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Stand and deliver: New industrial strategy must put the fizz back in UK manufacturing.
11/20/2024
Stand and deliver: New industrial strategy must put the fizz back in UK manufacturing.
2024 was a mixed year, with some stellar announcements like Tata Group’s gigafactory investment offset by the cancellation of Phase 2 of HS2 and a budget black hole to pay for, but an Industrial Strategy may give the industry the long-term stability it needs. This article is by Will Stirling The Chancellor Rachel Reeves received a boost a week before her Autumn Budget when the IMF revised its forecast for UK growth this year to 1.1% (up from 0.7% in July) and 1.5% in 2025 – the biggest upward revision for any advanced country. It’s a sign of better things to come, and 2024 was not a banner year in manufacturing, more one defined by steady stability, yet it still notched up a few memorable headlines for British industry. Spiralling costs meant the previous Tory government cancelled Phase 2 of HS2 from Birmingham to Manchester, affecting hundreds of supply chain companies, which the new Labour government partly blamed for the cost overruns. The Secretary of State for Transport Louise Haigh launched an independent review to ensure lessons will be learned and the costs for HS2 are controlled. The cost of Phase 1, London to Birmingham, is expected to reach £66bn. Covid and the semiconductor-shortage-affected UK automotive sector got a fillip in February when Agratas, the battery division of Tata Group, confirmed a new £4bn battery gigafactory in Somerset. It was a relief for the car sector to see the UK stall on the global league table for gigafactory capacity, a key metric for car plant investment. While carmaking recovered strongly in 2023 after semiconductor supply returned, it is slowing down. By August, the UK had manufactured 522,833 cars, down 8.5% on production at the same point in 2023 when ythe figure was 571,671. Interestingly, year-to-date vehicles for the domestic UK market had increased by 12%, but exports, representing over 84% of all car production, were down 13.6%. The production of electric cars, including hybrids (EVs), fell by 26%. Automotive business group SMMT said this decline is expected to be reversed in the longer term as new models come on stream. Massive manufacturer discounting saved car sales in Europe in September, pushing BEV sales to 56,387 registrations. Siemens opened its new train factory in Goole, Humberside, in October and announced a further £40m in addition to the £200 investment in the Goole Rail Village, which will now bring up to 1,000 new jobs to the region, as well as around 1,700 supply chain job opportunities. In addition to maintaining the bogies from Siemens’ 572 trains running in the UK, it will also include new production lines for assembling bogies for new trains, which will be the first for Siemens in the UK. Aerospace is battling delivery rate challenges: after Covid, orders poured in, and the industry is pulling on all levers to find ways to go above ‘Rate 60’ into the consistent 80s or even 90 aircraft per month to reduce long delivery times. Ninety commercial aircraft were delivered in August, the highest in that month of the year since 2018. But that’s not the whole story. While the global backlog of aircraft on order is 15,651 planes according to the industry group ADS - an extraordinary number - aircraft orders in the year-to-date are two-thirds behind 2023 levels. Perhaps it was a sign that Brexit was the past. The FA appointed Thomas Tuchel as the senior men’s coach, causing gossip as the first German coach of the England football team. A week later, Britain and Germany signed a government-described “landmark’ defence agreement to boost security, investment, and jobs. German defence giant Rheinmetall will build a new factory in the UK to make barrels for artillery guns, and German marine surveillance aircraft will supply patrols from RAF Lossiemouth. The factory will need British steel and will create 400 jobs. It's the first defence pact with Germany of this scale, although both countries already collaborate on making armoured vehicles, for example. In October, BAE Systems Maritime launched the sixth Astute class submarine, Agamemnon. Attention will soon switch to the multi-billion AUKUS submarine (SSN-A) programme, where the boats will be built in the UK and Australia. Fhaheen Khan, senior economist at Make UK says “Manufacturers this year experienced the most stable period of business conditions in almost a decade, despite still facing higher costs, tight interest rates and skills shortages.” While it could be seen as a year of two halves – the first six months boasting strong production, order books and investment intentions, and the second looking far more mixed due to an inevitable domestic market slowdown –manufacturers remain buoyant in their expectations.” h Accountants and business advisors are expecting more investment in the economy in 2025, following several years where major events and inflation have made business conditions that could be generally described as ‘sh*t’. Fhaheen Khan thinks the new 10-year industrial strategy is an important milestone in achieving economic growth, although some seasoned business leaders will say they have heard it all before. It’s hard to remember, but the UK has had at least four official industrial strategies since the 2008/9 recession: in 2009 (Mandelson), 2012 (Vince Cable), 2017 (Greg Clark) and now in 2024. Khan says “It's highly encouraging that advanced manufacturing will be a key sector driving that growth, and the Industrial Strategy Council will help lay the pipework needed to modernise UK industry through the wide adoption of AI, computing, and techniques like 3D printing.” Of particular relevance to MTD readers, the numbers show that industries specialising in producing capital equipment like machinery, electronics and metal fabricators have experienced a positive year. This is due to strong exports to the US and the EU as many Western countries are investing in the kit to modernise their manufacturing – for example, the US’s Inflation Reduction Act and, one could say, on the wave of ‘Make America Great Again’. Khan says “These subsectors have much to look forward to in 2025 as economic conditions stabilise further, inflation cools, and interest rates are loosened." The manufacturing technology expo MACH 2024 organisers said visitors were up 6% on the previous show and reported a good vibe. Greg Capp, sales director at EDM machinery firm Sodi-Tech, said: “Footfall has been the best in a long time. On Day One, we had enough enquiries for the next six months.” Overall, investment in manufacturing in 2023 (last full year) is up by 4% on 2022, from £40.24bn to £41.8m, and economists expect this to rise in 2024. Despite the numbers and late positivity, on the ground, some manufacturing machinery vendors and subcontractors report a frustrating year where the anticipated rush of orders failed to materialise. That flat confidence from 2022-2023 seemed to be overspilled into the year’s first half. Andrea Wilson at deep hole drilling and boring engineering company Hone-All Precision says “2024 has been a challenging and varied year for most businesses. “Uncertainty and political instability have created conditions that have not been beneficial to business and have created barriers to growth. “The creation of the 10-year Industrial Strategy will hopefully give business and investors the confidence they have been lacking the last few years.” The new industrial strategy focuses on eight sectors: advanced manufacturing, clean energy industries, creative industries, defence, digital and technologies, financial services, life sciences, and professional and business services. High-tech, hard-tech, high-potential companies can benefit hugely from close government support. The top two sectors in the strategy are advanced manufacturing and clean energy industries. “Tokamak Energy does both!” says David Kingham, the executive vice chairman and a co-founder. He says that the company that designs, manufactures and operates a plant for nuclear fusion to generate power aims to accelerate the development of fusion energy, the most valuable technology of the 21st Century. “We were delighted to see the new consultation on the Industrial Strategy. A company like Tokamak Energy, with over 250 employees and global ambitions, can grow rapidly if we have consistent strong backing from the government.” The company has had spectacular success in recent years with the record-breaking ST40 high field compact spherical tokamak – which reached 100 million degrees Celsius plasma ion temperature, the threshold needed for commercial fusion energy. Its high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnet development has also set records for magnetic field strength at a temperature of 20,000C. David says: “Our industrial strategy is to pursue fusion energy by assembling consortia