With the construction of the most advanced drum plant in the world, Hamm AG has again made an enormous investment in the Tirschenreuth location and considerably expanded its plant. Since early September 2008, one of the core components of Hamm's rollers is now manufactured in Hamm's own factory in a production facility of over 10,000 m².

By merging both drum manufacture and roller assembly at one site, Hamm can react to customer wishes even more flexibly in future. "In principle, the new ultra-modern production facilities are designed for series production. However, we can also efficiently produce the smallest batches with these machines. In times of constant diversification of markets and products, this aspect is continuously gaining importance," says Board Member Dr. Oliver Krill when explaining the decision for the investment in the double-digit-million range. "Our production facilities are now capable of reacting to short-notice orders within 24 hours and can produce any type of drum desired," added Dr. Krill, who is responsible for Engineering and Production.

Within the scope of the plant expansion, Hamm has created an additional 50 or so new workplaces. Numerous experts were already employed before and during the commissioning phase, in order to support the expansion with their expertise.

A highly modern spare parts centre was also built in the drum factory building that holds some 17,000 different parts for Hamm rollers, stored according to demand in a route-minimizing arrangement. One highlight without doubt is the vertical lift warehouse for more than 6,000 small parts. By building the new spare parts centre, the roller manufacturer has considerably simplified and sped up the picking and handling of parts orders and thus improved its already-exemplary customer service.

Background information on the drum factory:

The drums of Hamm rollers are frequently and mistakenly thought of as nothing more than heavy steel cylinders. However, these components contain essential elements of Hamm's compaction technology, such as the traction drive and vibratory or oscillation drives. The sensitive measurement instruments for dynamic compaction control are also integrated in the Hamm drums.

For the manufacture of its drums, Hamm invested in top-quality and ultra-modern production facilities from famous manufacturers. The steel plate is processed by a CNC controlled 4-roller round bending machine to produce drum blanks. Once the longitudinal seams have been welded in a submerged arc welding process, the circular blanks are inserted into the drum blanks. High-tech welding robots with 13 or 15 axes then weld the circular blanks with the drum bodies in a gas-shielded welding process. A fully automated processing centre then manufactures up to 100 holes and fittings per drum, cuts threads and mills plane surfaces.

After the milling and turning of the drums, the vibratory and traction drives are pre-installed. Once these have been fully installed, the now complete drums are provided with a protective coat of paint in a modern and extremely eco-friendly painting plant with heat recuperation and highly efficient waste air filters. From there, the drums are transported to the adjacent assembly plant and married with the asphalt and earthwork rollers.