• Case Study Werner Langer

Werner Langer relies on JANUS Engineering

Plastics industry project report

April 2015

Werner Langer: Expertise in plastics – from the idea through to series production

WERNER LANGER GmbH & Co. KG is an economically healthy company. In the 3-shift operation covering an area of around 8,000m2, 100 employees manufacture about 6,000 different plastic parts.

Dear readers,
designer Jochen Neise explains below how Werner Langer GmbH designs injection moulds with NX-CAD and manufactures them with NX-CAM.

Since 2004 we have used NX software. Prior to this we analysed several popular CAD/CAM systems and got to know their suppliers. After a relatively short time, JANUS ENGINEERING AG convinced us with the overall package of powerful software modules, individual add-ons, target-oriented training, long-standing experience, the required expertise and much more and, above all, an open and honest way of working together. In addition, JANUS clearly stands out from its competitors in terms of support and post-processors.

Werner Langer GmbH manufactures between 120 and 140 injection moulds each year, measuring 100mm x 100mm to 700mm x 700mm. The portfolio extends from simple "OPEN/CLOSE" injection moulds to highly complex tools with undercuts, which must be ejected by means of hydraulics, collapsing cores, spindle drives, slides and inclined slides. For the design of all moulded parts and injection moulds, we work with the NX software from Siemens PLM Software. For the design of injection moulds we use the NX application "Moldwizard".

Of the 120 moulds designed, around 100 mould designs are produced by one person. All designs are created in 3D down to the smallest detail (sprue, cooling, ejector, screws etc.). These possibilities were opened up by the immense capabilities of the "Moldwizard" NX module.

Following 3D design, with the aid of NX, another general mould arrangement drawing is created with a parts list and positioning of the individual standard parts. If necessary we design the remaining moulds ourselves in the same way.

Since the introduction of NX, for simple "OPEN/CLOSE" moulds we require no more than 3 to 4 hours, which includes a general mould arrangement drawing with a parts list. So far the longest duration was for the design of an extremely complex mould, which only took 3 working days.

See for yourself: 

In this mould 8 inclined slides, 4 underfloor slides and latch locking units eject the moulded part.


The time required for design including 2D drawing and parts list was only 24 hours.

All changes, which were agreed after the first version of this specification came into effect, are listed below.

For this and approximately 96% of all moulds, we require only a single adaptation cycle after the initial sample inspection. The tools contained in "Moldwizard", such as "Moldex 3-D" (simulation software for flow analysis of plastic parts) help with this.

"Why are no single component drawings derived?“
Quite simply: we have NX-CAM! With NX-CAM 3 and 5 axis milling, we can create 2 and 4 axes, wire cutting and thus all machining operations on the 3D component. All drilling operations are created with FBM (Feature Based Machining). No drawings are required for this.

The 10 colleagues in the in-house tool shop load the components to be machined into NX and begin production. As a result of designing with "Moldwizard", all drilled holes in the components are automatically equipped with surface attributes and then recognised by NX-CAM. With just three clicks of the mouse, all operations are created in NX-CAM. In comparison with conventional methods (with creation of drawings and manual programming) we can save 90% of our time.

The error rate when drilling holes is also amazing.
100% correct, 0% errors.

Since the introduction of FBM we have been able to create programmes for drilling holes faster than we can produce them on the machine. For this reason alone we have been able to adjust our calculation base for pricing downwards.

Furthermore, we only require one person to create drilling programmes for all the moulds that we manufacture. However, NX not only recognises drilled holes but also milling contours, which are then automatically recognised by FBM. FBM also creates operations for this. This means that we mount this component, remount once and then unmount – component finished. The employee programmes all plates in the mould setup in just 2 to 4 hours and then begins production on the machine.

By collaborating with our partner JANUS we have been able to save 85% of man hours for programming, drastically reduce the error rate, achieve annual sales increases of 16-19% and noticeably increase our process safety. The software is scalable, the system landscape is universal, the partner is competent and the results are exceptional.

Werner Langer GmbH Co. KG
Metall- und Kunststoffverarbeitung
Auf dem Lohnsberg 6
D - 59872 Meschede-Berge


  • #CAD
  • #CAM
  • #Feature Based Machining
  • #NX CAM
  • #Germany

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