‘The Beast’ devours everything placed before it

Many subcontract manufacturers have the challenge of knowing which machines to purchase to suit the diversity of work that comes through the door. For other businesses, it’s development and growth that dictate the purchasing decisions. For Ian Gibson, Managing Director of Vision Precision Engineering, the latter scenario led to investments in XYZ machine tools. Starting the business with his uncle, Dennis, they set about finding work - a significant challenge.

Using existing contacts, they found an unlikely source of work making parts for coffee machines in Costa Coffee stores. “We were approached to make improvements to the in-store machines so that the baristas could not make mistakes in loading the cleaning products used in the machines,” says Mr. Gibson. This influx of work prompted the business to seek improvements in their manufacturing processes, leading them to XYZ for a solution to make parts faster than on their traditional milling machine. Mr Gibson continues: “Steve Cox, the XYZ Area Salesman regularly called in and, when the company needed to invest in new equipment, he helped select the right machine which was an XYZ 710 vertical machining centre complete with a 4th axis.”

This investment created a new dilemma as making parts faster created a bottleneck in the secondary operations. This led to further investment in a smaller machining centre from XYZ to handle the increase in demand.

“Even with two machines and 4th axis fitted to the mill, we were still falling behind in supplying parts to our customers so again we contacted XYZ to see how we could improve our manufacturing further,” comments Mr. Gibson. The answer was to invest in an XYZ TC 320 LTY-driven tool lathe. “The ability to produce milled and drilled features on our turned parts was taking up capacity on the original mill, so it made sense to purchase a machine that could produce our parts in one hit which is why we decided to invest in the TC 320 LTY.”

With the hardened box way-built machine with its Y and C-axis, along with driven tool capability in place, Vision Precision set about getting the most out of its latest purchase. “Now we have this machine available to us, we have been able to quote for work that previously we could not tackle,” observes Mr Gibson. This is partly due to the maximum turning diameter of 320mm and the maximum turning length of 550mm. With a bar capacity of 78mm, it also means that Vision can produce more parts from bar rather than billets, and with a barfeed purchased for the machine, lights-out machining has now become a regular occurrence.

“The machine just seems to tackle everything we throw at it.” Mr. Gibson states. “Big or small, it does it all, and the material removal rates are phenomenal on jobs from 20mm depths of cut when turning to drilling a 70mm diameter hole with a modular drill in super duplex material. When you consider we were only running at 200rpm when performing the drilling and it was only using 25% of the available spindle power it’s a well-built machine with great power and it holds the tolerances we demand of it all day, every day”.

Mr. Gibson also notes: “It’s not only the machine that’s important to me but the whole package. From sales through to the installation, training and ongoing support from XYZ’, the whole experience has been second to none and that’s why I also purchased a CT65 HD.”

By posting about its work on social media, Vision has generated interest from companies looking to outsource jobs. Business is growing, which has led to a recent move to new premises. From modifications to coffee machines, Vision is attracting work from various sectors from green energy to defence.