Die expertise with press know how

It started as a basic customer-supplier relationship, but it’s become a lot more throughout the past 13 years.

In 2002, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin-based Ultratech Tool & Design was a tool and die shop that had been serving the small engine manufacturing sector since 1990. That changed a little more than a decade ago when it met with the Heim Group in Chicago and decided to invest in bigger presses, expanding its products and services.

“We took the tooling expertise we had from the start and built the business around it,” says President Bill Melang. “This approach gave us the ability to see our customers’ challenges from the inside and help them find better solutions for their own production.”

During the past 10 years, the company has been supplying stampings from its presses, with products ranging from simple washers to complex automotive and aerospace components. Those production capabilities started with the purchase of its first Heim press in 2002. Melang says Ultratech formed a working relationship with Heim that has grown into a mutually beneficial partnership. Today, there is an 80-ton Heim OBS with 5,000 lb feed line, a 500-ton Heim Maxi-Stamper with 10,000 lb feed, and a 600-ton Heim Maxi-Stamper with 20,000 lb feed. Complementing this equipment is a full resistance welding, heat-treating, and assembly cell operation. Ultratech also provides finishing and part coating options to facilitate ready-to-assemble requirements.

Melang says those services began with that first press, adding, “It was an older machine and Heim helped us with a rebuild. Since that time, we’ve developed a value-adding relationship with Heim, as they’ve provided us considerable assistance with press utilization and maintenance advice, while I think we’ve also been helpful to them with die design ideas.”

Heim President Katie Heim agrees, saying, “Our relationship with Ultratech has benefited both our companies. As our industry knows, the die dictates the press and we’ve worked closely with Bill and his team. This particular customer’s knowledge of die design and performance characteristics in the press has created a real synergy with our engineers, who bring decades of press design and die handling mechanics to the task.”

Heim notes that her company, an American-made press builder, is often asked for a turnkey system of press, die, and coil handling equipment – including complex die and part handling mechanisms – in a single package.

“The knowledge we’ve shared with and acquired from Ultratech has made us both stronger players in the market today,” Heim says.

Heim notes that the decline in the workforce numbers and equipment manufacturers based in America has created the need for companies to be more proactive in the turnkey area, as customers seek assistance in simplifying manufacturing processes. Working with customers with specialized expertise, such as Ultratech, has enhanced Heim’s ability to offer such services.

Melang says the close relationship Heim and Ultratech forged has been a big help to his company.

“There isn’t a single question we’ve thrown their way that went unanswered,” Melang says. “They do what they say they’ll do and that gives us great confidence in their abilities to handle our very fast-paced variety of needs for presses and support engineering.”

Ultratech Tool & Design Inc.
www.ultratechtooldesign.com

The Heim Group
www.theheimgroup.com