around our core technologies to provide the complimentary capabilities necessary for the development and deployment of fusion. This will require major investment by governments and consortium partners, but the prize is the elusive goal of commercial fusion energy. The fastest achievable timeline for fusion is 10 years to a 50MW pilot plant, a goal set by the US Department of Energy milestone-driven fusion development program. “So a bold, consistent industrial strategy from the Government could enable the UK to have its fusion “cake” in the long term and “eat” the economic benefits of the magnet spin-off technology in the short to medium term.” In the supply chain, companies like Hone-All Precision want long-term stability, vision, and potential targeted support through programmes unafraid of ‘picking winners’ that have previously blighted attempts to assist the industry within state aid rules. Managing Director Andrea Wilson says “The new Labour government must commit to long term strategic thinking and investment decisions, and the newly formed Industrial Council will hopefully achieve this.” “The council’s success will be increased dramatically if it's informed by business leaders, owners, and most importantly, if it includes SME representation. The outcome of these two positive moves will hopefully result in us seeing the confidence and stability we all need to thrive.” Machine tool and machinery suppliers need orders, and for that, their customers need confidence to buy. Adrian Haller, managing director of Bruderer UK, a leading manufacturer of precision high-speed presses says “The UK has a fantastic opportunity in advanced engineering, and we have so many brilliant companies – at all levels of the supply chain – that are prospering despite the lack of a coherent Government strategy to support the sector.” “This isn’t tubthumping; this is what we see every day when our sales engineers and installers commission precision high-speed Bruderer presses on shop floors across the country. Imagine what we could do if we had a long-term Industrial Strategy that focuses on our strengths and invests in them? And I don’t mean the odd grant here and there. It needs to be substantial and flow down to SMEs – that is the critical bit. For industry to become more efficient, an area to improve is the education of manufacturing engineers about new, ‘smart’ technology. Mark Weymouth, MD of PLUS Automation and UK representative for Contrinex and Satron, who runs a popular LinkedIn newsletter says “There's a pervading tendency for engineers to buy and commission what they know and not look at new, better plant and equipment that can raise productivity.” While PLUS Automation is in its fourth year of growth, many food and liquid process manufacturers are not explaining this technology to their site engineers. He says “The UK is about seven years behind mainland Europe in adopting many process technologies.” Although the increase in employers’ national insurance payments may dampen this optimism, the indicators are that this new strategy for industry will help businesses, especially those in advanced manufacturing areas.
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Spark of Innovation.
11/20/2024
Spark of Innovation.
Anotronic Ltd is a well-recognised subcontract machining business and manufacturer of high-quality EDM fast-hole drilling and EDM die-sinking machine tools. Founded in 1982, the Leighton Buzzard business started in ECM, ECD and EDM tooling and machining, evolving to the production and growth of its own ECM and ECD technology brand. Along this journey, the company has worked with Sodi-Tech UK and the Sodick brand of machines. Martin White, Managing Director of Anotronic Ltd, says: “My father started the business in 1982, and I joined the company in 1985. We tend to machine a lot of difficult materials such as inconel, titanium, special stainless steel, and everything that is difficult to machine. We take on the worst jobs because we can - and we have all the machines and processes in-house to do what we need.” Over the years, Anotronic has continually expanded its factory footprint, services and range of machines. This has resulted from an aggressive growth strategy, staff development, and investment in the latest machine tool technology. The Bedfordshire manufacturer currently operates three Sodick machines, with the latest ALC600G Premium wire EDM with linear motor drive technology arriving recently. The high-end plant list gives Anotronic the edge over its rivals. The Sodick ALC600G Premium from Sodi-Tech UK, with its spacious X, Y and Z-axis of 600 by 400 by 500mm and the U and V-axis travel of 120 by 120mm, clearly gives the company an edge. Martin recalls how Anotronic arrived at the ALC600G: “We always buy premium machines, and as the company has become more experienced, we always look to buy better machines. This always comes down to reliability and the ability to run unmanned. We have a Sodick AQ35L die sink machine that we’ve had for a very long time, and Sodi-Tech UK has looked after this machine for us for over 20 years.” The reliability and performance of the Sodick AQ35L meant that when Anotronic was in the market for another EDM machine, it once again turned to the Sodick brand. Martin says: “We bought a Sodick AG 600LH around seven years ago. That machine enables us to do tool work up to 500mm high, which we regularly do. We have a large bobbin on this machine, enabling us to run 70 to 80 hours unmanned.” The remarkably high level of lights-out machining with the Sodick AG600LH and its incredible reliability persuaded Anotronic to invest in its latest EDM machine, the Sodick ALC600G Premium with linear motor drive technology. “We bought this latest machine because we had a project with a sister part. The project typically consists of 40 parts that would maybe take us three months to complete. We suddenly had an order placed on us last year for 300 parts. We couldn’t have done this without another machine, as we knew we would have had to have been machining 24 hours a day to get the parts done.” Sodi-Tech UK Sales Manager Richard Bailey says: “Martin and Anotronic don’t just take on run-of-the-mill CNC jobs. This company tackles the higher end of the industry and often the parts that companies don’t want to tackle themselves. Anotronic looks at jobs from an application perspective rather than a ‘machining time’ point of view. With the Sodick technology and the special characteristics within the machine, Anotronic can utilise this to run all of its applications and do jobs that are unique and out of the norm. In this instance, the application that Martin has been working on requires some very steep angles. The ALC600G Premium has very large U and V-axis travel, allowing the processing of tapered angles up to 45°. So, when it comes to machining this part, it can be done in situ with the integration of a fourth and fifth axis.” “Manufacturers can also use the on-board technology and IQ software system that brings Anotronic’s model into the machine and draws the profile on-board utilising the U and V-axis cutting technology. The programme is generated, the parts machined, and the job is complete!” “We're using a very complex 4-axis programme to cut a rotary part with 45° slots in it. The only way we could do that was to use the software we currently use and without it, we couldn’t manage to do the part. So, we used the on-board software within the CNC control of the Sodick machine to create a 3D model and a tool path to cut the part. This is machining at extreme angles. We're cutting at 45° and machining up to 40 to 50mm in the U and V-axis to create this particular part. We also had to specify wide nozzles and wider guides to machine this part, and the ALC600G did a brilliant job.” “I have been a Sodick user for 35 to 40 years, and the beauty of the Sodick machines is that you can jump straight into a point anywhere in the programme without editing the entire programme. It makes things very easy as it is a powerful and user-friendly software system. It has many benefits, such as the negative offsets - normally, you have to cut a comp on a machine, but with the Sodick, we can drive the comp the other way and cut the other side of the part using a negative value. Most control systems would just throw that out, whereas the Sodick accepts it and gets the job done.” “I was working 15 to 20 hours daily, which was too much. I wasn’t seeing my kids growing up, and something had to change, so we went down the automation route. We have a great team that works very hard and helps us reach our common goal - we run a lot of machines with very few people through our application of automation. Sodick is a very established brand, and they have a great customer base and exceptional knowledge with engineers who are really, really good. I've known Peter at Sodi-Tech for over 35 years, and this relationship is based on our excellent support - it’s been a fantastic marriage between the two companies.”
