Lange's trademark German silver plates and bridges start out as blanks which are first polished flat (below).
Then they are drilled and machined into the requirement components in another area. Milling and drilling of larger parts, like bridges and base plates, are also done in this department.
Below: German silver plates in various stage of completion; notice they are gilded and engraved before they are machined
Steel and brass parts are also machined.
Because of the extreme precision required, the drill bits are a key part of the process and each bit must conform to exacting standards. They are inspected with what is essentially a microscope that compares the bit against a template.
Smaller parts like gears, screws and balance wheels are manufactured here. One of the machines used is this milling machine fed by an automatic barfeeder (the long piece of equipment on the right) which feeds a bar of metal into the CNC machining centre on the left.
This message has been edited by SJX on 2010-11-12 08:24:24 This message has been edited by SJX on 2010-11-12 08:24:46