...there's a lot of scrap!
The new factory has expanded greatly, and two floors are now dedicated to casemaking, plus another floor that produces movement parts. The factory is still in the Canton of Schaffhausen, and also all movement assembly occurs in the original factory in the city if Schaffhausen.
I'll cover the case making in depth in future articles.
Well, indeed, a lot of high quality scrap: I presume this is recycled. Looking forward to "how the watches are made".
Kind regards,
Paul
They are also alchemists. I was handed a recycling report in the case department one day and it indicated the total of grams used plus recovered was greater than the starting grams. Nice work, if you can do it. Of course this is a reporting / measurement error, but I thought it was funny.
looks more like MF has gone into "modern art" with this photo.
I look forward to reading the Mf Edition of "The Case behind the IWC Case".
Best regards
Mark
It's comforting to know most of the important processes are done in-house.
Looks like a Jackson Pollock painting. lol
sounds like a sherlock holmes story, but then again, aren't all vintage collectors detectives ? :-)
thanks for sharing Michael.
Thanks for sharing this Micheal.
Will be waiting for more...
MK
That is a lot of swarf to process!
I would think that they would be very diligent in their recycling to the point of gathering the dust particles that are generated from the machining - whilst the stainless swarf would be worth a tidy sum in recycling the titanium, gold and platinum would be worth a very tidy sum and you could not afford not to recycle it.
Michael - if you do cover the case making in further detail down the track I would be interested in hearing if there are separate production lines dependant on the metal being used or if a extremely careful cleaning process is done after each run of a given metal and if dry or wet machining is done. I would imagine that with the precious metals the value of the swarf would be much greater if there was no cross contamination to the point that the lathes, mills etc would need a complete and thorough clean down to gather up the dust particles generated from the machining process - not just the more tangible off cuts.
I would also think that wet machining (to lubricate and cool) would make the collection process a little tougher but still possible, with particle filters in the cooling system etc to gather as much as possible.
I would guess that the blanks / raw bar stock are produced by third parties? And if so, there would be a bi-lateral agreement to return swarf / wastage to those suppliers for re-processing?
Thanks for a great topic :)
Regards,
Ben
Ben,
The cleaning is immaculate, and the same machines are used for all metals. The only problem is titanium, which needs extra water cooling and presents a fire risk.
The scrap is reprocessed, but I didn't ask by whom. I also have photos of the raw bar stock for steel from suppliers; they mostly are cylinders. Gold comes in smaller bricks, and of course is stored in a vault.
Got any samples or swops of the bricks stored in the vault? Moderators perks!! Years ago went into Royal Mint at Tower Hill, they were producing foreign coins and high quality strikes of medals all of which we were able to handle, however there was another room where large sheets were fed into a machine and crash went the press and out popped sovereigns in 22ct gold, needless to say we could only see through reinforced glass. Tower Hill production ceased many years ago.
Thanks for sharing Michael!
Rgds
ks