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Six of the best
11/20/2024
Six of the best
With 75% of its turning centres bought from Dugard Machine Tools, it's safe to say that C&K Precision Engineers Ltd is reaping the rewards of working with the South Coast machine tool specialist. The Stoke-on-Trent manufacturer is a subcontract machining, assembly and fabrication business serving the medical, aerospace, surveillance and general manufacturing sectors. Working in these high-end segments, C&K Precision demands machine tools capable of delivering high-quality, tight-tolerance workpieces from the most challenging material grades. Matthew Kelsall from C&K Precision Engineers says: “We moved to a new large facility in 2017, and since then, we have continually grown. We’ve invested in new machines with a better working environment and aim always to increase productivity. There is a skills shortage, and we are lucky to have a good team around us, but we have to maximise that with the most productive machines.” This is why six of the company’s eight turning centres have been purchased from Dugard Machine Tools. The second-generation business was founded in 1969 kand eeps returning to Dugard, Matthew says: “One of the main things is reliability. The first Dugard machine we bought has been with us for six years and has been remarkably reliable. It’s a very robust and rigid machine with box guideways, and we need that as we machine many exotic materials - we have a lot of faith in the machine.” The turning centres supplied by Dugard are all fitted with a Siemens CNC system. “With a lot of machine tool manufacturers, if you want a machine built to order, it typically takes twelve months to wait, and we simply couldn't wait for that. Dugard had a machine in stock with many additional bells and whistles, such as a sub-spindle, that we never had before. The success of that machine led us to buy two more machines. That’s because if something serves you well, you stick with what you know.” “Since we purchased the first machine, we found that we could get more and more work through it, which eventually created a bottleneck. We had to do something about the bottleneck, so we bought a second machine with a Y-axis last year. We have now just had the third machine installed”. As a turner operating four machines at C&K Precision Engineers, Matthew Gerrard says: “The machines are built extremely well, and they perform brilliantly on materials like inconel 625 and titanium – they fly through the material. You can make massive cuts on the Dugard SMEC machines, whereas others can stall. This is due to the really high quality and high specification motors and the box way construction. We also love Siemens control as it is very user-friendly and has a lot of technical add-ons. If we're doing jobs out of titanium that may have just a 0.9mm wall thickness, the Dugard SMEC machines ensure that you don’t get any vibration. Additionally, the machines have BMT65 toolholders that are very large and robust for heavy-duty cutting.” “Looking at the first machine we bought with the Y-axis, it’s just so much more versatile and capable than our other machines. We have other machines with live tooling, but the Dugard Y-axis is perfect for opening slots and counter-boring holes. We were so impressed by the sub-spindle on the SMEC SL2500SY that we purchased a SMEC SL2500Y, which is an almost identical machine except for the sub-spindle. We purchased this as we only needed one machine with the sub-spindle, but we still needed a machine with a Y-axis for doing one-off jobs.” “We've just added a SMEC SL2000, and my son, who is just starting his apprenticeship, is on that machine. It doesn’t have the live tooling facility, but it has a Siemens 828 CNC control and is perfect for learning.” Matthew Kelsall says: “When you buy a machine, nobody wants to be stuck at the end of a phone talking to someone you’ve never spoken to before, but when you speak to Dugard, you have a great relationship that work well.”
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Research highlights impact of rising business costs
11/20/2024
Research highlights impact of rising business costs
Recent research commissioned by Close Brothers Asset Finance has revealed the significant impact of rising costs on businesses across the UK, with a majority of respondents reporting adverse effects on their operations and financial health. According to the research, 71% of businesses have been affected by the rising cost of doing business, while 25% reported no impact, and 5% were unsure. Among those experiencing increased costs, 56% indicated that it has negatively impacted their cash flow. Conversely, 27% reported no negative impact on cash flow, and 15% did not notice an increase in costs. The survey also identified the top five primary inflationary cost pressures affecting businesses – in order of most impactful: l Energy (gas, electricity) l Supplier costs l Fuel (petrol, diesel) l Interest rates l Rent Additionally, 67% of businesses have seen their business insurance costs rise in the past 12 months, while 26% haven't, and 7% are unsure. In response to these increased costs, 24% of businesses have passed them on to customers completely, 61% partially, and 15% have not passed on any costs. Regarding employee wages, 54% of businesses reported wage increases in the past six months, 34% did not, and 6% were unsure. Anton Nebbe, Head of PR and Communications, and responsible for commissioning research at the firm says “These findings underscore the challenges faced by UK businesses in the current economic climate. They highlight the need for strategic planning and support to navigate these pressures, and it’s clear the rising costs of doing business are presenting significant issues for many enterprises across the UK.” “Our research highlights the critical areas where businesses are feeling the pinch, from energy and supplier costs to increased insurance premiums. “At Close Brothers Asset Finance, we're committed to providing the support and resources businesses need to navigate these pressures and continue to thrive. By understanding these challenges, we can better assist our customers in developing strategies to mitigate these impacts and ensure long-term success.” For more information please visit: closeassetfinance.co.uk
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Quick holemaking
11/20/2024
Quick holemaking
The design concept of assembled drills with exchangeable solid carbide cutting heads, adopted by ISCAR at the turn of the century, significantly altered the company’s holemaking product program. As part of this concept, a precise carbide head is mounted in a steel holder using the ‘self-clamping’ principle, which relies on the holder’s elastic deformation without any mechanical clamping means. This approach is characteristic of various successful ISCAR products, such as the SELF-GRIP and MULTI-MASTER tool lines. These have substantially improved machining performance and revolutionised traditional perspectives on cutting tool design. This is complemented with stoppers and locking sections for reliable security. In the assembled drills with carbide heads, the cutting head has a specially shaped rake surface to optimise chip formation and a centring area to ensure high accuracy. The drill body is produced from a high-strength steel grade and features the innovative design of the head pocket, helical flutes, and internal channels for coolant supply. Advancements in technology, particularly in powder metallurgy processes and CNC machining, have made this design feasible. The concept of assembled drills with carbide heads guarantees several key advantages: 1. With a rigid structure, reliable clamping principle, unique cutting geometry and advanced carbide grade of the heads, the drills guarantee productive results. This significantly reduces cycle times and enables high-quality holes. These drills can be used for machining a wide range of materials, including steel, stainless steel, cast iron, titanium and high-temperature alloys. 2. High repeatability and ISCAR’s ‘no-setup-time’ principle promise that a worn head can be replaced without removing the drill from a machine, eliminating additional setup operations and considerably decreasing downtime. The simple change of the heads makes the drills user-friendly and easy to handle. 