KWO

CH-3862 Innertkirchen

Kraftwerke Oberhasli AG (KWO) was founded in 1925 in the Grimsel and Susten area. Grimsel Hydro is responsible for the mechanical maintenance of the power plants of the parent company KWO, which supplies over one million people with electricity every day from 8 reservoirs and eleven power plants. The maintenance of turbine runners, pumps and closure elements is not only carried out for the company's own power plants, but is also offered as a service to other electricity producers. The contract manufacturing of single and small series for the general mechanical engineering completes the field of activity of the KWO.

The basic dimensions and the travel of the Z-axis were one of many points in Grimsel Hydro's specifications that the new investment had to meet. The REIDEN RX18 has a working range of 2,200 x 2,200 x 1,610 mm (X, Y, Z axis).
The rotary table has a diameter of 1'800 mm for turned parts up to approx. 2'200 mm diameter and a weight of 8'000 kg. The external dimensions and the working area were convincing. The new machining center from Reiden is used at Grimsel Hydro primarily for machining large hydro mechanical components such as ball valves, butterfly valves, metallic sealing rings and guard rings.

Many of these parts were previously machined on a head lathe, a center lathe and a BF4 milling machine from Reiden - with the purchase of the RX18, all three were replaced, resulting in a reduction in setup times.