Case Study Guibe (Goizper Group)

Guibe is one of the main machining companies in Gipuzkoa, the territory where JUARISTI’s headquarters are located. Its speciality is the design of industrial transmission components for various sectors: steel, mining, paper, wood, sugar and cement. JUARISTI designed a customised Planer-type milling and boring center with RAM.

Guibe is a Goizper Group company, a SME cooperative from Gipuzkoa with 3 business lines: industrial, pulverisation and biotechnology. Its main business is the design and manufacture of all types of custom gearboxes, in unit lots that require continuous part changes.

In 2017, they decided to equip their facilities with a new milling and boring center. They needed a high-tech configuration due to the complexities of their product catalogue. Its production type required a very versatile machining center, capable of carrying out multifunctional operations on large work pieces and ensuring high production ratios in gearbox machining.

In 2016, they held several technical meetings with JUARISTI managers to explain their needs. As a result of these discussions, JUARISTI’s technical management came to the conclusion that the most suitable solution was a Planer-type center with RAM output, something not yet in its catalogue.

Thus, the JUARISTI team made an exclusive design based on the evolution of the TX series, the company’s most demanded machine, adding RAM output. The extraordinary process and the flexibility shown by JUARISTI surprised Guibe’s production managers immensely.

“It was a special project in which we demostrate a lot of flexibility”, recalls someone from JUARISTI’s technical management. The production specifications included many nonstandard features, which led to the creation of the special TX3 RAM configuration with a sixth rotary axis, a 40-tonne table and Automatic Pallet Changer (APC) and Automatic Head Changer (AAC).

A package designed for maximum productivity

The addition of the pallet changing system is one element highlighted by Lezeta. “As Guibe manufactures unitary products, we needed a machine that could make the part changes in the shortest possible time. Productivity is a big deal. It is not enough to make a quick work piece change if there isn’t a solid production process backing it up. Finally, the machines’ accuracy and reliability are indisputable requisites and must be in line with our product requirements”.

In this sense, the automatic head change system allows the customer to change the machining technique very rapidly, reducing the number of machining phases for the entire casing. Thanks to this it has been able to maximise production times while improving the quality of its finishes.

Another of the main benefits that the new center has afforded Guibe is a substantial improvement in their machining precision. The most complex components within the machining parts catalogue are the gearbox bearings. These have a direct influence on the contact of the gear teeth once mounted on the housing. Contact is extremely important for the service life and performance of the transmission. The critical nature of these components required them to be machined with the utmost precision, something that the TX RAM has shown in spades.

But what Lezeta undoubtedly stresses when he describes Guibe’s experience with JUARISTI is the close cooperation demonstrated from the beginning. “The friendly close dealings have helped us build a smooth relationship based on mutual trust. This has meant that incidents that occurred during the entire process, from design to implementation, were rectified in a simple, agile way.”

So much so that they have started an in-house production improvement process, for which they have once again decided to rely on the advice of JUARISTI to improve machining techniques and optimise production management. This includes a training plan and specific programming for machining their products.