3. The drills are available in a wide range of diameters and overall lengths to suit various applications. 4. The use of interchangeable heads diminishes the need for a large drill inventory. ISCAR’s drills with exchangeable carbide heads provide customers with a valuable tool solution to enhance the profitability of holemaking operations. Over the past 20 years, these drills have undergone significant changes. Beginning with the CHAMDRILL family, each new phase in the concept’s enhancement has led to new products that outperform their predecessors. Today, SUMOCHAM is ISCAR’s most popular family of assembled drills with exchangeable carbide heads and is highly regarded by customers. The continuous search to increase drilling productivity, mainly when machining materials that produce fine chips, has created the LOGIQ-3-CHAM – a family of three-flute drills that utilise the same self-clamping approach. ISCAR’s development of carbide-headed drills continues to aspire. Unsurprisingly, ISCAR’s latest product campaign, LOGIQUICK, has unveiled innovative designs that enrich the existing product families, broaden their scope, and pave the way for new application areas. The new holder with three flute heads allows a 10:1 drilling depth-to-diameter ratio. The holder’s main feature is a specific flute design that minimally affects the tool’s structural strength. Another innovation is the expansion of the LOGIQ-3-CHAM family application to include counterboring. The specially designed three-flute heads are mounted on existing tools and transformed into highly efficient counterbores. The unique design features of the heads include a corner chamfer for rapid chipping, specialised deflectors for improved chip formation and a unique margin for enhanced support and guidance. This significantly boosts performance when machining materials like sticky steel, stainless steel and high-temperature superalloys. This design facilitates a broad spectrum of counterboring operations, ensuring high-quality holes, even when machining cross-holes with inclined surfaces. The CHAM-SPADE-IQ is a new family of holemaking tools with exchangeable heads. Introduced as part of the LOGIQUICK, the family provides a solution for drilling steel profile construction beams. Machining beams often occurs under non-rigid conditions, presenting a significant challenge for manufacturers. To address this issue, drilling tools must have an adaptive cutting geometry to compensate for the lack of rigidity. The newly introduced family, dedicated explicitly to profile construction, includes two flute carbide drilling heads and reinforced steel holders. The heads feature a specific self-centring cutting edge for secure hole penetration and sharp corners to prevent deformation. The holders’ durable structure maximises the tools’ dynamic stability when drilling at a depth-to-diameter ratio of up to 5. New drills with MULTI-MASTER adaptations that carry exchangeable carbide heads essentially serve as a ‘bridge’, connecting the successful SUMOCHAM and MULTI-MASTER families. The drills are a component of a versatile modular tool assembly that allows the mounting of drilling heads on a wide range of MULTI-MASTER tools. This facilitates an easy and quick change of the heads and the drill bodies. Moreover, the modular concept provides straightforward customisation and flexibility regarding overall length and diameter and finding the optimal tool configuration. It’s worth noting that the holemaking innovations in the LOGIQUICK campaign aren't solely represented by assembled tools with exchangeable heads. Several products of another design concept can also be highlighted. The three-flute flat-bottom solid carbide drill with internal coolant channels is one such product. The drill features a small isle for improved penetration, wavy cutting edges for assured chip control, an optimised core diameter to increase tool rigidity, and narrow wiper sections to reduce friction. This improves surface finish and combines with an internal coolant supply that extends tool life and improves chip evacuation. These incredible attributes contribute to the promising prospects of this product line. In the boring line, a new series of boring heads with extra fine digital adjustment has replaced the existing heads with an MB connection. In the milling line, the portfolio has been enhanced with the addition of the The QUICK-D-MILL is a family of multi-functional indexable cutters. These versatile ‘all-in-one’ cutters are suitable for various machining applications, embracing the milling of shoulders, slots, and pockets and drilling flat-bottom holes. The overview of the mentioned products highlights that ISCAR’s focus on holemaking continues to drive its development efforts. With the metalworking industry seeking solutions to enhance holemaking performance, ISCAR is confident that its latest LOGIQUICK drilling developments will effectively meet the industry’s demands.
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Prima Additive and Comau respond to Euro 7 standards.
11/20/2024
Prima Additive and Comau respond to Euro 7 standards.
Prima Additive and Comau, two Italian companies and global leaders in their respective sectors have joined forces to showcase the advantages of dual-layer laser cladding. This results from developing a high-speed, fully automated brake disc coating system for Stellantis. The first in a series of robotic-driven Rapid Coating Process cells was presented during the Stellantis Factory Booster Day, held in Turin on September 18th. By hard coating the raw brake discs with resilient steel and composite materials, the solution will enable Stellantis to significantly increase brake disc durability, reduce emissions pollution by up to 80%, and keep cycle times at a minimum. This will allow the automotive manufacturer to fully comply with the Euro 7 standard, which requires a 27% reduction in particle emissions from brake discs by the end of 2026. With a combined commitment to innovation that spans over 50 years, Comau and Prima Additive developed the robotic cell using a combination of advanced laser systems, high-speed robotic arms, additive manufacturing processes and safe powder management. Furthermore, the full integration of Comau’s robotic arms with Siemens SINUMERIK Run MyRobot allows the industry-standard software platform to directly control the robotic arm without needing external or embedded robot controllers. The modular system also allows maximum flexibility and productivity. Indeed, the cells are equipped with adjustable grippers that can handle different sizes of discs, from cars to trucks, to address evolving production mix scenarios. Finally, besides being highly versatile and energy efficient, the solution is characterised by a reduced overall footprint. Paolo Calefati, CEO of Prima Additive says “We believe that collaboration and innovation are the driving forces shaping the future of manufacturing.” “Our collaboration with Comau joins two companies with deep expertise in their respective fields to develop a truly cutting-edge industrial solution in automation and advanced laser systems for material processing. More importantly, the laser system developed for the brake disc coating application is one of the most profitable and sustainable cases of laser additive manufacturing/laser cladding technology applied in mass production for automotive. This solution not only contributes to improving the performance of automotive brake discs but also plays a crucial role in promoting sustainability by reducing the overall environmental impact of motor vehicles.” Pietro Gorlier, CEO of Comau says “This robotised solution represents a great example of innovation, led by two Italian companies who have developed advanced technologies to meet important sustainability targets.” “In working together to automate high-speed laser cladding safely, Comau and Prima Additive are helping meet a growing demand in Europe and beyond for flexible, turn-key solutions that will help reduce particle emission pollution in response to recent regulations. We're confident there is significant market potential for this type of solution.” The jointly developed Rapid Coating system is scheduled to be deployed at the Septfonds plant in France by the end of 2024, making Stellantis one of the first automakers to launch a fully automated line for the hard coating of brake discs in compliance with Euro 7 policy standards.
