisions and numerous product enhancements have resulted in a completely revamped and expanded product portfolio for four- and five-axis machining and combined milling/turning.

Another addition is a completely new ‘external milling machine’ for machining small light-duty crankshafts (this machine completes the lower end of the product range in terms of external and internal milling processes). With regard to its turn-key solutions for crankcase-manufacturing systems, Heller can now offer systems for coating cylinder bores using twin-wire arc spraying technology — Heller CBC. The first systems are already operating in Germany and Japan.

Time to celebrate

This month, the Nürtingen-based company (it continues to operate as an independent family-owned business) will be celebrating its 120th anniversary. At the same time, the company’s branches in Redditch (UK) and Sorocaba (Brazil) will be celebrating 40 years as part of Heller’s global production network.

In 2013, the Heller Group’s head count increased to 2,436, of which 1,840 are employed in Germany. The greatest increase in numbers was in China, where new production facilities in Chanzhou came on-stream in the autumn of 2013.

Heller says training and personnel development are key to its future success, and the company provides vocational education and advanced training at all its production locations. Moreover, exchange programmes have formed a cornerstone of its training for many years.

One example is the participation of Heller trainees in a European exchange programme (called ‘Leonardo da Vinci’) that is run in partnership with the company’s UK branch. Meanwhile, Heller’s young American trainees from its production facilties in Troy, Michigan, visit the company’s Nürtingen facility for a period lasting several weeks.

Furthermore, to ensure that its products and services are of a comparable high quality world-wide, Heller has implemented an international personnel development programme that ensures comparable knowledge and skill levels throughout the organisation. The company even offers its staff health management, with programmes relating to nutrition, exercise and stress prevention available to all.

Latest machining-centre developments

Popular among Heller’s horizontal machining centres is the H4500. Built at its UK plant in Redditch, this has 500 x 630mm pallets, a work envelope of 800 x 800 x 800mm, a machine bed optimised for stiffness and a mass-reduced column for high levels of dynamic performance. Moreover, there are twin ballscrews for the Z axis, which traverses the NC rotary table.

As standard, the H4500 is fitted with the manufacturer’s EC 50/100 spindle assembly (EC for economic cutting), which is rated at 38kW 10,000rev/min (242Nm of torque) and available with 50SK, 100HSK or 50BT tooling interfaces.

Available as an option is the PSC 50/100 spindle; this is rated at 52kW 12,500rev/min (500Nm torque) and features the same tooling interface options. The machine is fitted with a 50-tool chain-type magazine as standard; 100-tool and 150-tool units are options, as are fast tool-breakage monitoring and a measuring probe with radio or infra-red technology.

Control is via a Sinumerik 840D ‘solution line’ CNC system or a Fanuc 31i-B, while the Heller Blue range of energy efficiency packages offer energy savings of up to 30%.

There are nine sizes of machine in Heller’s H range of HMCs (H2000 to H 14000) with pallets from 400 x 500m to 1,000 x 1,000mm, and work envelopes from 630 x 630 x 630mm to 2,400 x 1,600 x 1,600mm.