Hartford – Intelligent Machining Centres
Published on : Monday 30-11--0001
Hartford is a well known Taiwan brand of She Hong Industrial Company Ltd, one of the oldest machining centre manufacturers of Taiwan, founded in 1965. What is in a name? Well, after his visit to the US in 1965, when the founder of Hartford Mr Joseph Chen built the first Bridgeport type milling machine in Taiwan, he was inspired to name it Hartford after Connecticut’s capital city, since Bridgeport took the name after the city in Connecticut where it is based! 50 plus years later, Hartford has long surpassed Bridgeport’s production record with close to 50,000 machines operating worldwide, of which over 1000 are in operation in India where the company has an active sales and service operation for pre-assembled machines. The company has a global marketing network that covers 65 countries, and claims to be the largest exporter of CNC machining centres from Taiwan.
Hartford manufactures only machining centres – its core competency – emphasises Daniel Lu, Marketing Manager in the Export Department. Except bearings, it manufactures all key components in-house including the Hartford brand CNC controller Hartrol Plus, available in different versions for die & mould and parts machining. This is said to be the fastest CNC in the world with convenient 19” screen and more than 40 value added apps. The machines are manufactured in an Intelligent Factory utilising IoT based environment powered by a Prevention and Protection Superbox. The machines thus manufactured are smart, intelligent production units equipped with i-spindles, and connected with Hartnet system through MES for monitoring by remote from any location. From receiving the order to the machining programme management with real time monitoring and trouble shooting, the entire process is automated. \
Automation solutions are enabled by the Robocell – a robot production cell of up to 3 machines operated by a single robot – a solution that deals with problem of labour shortage for operation with less manpower or even no manpower – unmanned 24/7 production once the programme is set. Not only is the manpower requirement reduced by 67%, the production efficiency, with flexible manufacturing capability, also improves by 18%, claims the company.
(Hartford is one of the machine tool manufacturers visited during the TMTS 2018 Preview Press Conference Programme. TMTS 2018 is scheduled from November 7th to November 11th, at Taichung High Speed Rail Zone, Taichung, Taiwan)