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Powerful lathe enables stainless broaching.
11/20/2024
Powerful lathe enables stainless broaching.
Architectural ironmongery manufacturer Instinct Hardware has recently invested in a host of equipment that includes an Italian-built Biglia bar-fed, twin-spindle lathe with a ± 45 mm Y-axis turret having and 15 driven tools. Installed in the Stirchley factory where premium quality door knobs and handles, door stops, and accessories are manufactured, the latest turning centre was sourced in May 2024 from the Whitehouse Machine Tools. The company supplied the machine as a turnkey package with a bar feeding unit and a gantry-type system for unloading components onto a conveyor. This handling method was chosen to prevent damage to the components’ surface and preserve their aesthetic appearance. Whitehouse also supplied programs and tooling for producing two key components and their prove-out in Kenilworth, plus comprehensive training. Instinct Hardware products are either standard catalogue items or manufactured to bespoke designs and have been used in prestigious projects. These include the ongoing refurbishment of Citibank UK’s London headquarters, Google’s new headquarters in King’s Cross, various London Underground stations, the recent renovation of Wembley Stadium and Liverpool FC’s modern training centre. Until now, stainless steel has accounted for 80% of production, with the remainder mainly brass and bronze. However, an increasing amount of aluminium is being processed due to its easy recyclability. Director Nil Chohan says: “Since we moved to our current premises, we have been increasing our machining capacity to reduce our reliance on subcontractors. All of our lever handles require a square hole to be broached. This has always been done separately on a hydraulic press, as before the Biglia B 620 YS was installed, we did not have a rigid enough lathe.” “We bought the Italian turning centre specifically because it can broach our stainless steel handles, which Whitehouse demonstrated before we committed to the machine. So, we can now perform all operations in one hit rather than in five or six operations. It significantly reduces scrap rate by avoiding repeated manual setups and greatly speeds manufacturing time, enabling us to fulfil our promise of a 10 to 14-day order turnaround.” A case in point is machining a component assembled into a stainless steel, oval-profile, mitred lever handle. It previously required six machining operations from turning on a 3-axis lathe, milling and drilling on a VMC, broaching on a hydraulic press, further prismatic machining on a different VMC, slotting on yet another VMC and mitring on a bandsaw before welding. This consumed 15 minutes of machining time plus 10 minutes of handling and setup for each of the five additional operations. On the Biglia, the part comes off complete in 8.5 minutes, representing an eight-fold time saving, with the added benefit of eliminating work-in-progress and the potential damage to components. Nil Chohan needed a robust and powerful machine capable of broaching stainless steel, he was impressed by the specification of the B 620 YS, particularly the 30kW direct-drive, liquid-cooled main spindle motor offering 700Nm of torque. The lathe has boxways in the X and Y axes to promote rigidity and accurate machining, with a linear guide rail in the Z-axis for traverse speed. He says: “Reputation is hard to establish but even more challenging. Through hard work and endeavour, we have become a leading European manufacturer of bespoke architectural ironmongery. Today, our team is committed to continued investment and further developing our range and brand with an increased focus on sustainability of materials and logistics. We are constantly looking at new machinery like the Biglia to develop and enhance our offering whilst maintaining our passion to continue driving the company and our industry forward.”
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Hexagon and SEAT S.A. partner in digital transformation.
11/20/2024
Hexagon and SEAT S.A. partner in digital transformation.
Hexagon, a world leader in digital reality solutions that combine sensors, software and autonomous technologies, has expanded its collaboration with the automotive manufacturer SEAT S.A. The deal builds upon a 25-year partnership working with Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division. The companies have signed a strategic agreement that aims to deepen the digital transformation of SEAT S.A, focusing on the digitalisation of vehicle components, the management of digitised information and advanced process simulation. This agreement will enable SEAT S.A. to optimise production and make decisions on process adjustments in real-time. Hexagon has successfully implemented SEAT S.A.’s measurement and quality control systems. Through the extended collaboration, the team will integrate a digital twin that applies metrology data with process simulations to predict outcomes and improve efficiency. The solution will use systems to digitise the car body and its components, manage their data and provide reports and analytics to drive efficiency and reduce costs. The collaboration is based on three fundamental pillars: the digitalisation of the vehicle’s manufactured parts, the management of digitised information and the simulation of processes. Under the new agreement, Hexagon’s PRESTO system will fully automate the high-precision 3D laser scanning of the entire body with high-speed robotic inspection. The second pillar is managing digitised information, which uses Hexagon’s eMMA data management, quality planning and analytics platform. This automatically captures metrology data and manages it in a standardised way. The centralisation of all 3D measurement data captured during the digitalisation process facilitates informed and efficient decision-making, allowing SEAT S.A.’s production and quality managers to monitor the condition of the parts and optimise quality in all assembly phases. The third key aspect is process simulation, which allows SEAT S.A.’s quality analysts to accurately predict problems and optimise critical vehicle manufacturing processes such as part alignment, assembly and subsequent welding operations. Thanks to Hexagon’s simulation solutions, SEAT S.A. can optimise production and adjust the production settings using a virtual prototype of the product, speeding up the process of fine-tuning production methods used in series manufacturing. This capability translates into a significant reduction in costs, a reduction in material waste, and an improvement in time-to-market for the new vehicle models. Josh Weiss, president of Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division, says: “We're committed to helping SEAT S.A. stay at the forefront of the automotive industry by implementing innovative digital processes that transform agility in manufacturing and take control of quality from the start. By combining technologies such as automated quality inspection, connected quality workflows and virtual manufacturing, SEAT S.A. can supervise each production stage with significant savings in time, material waste and costs”. Daniel Cortina, Director of Quality at SEAT says: “At SEAT we are at a time of unprecedented transformation for our company towards smarter, more connected and efficient production, which involves the digital transformation of our production processes. Now, we'll acquire data about the quality of our parts faster and more accurately, and will also be able to improve manufacturing performance with them. This predictive approach to quality allows us to improve our customer satisfaction and significantly reduce the materials used in the manufacturing process, reinforcing our commitment to sustainability.”
