Murtfeldt: Up to 6 Hours Saved per Conveyor Screw Thanks to PowerMill

The Client

Murtfeldt Kunststoffe GmbH & Co. KG, based in Dortmund, has been processing and producing plastics since the 1950s and is today one of the world's leading companies in this field. At the core of its business is a proprietary material with good sliding properties, high abrasion and wear resistance, and a long service life. Its products are used wherever goods are packaged, filled and transported – including as conveyor screws and product turners, which rotate a product by a specific angle depending on the client's requirements.

The Challenge

The manufacturing and supplier market is changing fast. To keep delivering the best possible products, Murtfeldt needed a more efficient and precise way of manufacturing its two product families. The existing solution only allowed machining with a single tool. Complex contours were barely feasible, air cuts occurred, and there was no residual material detection. At the same time, manual CAM programming of the conveyor screws tied up a lot of time: programmers had to wait for the calculation to finish after each step before they could continue.

"With PowerMill, we can manufacture our conveyor screws significantly more precisely and efficiently. Where we previously could only work with a single tool, we now have the option to machine 5-axis simultaneously with different tools."

Thomas Gottschalk, Head of CAM Programming, Murtfeldt Kunststoffe GmbH & Co. KG

The Solution

Together with AURON, Murtfeldt renewed its IT structure and existing post processors and switched production over to Autodesk PowerMill. The company now machines 5-axis simultaneously with different tools – including for complex contours.

The bigger lever was automation: AURON developed a custom macro program that takes over the programming of the conveyor screws. Instead of programming every step themselves, employees enter their parameters into an input mask – the tool calculates everything else in the background. The mask only produces a calculation once all fields have been filled in. This means, for example, that setting a zero point can no longer be forgotten. Combined with standardised data output, this prevents errors from the outset. Regular training ensures the team makes full use of the CAM solution's potential.

The Result

Murtfeldt now manufactures not only faster, but also at significantly higher quality. With close to a thousand conveyor screws produced per year, the reduced programming time adds up considerably – and employees can turn to other tasks while calculations run.

"What impressed us most was that all our projects and suggestions were always implemented quickly," says Thomas Gottschalk about the collaboration. The list of joint plans is still long: Murtfeldt wants to optimise tool management, better connect interfaces and develop further macros. "Having a mid-sized company like AURON at our side meant that a personal relationship developed quickly. That means a lot to us."