An old proverb says “you can’t bring the mountain to Mohammed,” but Haimer USA, Villa Park, Ill., is bringing its mountain of shrink-fit tool holder, tool balancing and other technology to its prospective customers via its new technology demonstration vehicle. 

Mounted on the chassis of a GMC Top Kick C4500 diesel is a 6'-by-10' traveling showcase that features the latest shrink-fit tool holders, a shrink-fit machine and a tool-balancing machine from Haimer USA. “The goal of the truck is to bring our showroom to the customer,” said Product Manager Dan Sanchez. “It allows us to show customers how the machines work, and it allows them to actually use the machines and get a comfortable feel for how they work.”

Sanchez said the vehicle provides an excellent follow-up for trade show activities since show attendees often are too busy during the show to focus too much on one exhibitor. In addition, by bringing the vehicle and its equipment directly to a customer’s location, demonstrations can be done on their own tools. “As far as the balancing machine is concerned we can take their existing tool holders, and check how well they’re balanced right there at their facility,” Sanchez explained. “If need be they can correct the imbalance and do an apples to apples comparison, running a balanced tool and an unbalanced tool.”

There is a misconception in the marketplace that only high-speed cutting applications can benefit from balanced tools. Sanchez disagrees. “The benefits of balancing are greater at high rpms, but there are always benefits to balancing. Unbalanced tools can cause tool wear, vibration that can damage spindles and result in a less-than-perfect finish,” he said.

In addition to customer convenience, the demonstration truck has other advantages. It allows customers to get hands-on experience with the Haimer equipment and exposes them to the entire spectrum of Haimer products.

“It’s very difficult to express to the customers how easy our machines are to use just by showing them a catalog,” Sanchez continued. “The truck is invaluable. We’ve sold a lot of machines because we were able to let the customers use its machines. A lot of times, you bring the truck to a customer who is interested in either balancing or shrink fitting and they see the whole demonstration and become interested in both.”

Conservative estimates are that 30 to 35 percent of the potential customers who see a demonstration on the truck actually make purchases.

The new demonstration truck replaces an aging Mercedes-Benz truck that was shipped to the U.S. several years ago by Haimer USA’s parent company, Haimer GmbH, in Germany. Last May, when it was time for that original vehicle to be decommissioned, Haimer USA opted for a larger, domestically manufactured chassis and updated the technology in the spacious, air-conditioned demonstration area.

“We’ve come up with so much more technology and advancements with our products and introduced new products, so we wanted the new demo truck to demonstrate all of our capabilities as a company,” Sanchez said. New software was installed on the balancing machine, a new-generation shrink-fit machine with an adjustable coil was added as well as a tool-clamping device and some of Haimer’s new shrink-fit chucks and precision collet chucks.

The truck will make its way up the east coast in time for EASTEC show follow up in May, then move into Canada and the Midwest.