CHIRON says it is dedicated to building “precision high-speed vertical machines that meet clients’ requirements and exceed their expectations.”

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The automotive industry once made up 70 to 80 percent of its sales, but CHIRON America Inc. has been forced to look for new markets in the wake of the recession. The company has targeted the medical device industry as an outlet for its machine tool manufacturing capabilities, and Ross Clark, vice president of sales, says this means learning a whole new set of quality requirements.   

“We’ve had to hand-pick people from the industry,” Clark says. “Having been an automotive-based firm, we learned very quickly that medical people’s buying habits and support are different than automotive.”   

CHIRON America says it combines new and innovative metal-cutting technologies with its established vertical machining centers. The company incorporates speed, rapid traverse, various table designs, tool changers, thermal stability, rigidity, time-saving options, ease of automation and integration into its machine designs.    

CHIRON America is the North American operation of CHIRON VMC and Turnkey Services. The company boasts more than 30 distributors and regional service technicians located across the United States, Canada and Mexico.   

Founded in 1921 in Germany as a manufacturer of surgical instruments, CHIRON first produced stainless steel surgical instruments in 1925. By 1943, the company says it had expanded into components for the first jet engines.   

After World War II, CHIRON be­gan development and production of compressors and paint spray guns. In 1957, the Hoberg & Driesch Group acquired CHIRON and guided the firm into the development and manufacturing of component parts for drilling, milling and thread-cutting.
By 1961, the company had delivered its first special purpose machines. CHIRON says its first turret head drilling machines were designed and built in 1972, with the first vertical machining center to follow five years later. It established CHIRON America in Charlotte, N.C., in 1993. Today, CHIRON America has a 58,000-square-foot facility, with about 25,000 square feet of manufacturing space and 75 employees.

Manufacturing Capabilities
CHIRON America manufacturers high-speed traveling column vertical machining centers in a variety of configurations. Originally designed to serve the automotive industry and small parts manufacturers, this group of machines has been redesigned to serve medical and high-precision complex parts, including long parts, extrusions or aircraft frame parts.   

“The machines are general enough for a broad market,” Clark says. “The functions of the machines include milling, drilling, tapping, boring and flooring operations. Another group aimed at the medical industry can also do turning operations.”   

CHIRON America refers to this group as the bar machining family of products. This refers to the technology and machining used that produces products for customers directly from a bar of
raw material, Clark says. For small- and medium-batch, CHIRON America offers five-axis universal milling machines with a symmetric moving column design and an NC swivel head for the spindle. It also produces long-bed machining centers for medium-batch production over two work areas in pendulum mode or for long work pieces.    

The company’s large-batch production is handled with one-, two- or four-spindle machining centers with an integrated work piece changer. “CHIRON delivers flexible machining systems for large-batch production and production with little personnel,” it says.    

CHIRON America’s engineers reduce machining time in many ways, such as:

• High-speed manufacturing;
• High spindle speeds;
• Coolant through the tool;
• Minimal amounts of lubrication; and
• Short chip-to-chip times.
  

Design Expertise
CHIRON America separates itself from the competition through value-added services it offers with its products, Clark says. He notes not many of its competitors can offer a broad range of products with turnkey services like his company can. “We have a very innovative design team that is quick to market with a design concept and has expertise for value-added solutions,” he says.    

For example, CHIRON America has developed its “tilt spindle” technology to a wider range of machine models, which has allowed it to provide solutions to customers for larger components. “We are also very creative when it comes to applying automation – robots and parts handling conveyor systems – to our machines or a cell of two machines,” Clark adds.   

However, when the company decided to enter the medical device industry, CHIRON America quickly realized it would have to redesign its products to cater to new demands. Clark says the company sought new employees with experience in the medical field to guide CHIRON America into this new endeavor.   

“We had to design and retest the machines, and strengthen our personnel with different skill sets,” Clark says. “To get closer to [medical customers], we completely searched out the top-notch people in that area. It was the right thing to do in that market. This approach has proved itself, unquestionably.”   

CHIRON America quickly learned the many differences between the automotive and medical device industries. For instance, while automotive customers generally tend to rely on suppliers for their long-term expertise needs, medical device clients prefer using their in-house personnel and only need the correct machines delivered on time.   

“They keep information to themselves and basically only want a machine available in a couple of months,” Clark says. “They have a lot of expertise in-house that can support themselves. The services they need are not necessarily additional hardware outside of the equipment.”   

Another difference CHIRON America has encountered is the significance each industry places on aesthetics. Medical device clients expect their products to have smooth finishes that prevent the spread of disease. “There’s a whole lot of aesthetics involved,” Clark says. “The products have a certain touch and feel, and that means there are surface finish issues and dimensional tolerances to address. The finish is extremely important because they’ve learned the finish has a lot to do with bacteria control. So, we add better parts to polish them.”

Manufacturing Techniques
CHIRON’s German operations manufacture the machines, and CHIRON America customizes them per customer specifications out of its facility in Charlotte. President and CEO Cris Taylor says CHIRON America adds options to the base machines, including fixtures and tooling, as well as logistical processes such as quality and safety tests.   

The product line is updated annually through the addition of one or two models and modifications of existing products. “That’s one of the reasons why manufacturing here is a difficult task,” Clark says. “From 1994 through 2004, we had a good period of time where the product was stable. Now, we have a lot more technology going into them.    

“It is hard to implement changes as well as add the options of our value-added services,” Clark adds. “So we do it on one factory floor in Europe.”   

To ensure quality, CHIRON America follows the guidelines laid out by its ISO 9001 certification. It also believes in continuous training of its manufacturing employees to improve the company’s productivity levels. The company conducts internal training through Charlotte as well as through its parent in Germany. CHIRON America will also utilize local resources, such as community colleges.    

“Training in particular is very important,” Clark explains. “We have a training department here, and some of it is on-the-job training.”    

CHIRON America also has nurtured loyalty in its work force. Taylor says the company has many employees who have spent more than 10 years with the firm. “We have excellent employee relations,” Taylor adds. “We have a lot of high-class engineers that are very dedicated.”