High quality and production speed are crucial for manufacturer of flanges

The specialist from Westerlo produces a full range of different flanges of the highest quality in some 40 different alloys and delivers within a maximum of three weeks after ordering. Unlike most other manufacturers, the company with managers Mark Dewachter and Marc Van Thillo performs both forging and machining in-house, guaranteeing a higher flexibility. The company has a high-performance machine park, recently expanded with two lathes from Doosan's PUMA 5100 series, delivered and installed by Germond.

The history of this company dates back to 1983 when Ivan and Clarinda Hertecant started manufacturing flanges. Afterwards, the company changed hands several times before returning to Hertecant in 2011. In 2014, an investment fund together with the current managers Marc Van Thillo and Mark Dewachter took over the company from him. Since then, there has been an even stronger focus on fast delivery and a wide range of materials and sizes. The raw material is purchased from renowned Western European steel producers. Flanges from Hertecant are used in the chemical and petrochemical industries, the energy sector, but also for measuring instruments, wherever high quality, corrosion resistance and fast delivery are important. The company has a number of general certificates, such as PED, ADW, Norsok, Canadian registration ... but is also certified for specific sectors and end customers, including ABS (American Bureau of Shipping), DNV, Shell, Total, Emmerson ...

High quality and short delivery time

"For projects where quality is not really a factor and delivery time is also not important, we fit. But for realizations where high quality and/or a short delivery time is required, Hertecant Flanges is the right place," says Dewachter, whose responsibilities include sales. "We have a skilled team of 45 employees and they ensure that we can produce our flanges within a three-week period and deliver them anywhere in the world." A production cycle includes work preparation, selecting and sawing the raw material and then forging it into a flange, heat treating it, sending a test piece to an external lab, machining and marking the flanges, performing dimensional control, NDT and PMI and - once the results from the lab are in - making the 3.1 certificate (itself) or preparing a 3.2 certificate by an external party. "The very fast production cycle means that the planning horizon is short," Van Thillo explains. "Moreover, our range is very wide, because with forty material types, fifteen different pressure classes and pipe sizes from 10 mm to 1 m, the possibilities and variations are almost endless. We use less busy periods to build up an intermediate stock of semi-finished products for common dimensions and materials. These can then be finished quickly when ordered according to the customer's specifications, so that we can always use our workshop optimally."

Conventional technology and CNC-controlled machining centers

The focus on quality and fast delivery requires not only skilled people, but also high-performance machinery. While most companies specialize in either forging or machining, Hertecant Flanges has deliberately chosen to combine both in-house. This is the only way to guarantee the customer both speed and quality. "In our forge, we work with four forging hammers and one ring roller based on proven technology from the second half of last century, but which still meets today's needs and requirements and, moreover, compared to new, more automated systems, is more flexible to quickly switch between different products. For machining, we always choose machines that excel in terms of stability and power," says Van Thillo. "This is necessary to machine materials, such as Duplex and Hastelloy, with high chip volume. Thus, in our machining workshop there are seventeen CNC machines for diameters from 200 to 1,400 mm. In each case, machines with the highest power in their category were chosen.

Our first contact with Germond dates back to 2015, when we bought a conventional Trens brand lathe from them, followed not much later by a second system. Last year, when we wanted to invest in additional CNC lathes, we thoroughly compared the machines on the market and ended up with Doosan's PUMA machines, as they gave us the best price/quality ratio. Moreover, we knew in the meantime that we could always call on Germond's expert support for installation and for maintenance."

High-performance lathes from the Doosan PUMA series

Since many different pieces are made in small batches at Hertecant Flanges, it is the operators who program their own machines. They work in two shifts and one operator/programmer is responsible for two machines. For the sake of productivity and continuity, a conscious decision is made to install as many similar machines with the same control system as possible. This is also demonstrated by recent investments, which were made to respond to the increasing demand for flanges with very small tolerances for ultra-precise
flow meters. Thus, the company purchased from Germond a horizontal lathe with driven tooling: the PUMA 5100 LMB with a maximum turning diameter of 650 mm for workpieces up to 2,000 mm long. This machine has a spindle power of 45 kW and a throughput of 165 mm with a 530 mm chuck. "We recently installed an additional similar Doosan lathe on the shop floor at Hertecant: the PUMA 5100 MB. This lathe is identical to the previous one, but in a shorter version," explains Bart Willem van Germond. "As with the PUMA 5100 LMB, beam guides guarantee long-term stability and high processing accuracy. These investments fit perfectly with Hertecant Flanges' vision of consistently providing its customers with high-quality flanges in a matter of weeks."