Built with pride #5

Assembly:
hands and feet

The manufactured machine parts return to the factory in the familiar orange and anthracite colors. This is done through a smooth, well-coordinated process with the powder coater. Twice a week there is transport to and from VHM, ensuring that progress is maintained.

A generous space in the assembly hall will be occupied for assembling the new machine, which will be built in duplicate right away. With new construction, the plant will have tripled in size by 2022. Plenty of space, you might say, but even that space is quickly filled by large projects. And when building a machine, it is practical to be able to walk around it and have easy access to everything.

Thierry and JH are the ones turning the design into a working machine. For experienced VHM all-rounder JH, this is nothing new, and above all another great challenge. For one of the newest Team VHM additions Thierry, it is one of the first VHM machines he is helping to assemble from scratch from the start. He has quickly found his place within VHM and he also likes the way things work: “The assembly of such a new machine is pioneering after all, it’s all just been thought up on paper for the first time and that means that here in the assembly hall we also have to use our own creativity and adaptability. It is really not the case that a ready-made construction drawing is pushed under our noses.”

JH adds: “In assembly, we work from the inside out. First the big parts on the inside and then we work around that to the outside and into the air. And of course we make grateful use of Piet & Griet!” (There you have the couple again!) JH: “This machine is again a real VHM Teamplayer, and in that sense the starting points in assembly and erection correspond again and it goes according to our familiar VHM principles. That works very nicely”.

The assembly of the weighing belt, a crucial part of this new VHM star player, did require some attention. Thierry: “the belt had to be installed very precisely in order to stabilize it as well as possible and ensure the weighing is as accurate and reliable as possible. Moreover, the placement and assembly of the weigh cells was so precise that at one point we even had to call in the supplier to involve all the expertise”. And so you see that cooperation is key within mechanical engineering.

And in just a few weeks, two brand-new Tiprs. VHM machines with backbone and the hands and feet that assembly has given them. We are heading toward the end… are we getting nervous yet? Then let’s talk about the real nerves next week!