Hegge chose a Q-Fin finishing machine

Need for Deburring

CO₂ laser cutting has the unfortunate tendency to leave a black oxide layer on the cut edges of workpieces. To prep the products or make them suitable for KTL coating, that oxide layer must be removed.

Marc: “Initially, and actually even to this day, this was done here using blasting, which works just fine. Especially when your product has cavities or small holes that are difficult or impossible for a sander to reach.”

Sander

However, Hegge’s blasting machine has now reached the end of its useful life, so the search began for a good long-term alternative. Furthermore, customers increasingly wanted rounded edges to a specified radius, which cannot be achieved in a controlled manner with a blasting machine. Even with manual sanding machines, no matter how experienced the operator, that consistency in quality cannot be achieved. And so the purchase of an automated sanding machine came into the picture.

Strategic Automation

Q-Fin and Hegge are located just a stone’s throw from each other, and they met regularly at various trade shows. Marc: “The machines already had an excellent reputation, and the supplier was also nearby. This made the choice for Q-Fin very obvious to us.” Hegge ultimately invested in Q-Fin’s renowned F1200 finishing machine, and with the wet extraction system and return conveyor, immediately opted for two important upgrades as well.

After all, the entire investment is part of Hegge’s long-term plan, which aims to make the company resilient for the future through strategic process optimization and automation, among other measures. Q-Fin provides technical support for this through its expertise.

Q-Fin as a technical partner

Patrick van Scherpenseel (Sales Manager Benelux for Q-Fin): “As far as we’re concerned, this is part of the long-term relationship we aim to maintain with our customers. Q-Fin regularly visits existing customers to showcase new technologies and products. We collaborate, for example, with the company Metaaltechniek in Amersfoort, which supplies the abrasive materials.”

“The goal is always to keep the machine performing as efficiently as possible at all times for the products currently passing through it. We have a very good relationship with Hegge because it is also a company that looks to the future of the market and proactively invests in its own processes accordingly.”

Autonomous machines

Q-Fin, for its part, is committed to continuous development and is responding, among other things, to the industry’s high demand for intuitive user-friendliness and lower barriers to entry, particularly with regard to the HMI. With a high degree of auto-tuning, self-calibration, self-diagnosis, and other new intelligent features designed to further enhance the machine’s ease of use—all while maintaining that same high quality.

At the same time, automation requires an independent, autonomously operating machine. Equipped with robots and cobots—an idea that is currently being actively explored at Hegge and several other customers who have a Q-Fin finishing machine.

Investing in the future

For example, Hegge is considering more direct or automated feeding of the Q-Fin machine. A more prominent role for robots and cobots is also expected, a trend that has been taking hold across Europe for some time. Nevertheless, coaching and training the company’s human capital remains one of the most significant long-term investments.

Marc: “And that calls for a completely different approach to the technical and vocational education system. After all, the focus of our youth’s technical training urgently needs to shift toward industry, much like it has been the norm in Germany for many decades. A proven concept of attending school part-time while also working—in other words, this is the only way we can address the inadequate replacement rate for our workers who are nearing the end of their careers.”