Partner Profile: Hydromat
Hydromat, Inc. is a premier designer,
engineer and builder of rotary transfer machines for the
precision parts incustry. The nearly 30-year-old St.
Louis-based company offers precision machining solutions
that provide its customers with unsurpassed quality,
reliability and performance.
Hydromat’s core business of precision cutting operations is
performed on 10, 12 or 16 station hydromat machines. These
operations, creating many precision parts in a matter of
seconds, are favored over traditional lathes for projects
where accuracy combined with high efficiency is key. The resulting parts can be found in
everything from fuel-injection systems in automobiles,
automobile airbags, beverage delivery and medical equipment.
| An engineer demonstrates one of
Hydromat's precision machines in action.
|
The company recently added an Advanced Product Group to
its host of services, a team of engineering experts who
offer customers design and engineering services, as well as
the company’s core precision manufacturing service
offerings.
Hydromat engineers rely on Autodesk® design solutions like
Autodesk Inventor® to build the machines that perform this
precise work. Martin Weber, Hydromat’s Vice President of
Manufacturing and Engineering says having 3D design
capabilities allows Hydromat engineers to design its most
detailed machine parts, in an industry where there is little
or no margin for error.
“Our 3D capabilities allow us to design complex equipment
where accuracy is very important,” Weber says. “Many of our
designs have tolerances in the 10,000ths.”
With the addition of the company’s Advanced Product Group,
Hydromat not only utilizes 3D modeling technology to its own
advantage, but offers it as a resource for its customers who
require design engineering solutions, as well as
manufacturing services. The company positions itself as a
“one stop shop,” from the product’s initial design to
precision machining and packaging of the final part, ready
to ship.
“Whereas many design houses are design offices, and must
farm out assembly of machine & design of controls packaging,
we can do everything in-house. We have full control of the
process,” Weber says.
The loading areas and the machines themselves are contained
units, with a number of very tight spaces where the actual
work takes place. Doug DuPont, who’s worked as a design
engineer for the company for 19 years, uses Inventor to
design a clear picture of the mechanisms needed to create a
particular part. A typical assembly can have as many as
2,000 different parts, with incredibly tight tolerances for
each.
DuPont describes how the role of precision manufacturing has
become more important, as pressure from overseas competitors
grows.
“As the complexity of designs increases, and production time
needs to decrease, the only way you can do that is through
the use of precision tools.”
DuPont says that as a design engineer, Hagerman & Company
solutions engineers are a valuable technical resource for
his work.
“They (Hagerman & Company) are who I can call if I need to
know something, or need to ask a question like ‘How can I
make this loft?’ ‘How can I make it sweep?.’”
| From left: Martin Weber, Hydromat;
Doug Dupont, Hydromat; Kevin Shults, Hydromat; Sandy
Hagerman, Hagerman & Company; Ken Christensen,
Hagerman & Company. |
All Hydromat design engineers must go through internal
training on Autodesk 3D solutions, as well as Hagerman &
Company’s training on the products.
Martin Weber views Hagerman & Company philosophy of customer
service and support as similar to Hydromat’s.
“I think Hydromat got to where we are because of customer
service,” he says. “We stand fully behind our products. If
something’s not working, we partner with the customer until
it’s working. I look at Hagerman & Company the same way. I
can’t survive if I don’t get the service or the backup they
offer for their products.”
CAD/CAM/CAE
Solutions