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CERATIZIT delivers success that is ‘Made in Sheffield’
11/20/2024
CERATIZIT delivers success that is ‘Made in Sheffield’
The term ‘one-stop-shop’ is often banded around the subcontract manufacturing industry. It’s not until you find a company like Woodbrook Precision Ltd that you can truly understand what a single source solution provider looks like. The Lancashire manufacturer ventures beyond rivals’ services and continually invests in the latest machine tools fully supported by advanced cutting tool solutions from CERATIZIT UK. The company is located in Ashton-Under-Lyne on the Northeast edge of Greater Manchester. It's plant list includes a complete array of manual and CNC 3 to 5-axis machining centres and multi-axis turning centres from renowned brands such as Mazak, XYZ, Leadwell and Bridgeport. The state-of-the-art plant list is supported by services such as grinding, plating, shearing, profiling, welding, laser cutting, gear cutting, heat treatment, powder coating and more. Rightly proud of its comprehensive services and recent investment in Mazak machine tools, Managing Director Stephen Hogg from Woodbrook Precision says that CERATIZIT has been instrumental in enhancing the productivity of the new equipment. The second-generation business was founded by Stephen’s father more than 35 years ago. When Stephen bought the company 16 years ago, Woodbrook operated out of a small unit with a single CNC turning centre and a series of manual mills—all supported by various cutting tool vendors, with WNT (a member of the CERATIZIT Group) being one of the many. However, as Stephen has applied his vision and determination to the company, Woodbrook has evolved with a 2018 move to an 18,000sq/ft facility three times larger than the previous site. Plans are also afoot to add another 10,000sq/ft. This growth has stemmed from the business’s progress in general subcontract machining into the oil & gas, aerospace, rail, and motorsport sectors. Woodbrook has evolved the sophistication of its machine tool purchases to serve these industries. Initially investing in 3-axis Mazak VMCs with rotary tables and turning centres with live tooling, more recent acquisitions have included two 3.5m bed Mazak VTC800/30SR 5-axis machines and a 5-axis Mazak CV5-500. This has seen work for overhead cranes, rail, and general subcon evolve to aerospace jigs and fixtures, critical subsea valves and manifolds, motorsport brake callipers, engine components and more. With an evolution driven by the expanding capabilities of its machine tools, Woodbrook has needed to rely more heavily on the expertise of its cutting tool suppliers. As the business has shifted from machining steel and aluminium to stainless, super duplex, titanium, inconel, carbon fibre, hastelloy and much more – CERATIZIT UK has risen through the ranks to be the cutting tool partner of choice. Stephen Hogg from Woodbrook says: “Over ten years ago, CERATIZIT was one of many suppliers, and as I took control of the business. It became evident that CERATIZIT had the best-performing tools and their service was far beyond anything else. As we continually ventured into more complex work and more challenging materials, we needed greater support and new machining strategies. CERATIZIT UK’s Technical Sales Engineer Matthew Darbyshire has been with us all the way to provide the solution. It’s been seamless, and it’s pointless going elsewhere as Matt makes it so easy and ‘painless’ for us.” “With numerous sales reps continually calling upon us, we asked Matt for a few tools to trial. The tools initially performed well, but for the relationship to blossom to a position where we now have thousands of CERATIZIT tools. This has been built on tool performance, product range diversity, supply chain continuity and most importantly, technical support, service and trust that has instantly been available. I can WhatsApp Matt with any drawings and queries and he’ll deliver a solution imminently.” As a machine shop that typically manufactures prototypes in small batches, tracking continuous tooling improvement isn’t always the priority for Woodbrook. However, you don’t have to look far for quantifiable results with CERATIZIT products. Stephen says: “We recently implemented the CERATIZIT facing and parting-off tools, and it reduced the cycle time on a 400-off job from 1 minute 58 seconds to 1 minute 26 seconds. We also applied the Dragonskin CircularLine DLC-coated solid carbide end mills with impressive results. The Dragonskin tools have cut cycle times on an aluminium part from 3 minutes to 1 minute 20 seconds whilst more than doubling our tool life.” “On another 100-off repeat order stainless steel aerospace fixture, we needed to reduce our cycle times to maximise margins and reduce costs. Matt introduced a CERATIZIT UK high feed indexable end mill, and this reduced our cycle times from 38 to 26 minutes per part, with a tool life improvement of more than 20%. This was a significant saving on a long-running job.” However, the most significant saving wasn’t from the cutting tools…. With the 100-off stainless job running through the business frequently, Woodbrook set up six vices in a line on the spacious 3.5m bed of its Mazak 5-axis VTC800/30SR. When each surface and cycle was completed, an operator would re-set the job to process the next face. With a total of four operations, the process was laborious. Stephen spoke with Matt from CERATIZIT, and the way forward was a bespoke workholding solution that was ‘Made in Sheffield’ at the CERATIZIT UK Technical Centre and Headquarters. Stephen visited the CERATIZIT stand at MACH 2024. He realised that the only cost for CERATIZIT’s bespoke service was the price of the aluminium tombstone billet and the cost of the four ZSG4-125 Centric vices that connect to the zero-point single riser tombstone system. Immediately impressed, Woodbrook Precision ordered a pyramid system to clamp smaller parts in its 5-axis Mazak CV5-500. The ZSG4-125 Centric vices with serrated jaws enabled Woodbrook to clamp on as little as 3mm of stock, permitting the subcontractor to hit all five sides of the stainless parts with confidence in the high-torque clamping forces of the vice. With five faces machined in a single operation, the following operation was to turn the parts over to complete the sixth surface. This reduced this 100-off repeat job from a four to a two-operation process, saving an additional 10 minutes per part. Stephen says: “This job took over one hour per part from start to finish. The tombstone and Centric ZSG vices immediately took more than 10 minutes off each part, with peripheral savings being longer running times without operator intervention. Reduced set-ups also improved our precision, repeatability and consistency over an entire batch of parts. We work 12 hours a day, six days a week, and the tombstone enabled us to set up a batch of four parts at the end of a shift to run unmanned for a couple of hours – giving us further savings.” “We're now using CERATIZIT for everything from our back-ends and collets to solid carbide and indexable tools ranging from drills and threadmills to end mills, turning and parting tools. We never thought we’d be turning to CERATIZIT for our workholding solutions, but just like the cutting tools – the quality and performance of the workholding solutions that come with a ‘Made in Sheffield’ brand is far superior to anything else we’ve encountered.”
