- The tooling is realized from metal bars, having generally a diameter as close as possible to the final produced part. It is possible to tool profiled parts, the most common example being the hexagonal bar to realize 6 sided nuts
- To take off extra materials, carbure or quick steel tools are used. Chips of materials are then formed. During the tooling process, a cutting oil is continuously spread in order to cool down and lubricate the tools
- Around the décolletage, a numerous community of sub contractors and suppliers has appeared. In the vallée de l'Arve, the industrial economy is very developed. We can find raw materials, thermal treatments, tools, oils, industrial equipments suppliers... Enabling us to produce quality parts very quickly.
In the XIXth century the clock industries started working for other industrial areas.
In 1720, a craftsman named Claude Ballaloud moves to Saint-Sigismond, a small village in the mountains of Haute-Savoie (In 2009, the Tour de France passed thru this smal village in a instant). He will then teach many craftsmen and farmers to be décolleteurs. At this time, one would take care of the famr's animals in the summer and make "parts" in the winter time, in the workshop near the stables. Since then, the decolletage constantly evolved to become a very high technology industrial field.
France is the décolletage world leader
with a total of 905 companies and 19 000 employees, with a two billions Euros turnover. 65% of these companies are located in Haute-Savoie, especially in the vallée de l'Arve near the city of Cluses.
The most common parts in décolletage
are screws, nuts, axes shows, bone screws, pistons, gears, axles wheel bike...
Cames Lathe tooling
is called traditional decolletage or conventional. Using the conventional process we can reach good production pace. These lathes are used to produce simple parts ranging from medium to high quantity series.
Numerical command type Lathes
is called CN décolletage, tooling on tooling centers is called CNC. CN tooling, is used to manufacture finilazed parts, with millings, transverse drillings, and sevral other actions. Their easy adjustments, permit the production of small series inexpensively.
Multi-spindles tooling
Multispindles are conventional Lathes tooling several bars at the same time (generally 6). These equiments are taking a very long time to adjust. They are used to produce parts in large volume which can reach a million. Nowadays, multi spindle lathes numerically controlled, are very complex machines, allowing the production of complex parts in high volumes.
Finishing workshop All parts which cannot be finalized with the decolletage process are finished in the finishing workshops. The most common finishing works are rectification, le running, rolling, burnishing, drillings, threading... The most commonly used machines are transfers machines. These machines allow the production of several parts at the same time.
