Spotlight on: IMT from a customer's perspective

01/25/2021

LAKEWOOD GUITARS GmbH & Co. KG

AN INTERVIEW WITH MARCEL GERWING, CAD/CAM CONSTRUCTION

Marcel Gerwing has been working in the design department for almost two years and is responsible, among other things, for the development of equipment and systems as well as for programming the automatic polishing booth. In the interview, Mr. Gerwing reveals to us why he and his colleague chose the IMT spindle a year ago and what they appreciate about IMT.

How did you hear about IMT and what inspired you to order from IMT?

My colleague and I from the design department, looking for an individual solution, became aware of your company through research on the Internet. In addition, we had already heard the name IMT through conversations with acquaintances. We finally placed our order because IMT provided us with a made-to-measure spindle according to our requirements and the corresponding support. It should be emphasized that the framework conditions, excluded any "standard designs" and especially the support during setup and installation, was an important factor for us.

What convinced you about the IMT spindles?

First of all, certainly, we were convinced by IMT's willingness to meet an unusual requirement (unfortunately, there is little willingness to do so among other manufacturers). In a constant exchange of ideas, we were able to develop a product that fulfilled all the general conditions and, incidentally, also met our financial expectations.

How much did our spindle meet your requirements?

Since the spindle had to be adapted to our requirements in almost all factors (high torque with very low weight, compact dimensions with a large threshold load, low speed with a high tool flywheel mass, very precise torque sensor technology with many coupling options for further controls), it met our requirements exactly.

Were the expectations of the project fulfilled by IMT?

Our expectations have been fully met till this day. The spindle has now been working continuously for about 6 months without any failures. Small changes to the parameters for optimization were made immediately via remote maintenance or on-site. For about 4 months, the spindle in the polishing booth has been taking over the polishing tasks of 100% of our high-gloss painted main models; this corresponds to about 60% of the total production.

What is the added value of the IMT spindle compared to other products?

Especially with the requirement of polishing natural surfaces, which have very thin layers of paint, the right choice of pressure and speed parameters are very important. Since the industry now relies almost exclusively on high-speed spindles, it was practically impossible to get a "ready-made" spindle that could provide more than 6Nm of torque at 1500 rpm while remaining below the 15 kg weight class, which is manageable for a robot. Finally, only IMT was able to meet these requirements.