The Scandinavian art of tooling
Competence centres for toolmaking
In order to ensure that the ceramic appliances produced in pressure casting are in perfect shape, Geberit has consolidated the toolmaking expertise in its Scandinavian plants. The Swedish and Finnish plants are both fully equipped to do the job.
Johan Malmsten proudly leads us through his kingdom. Everything is brand new, and the fresh white paint is so bright that it’s almost dazzling. On the wall, silver capital letters show the name of this hub of expertise: “Ekenäs Tooling Center”.
State-of-the-art lathe
Just like everywhere else in the ceramics plant in Ekenäs – located in idyllic surroundings on the Gulf of Finland – tidiness is the order of the day here. All attention is focused on a glass-fronted container with a tool arm inside. This is the brand-new CNC lathe – one of the most modern on the market. “It can switch between 60 different tools,” explains Johan Malmsten.
The Finnish native heads up the new competence centre for toolmaking. Together with his team, he ensures a constant supply of moulds for ceramic appliances, which are manufactured using pressure casting. After all, without a mould there is no appliance.
Plastic instead of plaster
Just like baking a cake, the casting moulds give the product its typical shape. In contrast to traditional ceramic production that uses plaster moulds, pressure casting uses moulds made of plastic (see below).
Demand for these moulds is increasing at the Geberit Group as the company is pressing ahead with automation – and thus also modern pressure casting technology (see insight). High-tech equipment and comprehensive know-how are essential here.
Knowledge transfer between Sweden and Finland
The Swedish plant in Bromölla was the pioneer when it came to plastic tooling. Production started here as far back as 2012. Building up expertise was the work of Dan Olsson, a fountain of knowledge when it comes to ceramic production and at the time the Swedish counterpart of Johan Malmsten. He was only too happy to share his years of valuable expertise with the team in Finland, and also helped to set up the competence centre in Ekenäs.
In the medium term, the goal is for the two Scandinavian plants to produce all pressure casting moulds required for ceramic production across the entire Group.
The advantages of pressure casting
Pressure casting has two key advantages compared to traditional ceramic production. Firstly, much larger numbers can be manufactured as water is pressed out of the slip under pressure and the porous plastic moulds don’t have to dry – in contrast to plaster moulds. Secondly, plastic moulds can also be used much longer than plaster moulds. “In contrast to plaster moulds – which reach the end of their service life after 80 to 100 green bodies have been produced – plastic moulds have a lifespan of 20,000 to 40,000 castings,” comments Johan Malmsten.