CASE STUDY
Stress-free through milling –
How we reinvented barquette manufacturing for the watch industry.
Background
In 2011, the Industrie- und Technozentrum Schaffhausen (ITS) approached us on behalf of a watch manufacturer. The assignment: find a production partner independent of the watch industry to solve a concrete quality problem in barquette manufacturing.
The core issue: blanks were warping during and after machining – particularly when the material was subject to heavy one-sided reduction. The result was a high scrap rate and costly rework that made the entire production process inefficient and expensive.
The Challenge
The root cause lay in the manufacturing process used at the time: stamping. The enormous forces exerted during stamping – which increase with material thickness – generate internal stresses in the workpiece that are extremely difficult to control.
Thermal treatments and complex rework on already pre-formed semi-finished parts could at best partially compensate for these stresses – full elimination was practically impossible. The objective was clear: blanks had to remain flat during and after machining – without expensive corrections after the fact.
“The stresses induced by stamping are extremely difficult or impossible to fully eliminate through thermal treatments.”
The Solution
We rethought the manufacturing process from scratch. The answer: milling instead of stamping.
Chip-removal milling eliminates the massive force impact of the stamping process entirely. Technological advances in milling precision now enable a remarkably gentle machining process with high accuracy. The process is more time-intensive than stamping – but introduces zero internal stress into the material.
The result: blanks that remain flat even under heavy one-sided material reduction – without rework, without scrap, without compromise.
The Result
This project marked the beginning of our barquette production for the watch industry. A collaboration born from a concrete problem that continues to demonstrate what becomes possible when you rethink manufacturing processes without constraints.
By switching from stamping to milling, we achieved three key goals for our client:
- Significant reduction in scrap rate through stress-free blanks
- Near-complete elimination of costly rework
- Flatness of barquettes even under heavy one-sided material reduction
What is usually considered special accessories is standard at HEDELIUS: All machining centres are equipped with a CNC full keyboard, colour monitor, spindle feed overdrive and original software as standard. State-of-the-art control technology from SIEMENS or HEIDENHAIN guarantees maximum operating convenience and unrestricted functionality. You decide which system you want to work with.
All machining centres are equipped with a CNC full keyboard, colour monitor, spindle feed overdrive and original software as standard.
Liquid-cooled motor spindles with precision cooler.
The SIEMENS SINUMERIK ONE control system brings your ideas to life. SINUMERIK ONE is the future-oriented CNC system for highly productive HEDELIUS machining centres. For unimagined new possibilities, ideas and business models. For faster innovations thanks to the seamless interaction between the virtual and real worlds. And: SINUMERIK ONE is far more than just a powerful hardware innovation.