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Founded in 2016 and based in the premises of Badeco SA downtown Geneva, Geneva Prod Sàrl manufactures high-precision components for watchmaking.

The company produces a variety of parts including watch crowns, push-pieces, tubes, pinions, arbors and watch hands and also components for the connector industry – all on its Tornos turning centres.

In the La Jonction quarter in Geneva, the area has the Palladium with its concerts, festivals and other festivities unquestionably making it the mecca of Genevan nightlife. In the immediate vicinity of this symbolic place is a large building on the bank of the Rhône river that accommodates several businesses – one of which is Geneva Prod Sàrl, the latest spin-off of Badeco SA.

Badeco SA was founded in 1945 with a focus on the manufacture of dental instruments. Since 1960 the company has been designing and manufacturing high-precision machines and equipment for the watchmaking and jewellery industries, especially handheld power tools to perform machining operations such as drilling, polishing, grinding, chamfering, smoothing, deburring, filing and various other decoration tasks.

The components are designed, manufactured and assembled in-house. Taken over by Amir Hoveyda in 2009, he established an R&D department that marked the beginning of new electronically controlled devices equipped with micro motors that can achieve speeds of 5,000rpm.

At the beginning of 2016, the management decided to diversify and establish a new business for the production of watch components. That's how Geneva Prod Sàrl started operations in August 2016, which went hand in hand with the appointment of Stéphane Menoni as managing director of the newly founded company.

Experienced in high precision bar turning, Mr Menoni had already made his career as a technical sales manager in a well-established company manufacturing watch components. He resolutely tackled the challenge and with eight employees, Geneva Prod develops and manufactures Badeco products. To meet production demands, the young company acquired two SwissNano CNC automatic lathes from Tornos.

"We purchased these machines as soon as we started our activities. Right from the start, they have proved to be particularly flexible and precise while requiring minimum floor space," Stéphane Menoni explains.

“What was decisive, apart from the small footprint, was the flexibility of the SwissNano machines. Some high-precision components are manufactured in large-scale production with lots ranging up to 25,000 parts, but it is also common practice to produce in small series’ or even perform one-off production. This means we can efficiently manufacture of prototypes or spare parts."

He adds: "Since the space in our premises is restricted, we have installed the machines in an inverted position to gain additional space – an arrangement that enables full access to the machining cell from the front. The machines are equipped with bar feeders and can be used for back machining as well as gear cutting operations.”

Commissioning was a straightforward process: "Just three days after the installation of the machines, the operator was fully familiar with their set-up and operation,” Mr Menoni affirms. “On the one hand this was down to simplicity; on the other it was the intuitive functions of the Tisis code editor. The latter is simply fantastic since it allows program editing or transfer and tool selection as well as machining process monitoring."

Geneva Prod's means of production comprises conventional machine tools for the manufacture of the Badeco devices and accessories and an assembly/measurement department that is equipped with a camera-based dimensional inspection and measurement system.

Apart from the two SwissNano machines having a bar capacity of 4mm, the production area sector comprises two other CNC automatic lathes, one being a Tornos Delta 20/5 with five axes and two spindles with a spindle bore of 20mm. These two machines are used more specifically to machine components in the Badeco range.

"We have a broad base of customers: major watchmakers, manufacturers of watch cases, independent watchmakers, watch repairers and watch designers. We offer products such as assembled crowns, push-pieces and tubes, pinions, screws and arbors and all are micro parts that feature extreme surface finish and precision, manufactured from materials such as stainless steel, titanium, nickel silver or precious metals," Mr Menoni concludes.

The connector business is another area. One of the specialties in this field is the production of parts made of beryllium bronze. Also, a special production department for the manufacture of watch hands is based in Plan-les-Ouates. This field of activity represents almost one third of the turnover. Further diversification is being reviewed.

Tornos UK www.tornos.com

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