Ivo Müller is one of the best polymechanics in the country

The 21-year-old from Zug talks about his preparation and his goals for the World Championships in October next year.

Ivo Müller, you won an industry competition in 2019, followed a year later by Swiss Skills in the CNC milling discipline. Are you also going to climb to the top of the podium in Shanghai?
Well, that's hard to say. Mastering the CNC milling machine has a lot to do with diligence. That’s why there are good fellow competitors, especially from China, Japan or Russia. But of course: my goal is definitely the podium.

The competition will take place in less than a year, namely from 12 to 17 October 2022. How are you preparing for this?
I have been assigned an expert who is responsible for me and my preparation phase. He takes care of the organisation, monitors my progress and visits me monthly at the company. I receive daily tasks from him that take four to eight hours each. By the time of the World Skills, I should have solved about 100 of these tasks.

And when do you do them? During working hours?
Indeed, yes. My company, Bucher Hydraulics in Neuheim, gives me all the time I need for the preparation. I also look after the apprentices, but that's all.

How does such a task work?
It's always the same two-part process. In the first part, I'm given a plan with all the dimensions of a component, and I create a 3D model of it on the computer. Then I write the program that specifies how the milling machine should produce the component. The second part comes after the lunch break: I then work on the milling machine and produce the component. When I'm finished, I measure the piece and add up the score I’ve achieved.

Photo 1: These are the kind of component he creates with the greatest precision
Photo 2: Ivo Müller
Photos: Stefan Kaiser, Neuheim

You give yourself points?
Yes. That works quite well. I simply measure the edges down to one hundredth of a millimetre, and these are specified in the task. Then I read from a table whether my dimension is within the tolerance range, and write down the points accordingly.

The World Skills will be your first international professional competition. Do you already know how this works there?
The Swiss Skills team will fly to Shanghai one week before the start of the competition. We spend four days there in a pre-camp, where we can acclimatise and sleep off the jet lag. This is then followed by two days of preparation, during which I can practice on the competition machine. And after the opening ceremony, I take part in three competitions in four days.

And hopefully win?
That would be cool. But I take part in the World Skills more for fun in my profession and because I think it’s a valuable experience. The good thing about my profession is: because everything is precisely measurable and evaluable, the person who actually wins is always really also the best.