It is eleven years since DVS Production was founded in Stedtfeld near Eisenach in Thuringia/Germany. Having started out as a 4-man job order contractor at the starters center in Stedtfeld, the company has now grown into a system supplier to the automotive industry. On more than 50 machining centres, all made by other members of the DVS TECHNOLOGY GROUP, more than twelve million components are turned, hobbed, ground and honed every year for a wide range of different passenger car gearboxes and engines from different manufacturers. At the current site in Krauthausen, two new production lines for machining three million pinions and oil distributor sleeves and every year went into operation just recently. As a system supplier, DVS Production delivers the complete process from the procurement of the blanks to the production of the ready-to-install component at the end of the line.

“We started up as a small job order production business focussing on hard turning and gearing honing.”, recalls Rainer Eisel, one of the two managing directors at DVS Production. “Right from the word go, we had ultramodern machinery which was subject to ongoing development and expansion, allowing us to drastically reduce our cycle times, while our competitiveness has increased considerably thanks to new technologies from within the group.”, adds Mario Möller, who joined Rainer Eisel as managing director in September 2014.

The two managing directors could probably write a whole book about what has changed and how the company has developed in terms of technology together with the machine manufacturers within the DVS TECHNOLOGY GROUP since the business was founded in 2004. But there’s no time for that, because a new chapter in the history of the company opened just recently with the introduction of new production lines for pinions and oil distributor sleeves. “For the first time, the entire production process from procurement of the blanks through to the ready-to-install component is in our hands.”, says Möller, describing the new challenges faced by the company.

Creation of more than 30 new jobs

 3,000 m² of additional administration and production area have been created especially for the new production lines. 3.3 million euros were invested in extending the industrial premises, and a further almost nine million euros in expanding the machinery. On top of all that, more than  30 new jobs will be created at the Krauthausen site till the end of 2016. The basis for development of the bespoke machines and tools was always the constant exchange of experience between the production company in Krauthausen and the affiliated DVS companies. While those in Krauthausen can directly influence the development of their own machines and push innovations, the mechanical engineers and tool manufacturers within the DVS TECHNOLOGY GROUP collect important production experience and can optimise their machines accordingly.

Constant exchange of experience with the mechanical engineers of the DVS TECHNOLOGY GROUP

The fruits of this exchange can be seen in the new production line for pinions, for example. “The path from the forging blank to the ready-to-install component has been designed as fast, precise and extremely productive.”, explains Mr. Eisel. Both the other diameter and both faces as well as the chamfering and inner bore are machined using the soft turning method on a PITTLER ModuLine. During the subsequent OP20 process on a PRÄWEMA N1 machine, the workpiece is clamped in the bore and geared in the same working step by PowerSkiving technology and subsequently deburred. The workpieces are hardened off the premises. Back on site, the inner bore is honed during the OP30 work cycle. Directly after this, gear honing is done on a twin-spindle SynchroFine machine from PRÄWEMA. Before the workpieces are sent to the customers, they are washed and then subject to an end-of-line test carried out by a state-of-the-art testing system for geared components called DVS VISIO, developed by Werkzeugmaschinenbau Ziegenhain (WMZ). During all the work cycles, the workpieces are supplied to the machines via a specially designed stacking magazine with removable loading rods. In addition to making handling the magazines easy, this loading system also creates a loading buffer which allows the machines to work completely independently for up to 30 minutes. This independence means the whole production line only requires a manageable workforce of only three employees. Thanks to the removable loading rods, the containers provided by the customer can be filled quickly and easily with finished parts before they leave the plant in Krauthausen.

“We set great store by a high productivity density and the ongoing optimisation of our quality checks. This is the only way we can remain competitive on the market in future too.”, says the Managing Director Mr. Möller, explaining the principles of the up-and-coming business. Where the Krauthausen-based company is heading in the next few years is summed up by his colleague Mr. Eisel: “We are going to continue our course of expansion.”