Technical knowledge level determines service

Professional Machine Support. This is the full name of Richard Hermans' company PROMAS BV in Maasbree, and it immediately sets the defining tone for his vision of customer support at the machine level. Machines for which Richard only wants to come out with the best. 

Specialism as a common thread

With Hedelius, CMZ and Hartford, Promas has three basic brands in its range as standard. This is mainly because each of these manufacturers has chosen a separate specialty or particular focus in, for example, machining centers or lathes, allowing them each to offer a top product at an acceptable price. 

Judiciously selecting suppliers based on their specialty or operational segment, by the way, is a process that never stops from the PROMAS vision, Richard Hermans explains: "We recently added to the OPS range INGERSOLL. These are high speed milling machines that deliver speeds of 24000 rpm and higher. Dimensionally, they also fit nicely with the lower limit of our three existing machine lines. Hedelius in particular reaches maximum speeds of 14000 to 18000 rpm, and that's not really the high speed segment. So we can assure the customer a very complementary offering."

In addition, Promas recently added the Swiss manufacturer Reiden to its range. Reiden operates in the top segment of large machines. These are then five-axis machines that are used, for example, in the semiconductor industry and other markets with demanding applications. The Reiden machine line thus also complements the range nicely, as the machines dimensionally match the upper limit of what is still feasible for the Hedelius machines. 

Broader customer horizons

In turn, the new machine lines attract another type of customer. Richard Hermans: "Because high-quality finishing of critical workpieces such as dies, for example, requires both very correct motion behavior and also very high speeds, one really relies on high-quality machines such as these from OPS INGERSOLL."

At the other end of the spectrum, then, one finds the Reiden machine line. The ACCURA 85 is Hedelius' largest five-axis machine, which in terms of range, however, stops where Reiden's very smallest model, the RX 10, just begins. The range there, for example, is cubic one meter, and more and more applications can be found for this production segment. Important customers are the semiconductor, tool or also defense industries. 

Trends

Any investment in a new machine assumes a sensible consideration of both quality and price. Although recently the balance is clearly shifting towards quality, Richard Hermans explains: "Quality is decisive today. It is true that the price has to be right and certainly plays a role, but with investments of this order it is often secondary to the quality of the purchase in all its forms. Here, the reliability of a machine as well as the after-sales service are decisive criteria."

All the more so because that other reality of increasingly automated processes also comes into play. Reliable robotics and automatic loading systems that must run unmanned determine whether or not a business margin is achieved in times of staff shortages. 

Richard Hermans: "De Reiden, for example, is a manufacturer in the top segment that is able to supply machines that can operate in a highly automated way, with large tool magazines that can hold up to 360 pieces per machine, with robotic loading. These are all situations that are increasingly in demand, and where reliability and after-sales service are a must. Especially since the concepts of machine hours and man hours are increasingly diverging."

Knowledge level and service

After-sales service definitely determines the viability of any initial investment. Downtime management is ultimately a shared responsibility, in which the machine supplier plays a key role.

Richard Hermans: "Our technical know-how, combined with the ability to offer the customer an integral solution, is to a large extent the raison d'être for PROMAS. As we recently demonstrated at the house show, Promas also integrates turn-key projects at the automation level for the customer."