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Automotive subby speeds-up productivity with Filtermist
11/20/2024
Automotive subby speeds-up productivity with Filtermist
One of the biggest challenges for any machine shop is workshop air quality and the impact coolant mist has on staff. To stop coolant mist from impacting air quality in the workplace, Tooling 2000 Limited installed on-machine mist extraction systems from Filtermist. In addition to COSHH compliant clean air, the Birmingham subcontract manufacturer is also benefitting in other less obvious ways…. Founded back in 1996, Tooling 2000 offers everything from prototyping and development to 5-axis laser cutting, CNC machining, precision tooling and presswork for marquee customers like Rolls-Royce, JLR, Aston Martin, Magna, Bentley and many others. With a complete suite of Hurco CNC machines from the compact Hurco TM12i turning centre, and 3 and 5-axis VMX machines, to the large bed Hurco DCX42i, the company also invested in Filtermist extraction on its machines. This has improved air quality and enhanced productivity too. Senior Business Development Manager at Tooling 2000, Iain Bubb says: “To eliminate airborne particulate in our facility we installed Filtermist systems. This enables us to take any atomised coolant out of the atmosphere inside the work enclosure immediately. This then enables us to do two things. Firstly, it protects our workforce which is of paramount importance. Secondly, it allows us to open the doors to our machine tools sooner which provides us with more machining uptime.” With more machine shops employing high-speed machining and high-pressure coolant systems that deliver fluid to the cutting edge, airborne coolant mist is a significant and growing issue for manufacturers. Iain says: “Before having the Filtermist systems, we would have to leave the machine tool doors closed for an extended period, giving any atomised cutting fluid time to settle within the machine. The Filtermist system completely clears the enclosure of mist - this enables us to gain seconds on the production process and this helps our bottom line.” If the doors of the machine tools are opened immediately after a cutting cycle with no mist extraction in place, the oil mist enters the air. This creates an oily film on everything from the machines and the workstation to tools, the floor and anything else in the vicinity – causing a health and safety concern. Iain says: “With the Filtermist system, we are removing all airborne particulates from the machine tool atmosphere. This keeps the inside of the machine clean. It also helps to remove the swarf as it does not stick to the tacky coolant that may be left on the machine bed, so it helps to keep the machines cleaner, and it helps with maintenance.” Filtermist oil mist filters eliminate airborne particulate and subsequently the oily film from the machine tools, components and wider work area. The machine-mounted Filtermist FX5002 draws oil into a perforated drum that rotates at high speed and causes the mist to coalesce. Centrifugal force pushes the oil into the outer casing of the FX5002 where it drains back to the machine tool for re-use or collection. Simultaneously, the clean air is passed through a secondary high-efficiency after-filter to remove submicron particles that may have passed through the unit. Referring to the installation of the Filtermist technology, Iain says: “When we specify our machine tool purchases, we ask for the Filtermist system to be installed on the machines before delivery. We are a family-owned business, and we take our investments very seriously. So, when we specify a new machine, we want it delivered to specifications we require to support our business.” With the Filtermist FX5002 mist extraction systems fitted to its range of Hurco machine tools, Tooling 2000 finds maintenance of the technology easy to manage. Iain says: “We have a TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) System in place, so after a set number of hours of production the Filtermist filters are changed and cleaned with ease. We take our employees’ welfare very seriously, so taking any ‘nasties’ out of the environment is very important to us. Productivity is also very important to us as a business and that cascades down to the bottom line. With the Filtermist technology we get more uptime from our machines and that gives us better productivity and profitability.”
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We play in the champions’ league every day
09/23/2024
We play in the champions’ league every day
In recent years, Porsche Werkzeugbau GmbH in Schwarzenberg, Germany, has taken its mechanical machining to the highest technical level. Two large Starrag HSC machining centers Droop+Rein FOGS play a major part in this. The machines are used to finish press tools for moulding skin parts of vehicle bodies with the utmost precision and produce surfaces with grinding quality. A premium car manufacturer should have a premium engineering plant. To ensure that the Porsche Werkzeugbau GmbH Schwarzenberg plant fulfils all of the preconditions for this, €40million was invested over the last five years to develop the tool-engineering plant to the highest possible level following the transition from KUKA. Among other things, the Schwarzenberg-based company used this money to set up two new production halls, purchase a new 25,000kN servo press for production-related tool try-outs and invest in retrofitting and new machine tools – including two Starrag HSC centres of the Droop+Rein FOGS 35 68 N40C type. In addition to this, mechanical production was completely overhauled and the production processes were restructured. All of these measures were based on a solid foundation. Beforehand, the whole tool-engineering team analysed the entire process chain, from development and design to procurement, production and try-out of the tools, right through to the transfer to the operator pressing plant – including a fitness test for the pool of machines. An important detail that came to light was the realisation that when it came to mechanical machining, there was potential for improvement in the finishing of the tools, particularly in terms of accuracy, speed and surface quality. Lightweight construction results in tougher requirements Marco Franz, Head of Mechanical Production, points out some important reasons for this: “For some years, we have been experiencing a shift towards lightweight construction and, as the Porsche competence centre for forming technology in the moulding skin area, we were commissioned to develop the tools required for the conversion to an aluminium body. During forming, aluminium sheets respond much more sensitively than steel, which created big challenges for us when it came to tool engineering. Our existing machines were not able to meet some of the requirements”. Two new high-speed machining centres for finishing the pressing moulds should fulfil these new requirements regarding surface quality, accuracy and speed. According to Marco Franz, they should also help to make the process more efficient and economical, as well as greatly improving quality. The list of requirements contains fundamental preconditions such as process stability, availability and ease of maintenance, as well as characteristics that cannot be compromised, such as temperature stability. In addition, future-oriented specifications for the performance data of the spindles were defined. Lutz Kramer explains: “When you buy this kind of machine, you expect to use it for the next 10 to 20 years. During this time, several generations of new milling tools were developed that are more efficient and allow higher speeds. We must take all of this into account at the early tendering process.” With their list of requirements, the Porsche Werkzeugbau decision-makers set a high bar – and came to realise that not many manufacturers would be able to meet the requested standards. “During the technical discussions that we held with many different providers, we were soon able to tell who was able and willing to overcome the challenges. Some machine providers withdrew at an early stage, others were later unable to offer any acceptable solutions,” says the Head of Tool and Mould Making, Kramer. Premium machine tools from Starrag Ultimately, the decision-makers opted for two Starrag Droop+Rein FOGS 35 68 N40C high-speed machining centres. These 5-axis machine tools are designed for finishing, have an overhead gantry and offer traverse paths of 6.8 by 3.5 by 1.5m along the X, Y and Z-axes. The equipment includes a tool magazine with a total of 100 places that can be filled with HSK32, HSK63 and SK50 retainers, as well as an eccentric fork head with a 40kW milling spindle and a high torque of 700Nm, and three different motor milling spindles with speeds of 18,000, 40,000 and 65,000rpm. In addition, for one of the two machines, Marco Franz ordered a special 6,000rpm angular head that can be used for machining areas that are difficult to access. “With this range of spindles, the requirements of the coming years are covered”, Lutz Kramer is certain. More than a machine – Engineering precisely what you value There were other reasons for choosing the Starrag machines, in addition to the technical data, as Head of Tool and Mold Making Kramer explains: “We didn’t just want to buy a machine, we wanted a solution for our tool manufacturing process. That is one of the main reasons why Starrag seemed to be the right partner. With the Droop+Rein specialists, we had the impression right from the start that they were listening to us, wanted to understand us and the thinking behind our processes, and wanted to use their expertise to help us” Once the machines were installed, the two companies began fine-tuning the workflow together, taking into account the characteristics of CAM, the control system and the machine. This was necessary because achieving the best surface quality requires a high level of accuracy on the path, even at the highest feed speeds. For this, it was important to illuminate the interfaces between CAM and NC and to work with experts from the control system manufacturer to optimally adjust their functionalities in line with the process requirements. This interdisciplinary approach and the combination of sophisticated drive optimisation in conjunction with the proven machine technology of the FOGS series was extremely successful. The result was not only a class-A surface but also a very high level of accuracy – at the highest path speeds of up to 16m/min on the free-form surface. The processes have been running stable ever since. Lutz Kramer is delighted: “It took a long time to achieve stable processes, especially when it came to the forming tools for aluminium parts because there are many factors influencing this. But Starrag assisted us until we were sure we had reached our goal.” Marco Franz adds: “I wouldn’t have believed it at the start but Starrag was able to implement more than 90% of our wish list. So it was a good decision to invest in the new Droop+Rein FOGS machines. We are now faster and more precise and achieve – depending on the component and the geometry – outstanding surface accuracy.” The head of tool and mould-making confirms: “We are proud of what we have achieved with Starrag. With the Droop+Rein FOGS machines, we have attained the desired improvement in quality and were also able to reduce the manual bench work of the toolmakers by roughly 20% in the follow-up process. These are strengths that make us one of the top teams in the Champions League of large-tool-engineering plants.”
