SUPPLY SIDE HIGH SPEED PIONEER KEEPS PIONEERING
miles north and manufacturer of the
country’s Gripen fighter jet, then
approached the company. It wanted a
machine that could process aluminium
profiles of various sizes and in lengths of
eight to 12 m. In 1991, the first of
Modig’s Profil Line machines was
installed. So good was it that the
intended purchase of four machines
actually became just two.
Saab, Modig and Tekniska Högskola
at Linköping then pushed high speed
machining on further, using an MD 7200
installed at Saab as the research tool to
better develop cutting data. (In addition
to working with Tekniska Högskola, Modig
has also worked Seco and KTH, the Royal
Institute of Technology in Stockholm, in
pursuit of high speed machining
development.) At the beginning of the
1990s, Modig established its own
Technical Centre, a test and training
school to help customers adopt the
resulting high speed technology. Percy
Modig then became the speaker of
choice on the subject throughout the
country, subsequently becoming
Virserum’s businessman of the year.
AEROSPACE BREAKTHROUGH
The big break into aerospace came in
1993, however, following Modig’s
attendance of that year’s EMO exhibition
in Hanover. A number of aerospace firms
started to express interest and more.
Boeing telephoned, expressing curiosity,
and a dialogue was established. More
tangibly, an order from German Airbus for
a number of Profile Line machines was
won, the latter valued at SEK6m – half a
million pounds. Following that, McDonnell
Douglas ordered a version of the Profile
Line, solving a major production problem.
Boeing then became a customer.
The impact was immense. From a
30-employee company turning over
SEK30m (£2.5m) at the beginning of the
decade, by the end of that period Modig
had grown to become a 150-employee,
SEK180m (£15m) turnover operation.
Along the way it won Boeing’s
Outstanding Performance supplier award
in 1997.
A year later, Swedish state-owned
venture capital company Sixth AP Fund
RigiMill was 50% faster
than multi-spindle
alternatives on the
market at launch
took a 25% interest in
the machine tool builder.
A new factory was opened in industrial
area Fabriksgatan, Virserum, in 1999.
Aerospace business continued to
grow, but to spread its customer
catchment wider, the company developed
Transflex, a gantry-style machining centre,
for the automotive industry. Then came
calamity. The terrorist outrage on US soil
of 11 September 2001 saw aerospace
business dry up for 16 months, while
Transflex was not yet established.
Investment in that and the new building
amounted to SEK45m (£3.6m), while
expected aerospace orders of SEK120m
(£9.6m) did not turn up. Modig Machine
Tools filed for bankruptcy in 2002.
But Percy bought the company back in
2003 and returned to Virserum, renting
an industrial unit. Percy’s son David then
joined the company, immediately
demonstrating capability in reducing the
company’s second machine’s assembly
time by 25%. In 2007, aerospace
business returned, the company winning
an order from Spirit Aerosystems in the
USA, developing the HHV Extrusion Mill,
a profile routing machine, for the
company. (The machine continues to find
new markets in its two-chuck HHV-2 form:
a major USA car manufacturer has just
placed a contract for four machines,
specifically to machine the aluminum
floor pan section components of its
electric car. Other German car
manufacturers are following suit.)
In 2012, a return was made to
Fabriksgatan in Virserum (but a different
unit) and, following that, FlexiMill was
designed and available in 2015 – a
horizontal milling machine with up to six
axes and allowing customisation, it was
“FOR 70 YEARS MODIG HAS
BEEN ON THE CUTTING EDGE
OF TECHNOLOGY - THAT’S
WHERE WE INTEND TO STAY”
- David Modig, President Modig Machine Tool
RIGIMILL
Chip removal rates of:
55 cubic inches/min in titanium
1000 cubic inches/min aerospace aluminum
Compare these proven
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MikeB@aeromachinery.com
www.modig.se
www.machinery.co.uk @MachineryTweets November 2019 31
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