The company was founded in 1965 by Wilhelm Drexelius in a barn and later continued by his two sons. Due to a lack of successors, the current managing directors Björn Hering and Thomas Gutstein took over the company in 2008. Both are trained turners without a commercial background, which Björn Hering does not see as a disadvantage: 'In the end, it is most important to know what is happening in production. Being able to operate a machine is more important than the numbers. You have your people for that and over the years you also develop a feeling for it.' Hering was the first apprentice in the company and is now the boss of his former trainer.
Currently, Drexelius has a total of 35 employees. For many years, both managing directors worked in production themselves. Meanwhile, Hering now spends almost exclusively in the office, which is due to the company's growth. Gutstein divides his time between production and office work. The turning shop has 21 machines available on a production area of 2,100 square meters, mostly from the manufacturer Nakamura. All are equipped with a main spindle, counter spindle, and Y-axis, and have two or three turrets.
This equipment allows Drexelius to completely machine all components on one machine. Parts are manufactured from stock in the diameter range of 8 to 100 mm, and the machines are all equipped with bar feeders.
Typical batch sizes range from 100 to 10,000 pieces, with the manufacturer ensuring that a certain proportion of large series is always in production. 'If we were to produce only 100 parts on each of the 21 machines, we would not be able to keep up with programming and setup,' says Björn Hering. In the past, the company was also strongly involved in the production of prototypes and sample parts. Drexelius has gradually moved away from this, as it became increasingly difficult to manage the growing organizational effort for quality assurance, test reports, and documentation. Economically, this was no longer feasible, according to the company.
Steel parts for a wide customer base
A focus on the processed materials lies in stainless steels, but parts made from other steels, such as automatic, tool, and construction steels, as well as aluminum alloys, are also manufactured in Finnentrop. 'For a hair studio, we have even turned wooden curlers,' reports Thomas Gutstein with a smile. Drexelius has a wide customer base. A large share comes from sanitary and fittings manufacturers, but the areas of agriculture, measurement and control technology, mechanical engineering, and medical technology are also supplied.
The automotive industry has been consciously avoided. However, there was an exception in 2021 when Drexelius took on an order from another turning shop that had problems producing a stainless steel turned part for an engine in the required quality and quantities. However, it did not go smoothly at Drexelius with the existing tools either. The tool life of the initially used inserts left much to be desired, the surface quality was not satisfactory, and burr formation was evident on the turned part.
Seeking help, they turned to INGERSOLL and promptly received a solution. With the DCMT 11T308 MT TT8020 insert from the tool manufacturer's portfolio, the user immediately achieved the desired quality and productivity. 'These inserts work,' was the feedback from production. Because they were very satisfied with the cutting inserts, they were subsequently used repeatedly as problem solvers, and gradually more tools from INGERSOLL were introduced into production, including thread inserts, drills, and parting tools.
'The use of new tools stands and falls with acceptance among the employees,' knows Björn Hering. But here, the suggestion to try out more products from INGERSOLL came from the workforce, who were very impressed with the smooth operation of the INGERSOLL tools. That the employees want to have the best tools available on the market is certainly in line with the management, which keeps an eye on the economic aspect. If tools do not work well, high insert wear often occurs, or the required surface quality cannot be produced reliably. Disruptions in processes also occur when employees constantly have to try out new parameters to achieve somewhat satisfactory results.
Long chips when drilling
During a factory visit, Kevin Richstein, technical consultant at INGERSOLL, took a scrutinizing look into the containers at the machines and discovered very long spiral drill chips there. They occur when drilling in long-chipping materials such as S355 or C15 and had been a thorn in Drexelius's side for some time. That employees have to empty the chip bins every half hour is still the smaller problem. Long tangled chips also impair process reliability, can cause problems during transfer, or scratch components. Richstein's analysis: 'INGERSOLL does it better!'
With the QuadTwist, he introduced a turning insert drill for the large diameters required by Drexelius. The drill is a cassette tool that not only achieves the currently needed diameter of 63 mm but can also be adjusted in the range of 61 to 65 mm. This gives the user flexibility and allows for other drilling tasks without the need to acquire a new tool. An initial test with standard indexable inserts did not yield the expected results, as the machines at Drexelius proved not powerful enough and could therefore not be operated in the optimal performance range. However, INGERSOLL was able to step up and introduced the PS variant of its cutting insert, which is equipped with a special chip former. This actually made the QuadTwist a problem solver and convinced the setup operators with very good chip breaking and high tool life.
Stable and fast parting off
After the chip problem during drilling was solved, Kevin Richstein was made aware of another challenge: parting off components. Especially with large diameters, there were repeated issues. The closer the parting tool got to the center, the more difficult it became to work cleanly. Richstein left the parting system WinCut from INGERSOLL to Drexelius. In production, it was immediately tested with a problematic part, a cap made of S355 structural steel, which was to be parted off from a diameter of 90 mm down to 0. Positive feedback was promptly given to the tool manufacturer, as Thomas Gutstein reports: 'The WinCut system has impressed us with its high stability and reliability. The components are now parted off absolutely straight. Moreover, we can achieve higher cutting values with it.'
The gain in speed is considerable. For the cap, for example, the processing time was halved from 40 to 20 seconds. The WinCut system is completely different in design from a conventional parting tool, as previously used at Drexelius. While a standard tool is usually just clamped, the triangular cutting insert here is firmly screwed to the holder and cannot be pushed away. The efficient cooling of the parting system was made possible through 3D printing. Through twisted cooling channels inside, the cooling jet reaches the cutting edge from above and below, ensuring optimal chip control and higher tool life.
Drexelius has acquired the system in two sizes for diameters up to 80 mm and up to 120 mm. With the exception of very small components, it is now used for all parting operations. Depending on the application, the operators use cutting inserts in the designs SFJ3 or SFC3, which are equipped with different chip formers. The service from INGERSOLL is highly appreciated in Finnentrop, especially the quick response times are highlighted.
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