Technologies
Technological competencies to meet all your needs
Over the years, the Christ & Heiri Group has optimized and developed its technical capabilities, now boasting a state-of-the-art machinery park with 150 turning and gearing machines.
Working in cooperation with selected partners, we also offer finishing and post-processing of all kinds.
Hobbing
Hobbing is a highly flexible and highly productive process for cutting gears, cogwheels and worm gears. Many gears can be made with the help of standard milling tools and without any additional tool costs. By using a large number of cutting tools during the cutting process, we can achieve very long tool life.
Worm gear milling
Unlike hobbing, in the process of worm gear milling with a form cutter, each tooth space is milled out individually. The Christ & Heiri Group offers high-speed milling for this process, achieving tool speeds of up to 15,000rpm. The advantage of this process is that we can obtain higher surface qualities at the same level of productivity.
Thread chasing
Thread chasing is an excellent technology, both economically and technically, for producing worm gears in a single operation. Thread-chased worm gears are characterised by a particularly smooth surface and are ideal for noise-sensitive applications. Over the years, we have refined and improved this manufacturing process and made it a speciality of the group.
Turning
Flawless turned parts are the prerequisite for high-quality gearing parts. Our CNC milling machines and six-spindle lathes cover the entire service portfolio — from large series to sampling.
Assembly
We offer the assembly of your components for mechanical movements. Whether it’s chaussée montée with defined friction, mobile de seconde, or mobile de minuterie, we can cover the entire process in-house.
Rolling
Rolling is a manufacturing process for bearing pins and their shoulders in watch and instrument components.
The workpiece rests with the pins to be rolled in profiled grooves of the carbide support discs and is set in rotation by a drive mechanism. The cutting and simultaneous smoothing of the surface are achieved with sharpened carbide discs (called burnishing disc). The chip removal is between 0.005 and 0.02 mm, depending on the pin diameter, and the achievable surface quality is N3–N4. When using ceramic or Degussit discs, rolling becomes a pure grinding process with correspondingly higher chip removal.