Zoller Inc. hosted its annual Zollerfest in October at its North American Headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Zollerfest is an annual technology days and open house event that combines the celebration of the company’s German heritage and its industry-leading technology in presetting, measuring, inspection, tool management, and automation to create a distinctive manufacturing event. More than 100 guests visited Zoller Inc. across the two-day event, coming from a variety of industry segments ranging from aerospace and defense to job shops, with the goal of learning how Zoller solutions could help bring success to their manufacturing process.
Despite the day’s Oktoberfest-inspired décor, Zollerfest is a technology driven event. Zoller’s Industry 4.0 Technology Center houses 39 machines and solutions, including the two latest additions, the Zoller “aralon” and “gemini 2” for crankshaft milling cutter measurement.
These machines significantly increase measurement accuracy and reduce the time spent measuring crankshaft milling cutters, which in some cases can take hours to measure using other methods. With Zoller’s machines, a crankshaft milling cutter can be measured in mere minutes. This was a highlight of Zollerfest throughout the two-day event, and many visitors showed their interest in the benefit of both the gemini 2 and aralon.
There were several keynote presentations at Zollerfest. Georg Maerz, vice president of Zoller Inc., started both days by delivering his presentation, “The Zoller Experience: Driving Success in Global Manufacturing for Over 70 Year.” With the 2019 theme of Zollerfest as ‘Zoller Solutions: Your Key To Success,’ it was a fitting addition to have Jerry Busche, president and CEO of PDQ and Impact CNC follow up on Maerz’s presentation, as he gave a firsthand account of his experiences with Zoller and how PDQ and Impact CNC have experienced great success by using Zoller solutions.
“I had experience with Zoller before and it was amazing when I was using it on the floor,” Busche said. “It was an easy decision for me to buy Zoller. Everyone knows the Zoller name and the world-class product that it is. As customers recognize that you’re using [Zoller] to produce your product, they have a confidence level in your company that you’ll produce a good product.”
In addition to several keynote presentations, Zollerfest featured technical sessions at various stations, discussing subjects ranging from basic tool presetting, to CAM interfaces, to cost per part with Tool Analysis.
Anthony Westfall, TMS technical support engineer at Zoller Inc., demonstrated Zoller’s cost per part feature throughout Zollerfest.
“Cost per part provides a significant benefit for large-scale production facilities,” Westfall said. “We were excited to be able to demonstrate cost per part with tool analysis live at Zollerfest, and it was very well received by our guests.”
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