ARTICLE
Company History Ecrimesa was founded in 1964 in Santander (North of Spain) by a group of four families of the region (Antonio Mª Pereda, Santiago Bannatyne, Andrés Peral and Gonzalo García) with other small shareholders who saw investment casting technology as a great opportunity in developing an industrial project in the area. In its first years the project was managed by Mr. Miguel Gutierrez. Then from 1983, until his retirement in 2009, Mr. Juan Cortiguera headed the company and introduced a great revolution in the development of both the market and the process, thus creating one of the most important investment casting foundries in Europe, and also developing the technology of metal injection moulding as a new arm. New Challenges From 2009 to the present day, Ecrimesa is managed by a new team led by Mr. Alejandro Martínez alongside staff members with several years in the company. With this new leadership, the Ecrimesa Group faced the difficult economic situation experienced in Europe and is now preparing it for the near future. The new generation of shareholders maintain their confidence in the firm founded by their parents or grandparents in Santander. They are represented on the Board of Directors, but do not work directly with any of the companies within the Business Group. Today, Ecrimesa Group has more than 300 employees operating its various technologies; investment casting, metal injection moulding, machining, heat treatment and mould manufacturing, with a sales volume in excess of 37 millions Euros and more than 9,000 references developed throughout its history. Over 7,000 references in investment casting technology and 2,000 references developed in MIM. “The main strength of our firm is its team of high qualified people with many years experience in the business of metallurgical part production. They are mainly an in-house staff with a high commitment to achieving their targets,” stated Mr. Alejandro Martínez. The Ecrimesa Group is capable of producing parts from 0.01 g in MIM technology to 40 Kg parts by investment casting. Product manufacture is done mainly in steel (more than 60 different alloys per year- the complete listing of alloys could be found on the Company’s website at www.ecrimesa.es), but it is also capable of producing aluminium parts. The company constantly strives to fulfill customer requirements and offers support in the design and development processes, including prototyping. According to our vision: “Predicting the future is the key to success, the best way to predict the future is to create it.” From a design or concept to the final product, when it is required, we collaborate with our customers to achieve the best design for part casting (including material and heat treatment) and machining activities in order to guarantee the metallurgical and dimensional quality of the final product at the best price. Also, as a first step we can produce wax prototypes or MIM prototypes by additive manufacturing before mold production, affording the customer the opportunity to verify product design. Casting simulation is a standard in many products to predict potential problems and reduce the timelines of the projects and the trials during the sample process. Currently, Ecrimesa is certified to IATF 16949:2014; UNE 9100:2014, ISO14001:2015, ADW 2000 and CQI-9, with main market production for industries like Automotive (powertrain, injection systems, environmental systems, airbags, etc.) not only TIER1 but also OEM, Lock systems (mainly electronic ones), Defence (for major OEMs around the world.), Tools, Aerospace (we cast parts that comprise assemblies in Boeing and Airbus airframes) in more than 20 countries, primarily (Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy, Poland, U.S.A, Mexico, Hungry, Japan, Israel, Spain and the U.K.). Capabilities Mold design Pro Engineer 5 axis machines 42.000 r.p.m- CAM Hypermill Automatic injection machines-Arburg-MPI for Investment Casting and MIM Two robotic lines for ceramic with environment control by computer Two induction lines with a capacity of 3.5 tons per shift Automatic line for cutting Automatic pickling installation Trazability through bar codes in all production steps 3 lines for Annealing with carbon restoring controlled by computer 3 Transfer for normalizing and quenching 1 T6 line for Aluminium with TUS and SAT X- Ray equipment with tomography Two magnetic particles equipments Penetrant test line Leackeage test by air or water Tensile test installation Metallurgical laboratory with 7 technician for all technologies Simulation for Investment Casting- Magma software 3 Continuos lines for Sintering and Debinding in MIM 2 Batch lines for sintering + 1 batch line for debinding 10 Horizontal Matsuura machines 2 Vertical CNC machines 3 Turning installations with double spindle for long batches 4 cells for turning operations for short medium production batches 6 Measurment machines (4 by contact + by vision- Quickvision+ GOM)