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<\/a>The Haas UMC-750 cutting a steel billet<\/p><\/div>\nTomas Karlsson owns the company and although it was founded in 1978, it didn\u2019t come into his possession until 8-years ago, when he bought it from the original owners. At that time, he and his brother already ran another, similarly sized subcontract business nearby. Ambitious and looking for new opportunities, purchasing Telgelego brought the brothers fresh contacts and new horizons.
\nTelgelego has a shop full of old-style lathes and knee type milling machines and just two employees. One of the machines that came with the purchase of the company was a 2001 Haas CNC MiniMill. Despite the small workforce, and the preponderance of ageing equipment, customers included big-name companies such as Alfa Laval and Astra Zeneca, as well as ubiquitous Scania.
\nThese days, Telgelego has 7 Haas CNC machine tools, including an SL-30 lathe and an SL-40 lathe, an ST-30Y y-axis lathe, the original MiniMill and, the company\u2019s latest investment, a UMC-750 universal machining centre.
\nEquipped with everything it needs to service its demanding, blue chip customer base, strategy is to offer high-quality, low volume subcontract machining services, specialising in precision parts in stainless steel, tool steel and, occasionally, titanium. As well as creating parts for mainstay clients, other short-run jobs are made for the paper and pulp industry, as well as shipping and marine engineering. Cutting tough materials has become the company\u2019s USP: many parts are hardened and ground to finish.
\n\u201cOur other biggest strength is the complexity of the parts we can machine,\u201d says Mr. Karlsson. \u201cThe customer sends us the main drawing for a part and we make additional drawings, to simplify manufacturing. Occasionally, we reverse engineer parts, if they\u2019re spare or replacement components for a machine, for example.\u201d
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<\/a>A cylindrical part for steel rolling operations<\/p><\/div>\nA typical part for Alfa Laval, which Telgelego is contractually required to keep under wraps, requires 32 hours of machining \u2013 16hrs each side. The company usually makes 20-25 of these parts each year. \u201cIn the course of a typical 12-months we machine Kr1.5 million worth of stainless steel,\u201d says Mr. Karlsson. \u201cMost of the jobs are very small runs. One customer orders 2-300 of one particular part every month, but that\u2019s unusual.
\n\u201cMany of the parts we make are large diameter \u2013 typically around 400-500mm. The Haas lathes are excellent, high torque machines perfectly suited to cutting these large diameter stainless billets. The two-speed gearbox on the SL-30 is very useful. We take big rouging cuts and make a lot of chips.
\n\u201cWe bought the SL-40 to replace a large German-built lathe which was always letting us down. One of the parts we now machine on the Haas for Alfa Laval starts as a 500kg, 420mm diameter billet and ends-up as a 90kg part!\u201d Although the company does a lot of roughing, it also machines parts to tight tolerances. \u201cFor example,\u201d points out Mr. Karlsson, \u201cit\u2019s common we machine bearing housings to 0.0027mm.
\n\u201cAs well as our expertise in hard materials and complex parts, customers often use us because of the speed with which we can turn a job. For example, before a Scania part goes in to production, we\u2019ll make 2-3 examples for development and testing. The customer isn\u2019t set-up for this type of machining, but once they have finalised the design of the part, they can tool-up their own machines and make them in-house. Being close to their shop also helps keep delivery short.\u201d
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<\/a>The company offers high-quality, low volume subcontract machining services, specialising in precision parts in stainless steel, tool steel and, occasionally, titanium<\/p><\/div>\nThe company invested in the Haas ST-30Y to machine more complex, turned and milled parts in fewer set-ups.
\n\u201cWe bought the ST-30Y when we had an employee who had good experience with y-axis milling. Unfortunately, he left the company a little while later, which left us with a skills shortage. It\u2019s very difficult in Sweden to find qualified machinists. We had a deadline for the work on the machine at that time so we had to learn how to operate it very quickly. Thankfully, everyone in the workshop is familiar with the Haas control, so it was relatively easy to move someone to the ST-30Y and get them comfortable.\u201d
\nThe employee who left eventually came back. \u201cWe bought him a Haas VF-2 with a Haas rotary table 4th axis, which is now his responsibility.\u201d
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<\/a>Company owner Tomas Karlsson with the machine the Haas UMC-750 replaced<\/p><\/div>\nAfter the arrival of the VF-2, the company also bought a Haas VF-3 to replace an ageing Taiwanese machine. \u201cFor 3-years this machine was dedicated to making a single part until the customer moved the job to a subcontractor in China. As it turned out, the machine was freed up to provide capacity we were desperate for, so things worked out just fine.\u201d
\nThe company buys all of its Haas CNC machine tools from J\u00f6nk\u00f6ping-based Edstr\u00f6ms Maskin AB, one of the world\u2019s most successful Haas Factory Outlets (HFOs). Like all HFOs, Edstr\u00f6ms employs trained and factory certified technicians, runs a fleet of fully-stocked service vans and keeps an inventory of original Haas spare parts worth millions of dollars. As a result, Edstr\u00f6ms can respond to problems and technical issues without delay, resolving even the most serious of events without having to send for parts or engineers from the USA.
\n\u201cWe had a terrible accident with the SL-40,\u201d remembers Mr. Karlsson.\u00a0 \u201cWe dropped a 250Kg part while it was being machined. It did a huge amount of damage but Edstr\u00f6ms did an amazing job repairing the damage \u2013 the guideways, the chuck, the guards, etc. They had it completely fixed and running again in less than 2 weeks. It was as good as new!\u201d
\nAs Telgelego grows, as does its reputation for machining complex parts in hard materials, the company is committed to investing in the best, affordable CNC technology it can find. Fortuitously, around the time Mr. Karlsson and his colleagues began thinking about a five axis, universal machine, Haas launched its UMC-750.
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