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‘The Beast’ devours everything placed before it
09/23/2024
‘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.
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The APCs of greener transportation
09/23/2024
The APCs of greener transportation
How is the automotive industry meeting the lofty government goals that new diesel and petrol cars and vans will no longer be sold from 2030, and that all new cars and vans must be fully zero emission at the tailpipe from 2035? Will Stirling interviews Ian Constance, CEO of the Advanced Propulsion Centre Often mere words do not do the task justice. The transition to net zero automotive – think about that for a minute. The easy part is to visualise switching powertrains from petrol and diesel to electric (EVs), then designing and building processes for the mass volume manufacture of EVs – a huge engineering challenge. But this complexity covers materials, batteries and gigafactories, electric machines and drives, rare earths, power electronics, fuel cells, and more, such as their supply chain viability. Then there is the charging and hydrogen fuelling infrastructure. Supply chain security of key materials, including rare earth materials mined in just a few global locations, R&D investment in the right areas, technology scale-up, geopolitical risk, and market reaction to new technology. An important actor in this complex landscape is the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC), the government agency tasked with managing funding programmes, judging applications and assisting companies that have good, low-carbon tech solutions. The APC administers the Automotive Transformation Fund, a £1bn+ fund to help eligible companies make the low carbon transition. It has run a suite of projects, funds and accelerator programmes since 2013. CEO Ian Constance needs to juggle all these balls, and the clock is ticking, but he spared 30 minutes for MTD magazine. Ian says: “The Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC)’s mission is to enable the UK to stay at the forefront of the global transition to smarter, safer, and importantly, more sustainable automotive and mobility solutions. The other part of APC is Zenzic, an agency investigating future-related, autonomous mobility – driverless vehicles.” What are the net zero automotive trends as we head towards 2025? “In the last 12 months, we’ve gone from a position of very high growth to flatlining and a bit of stagnation in the EV market, so what you’re seeing there is a shift back towards HEVs (hybrid) and PHEVs (plug-in hybrids). I believe that is a short or medium-term shift and is driven by a few factors including rising populism in politics. But given the money and plans put into getting to net zero, we will find our way back to growth in BEV, battery electric vehicles. MTD readers are interested in the net zero automotive shift generally, and in manufacturing opportunities specifically. Recently the APC produced a report on the electric motor market, and the change in motor technology – indicating there is a slow shift from the dominance of permanent magnet synchronous motors to non-magnet motors like induction motors. Do both provide good opportunities for UK engineering businesses? “We have some very capable businesses that are scaling up here,” says Constance. “One of them is AEM, Advanced Electric Machines, based in the Northeast, who are developing magnet-free motors. In general, we have a very strong traction motor community in the UK comprised of various companies that are developing tech in this space, and a lot of them are using magnetic rare earth materials. There is Yasa in Oxfordshire, Protean in the Southwest who specialise in in-wheel electric motors, and there are plenty of others as well. So, the motor manufacturing opportunities are massive for the UK.” “Ford is investing heavily in Halewood, with support from the APC. They are turning this big factory from a manual transmission plant, clearly a technology that’s intimately linked with internal combustion engines, over to electric drive units at high volume for export. Ford is doing that because it sees the UK as an important place to put that technology and create that mass volume.” “On the motor technology shift: Permanent magnet motors are generally high performance and are lower cost (than rival tech) at this stage. They need rare earth materials. The non rare earth magnet motors, and non-magnet motors (induction and electrically excited synchronous motors), are an important hedge against the volatility of rare earth material prices and supply, which is expected to go through the roof. That volatility and the geopolitical angle is a hedge that that many people want to make sure that they’re on the right side of.” Rare earth reliability, and gigafactories for specialist vehicles A big, less visible part of the APC’s work is research and policy work into securing these essential materials. As rare earth supply is dominated by China and a handful of countries in much smaller volumes, supply security is paramount. “You need to mine the ore, the raw stuff, in a clean and sustainable way, then you have to process the materials into rare earths, then into magnet materials, produce magnets, which are then used in the motor – it’s a classic supply chain, with risks. We (the UK) are looking to create those supply chains back to friendly nations that we feel we can make long-term strategic partnerships with. The processing part of it is as important as the availability of the materials.” The mainstream net-zero automotive news has been dominated by gigafactories, so-called in reference to the capacity of the batteries made there. Building these factories in countries that manufacture EVs is essential, due to the dollar and carbon costs of shipping batteries, plus these are vast investments, and create thousands of jobs and supplier contracts. The UK’s gigafactory picture is, some might say, behind its European peers following the loss of Britishvolt in 2023. Constance contests whether Britain is far behind the pack. “We (the UK) had the first gigafactory in Europe, a small one in the Northeast with just over one gigawatt hour (GWh) that supports the Nissan Leaf. Yes, the UK footprint is confined to two new massive gigafactory commitments, one which is Envision AESC and linked to Nissan, and the second is Agritas, part of the Tata Group, in the Southwest. Look at the potential of those two facilities, they could jointly produce over 70 GWh of battery cells. Our forecast is that by 2030 we will need around 90-95 GWh, so we are well on our way to fulfilling these requirements. “But these things are never that simple, are they? Two of our biggest vehicle manufacturers, Nissan and Jaguar Land Rover, will be certainly supported by those two gigafactories. We will need more to look after some of the bigger carmakers, but also very importantly, specialist vehicle manufacturers, which is such a strength of the UK; sports cars, luxury, and heavy-duty vehicles and off-road machines – all of those are going to need a supply of batteries. If people need a specialist vehicle, they might want a specialist battery. So getting into that specialist battery domain is a real focus for the future.” With batteries also come materials, and lithium is the primary base material for battery anodes and cathodes. But lithium, like rare earths, has a limited supply chain. “There are several different flavours of lithium battery. Beyond that, sodium is the next best element, but it has limitations. We are going to be dominated by lithium, particularly in the UK that has medium-to-high mass production vehicles. That’s where the attention should be.” Hydrogen’s changing role Hydrogen has had an interesting story. It was the wonder material for about three years, then media interest seemed to cool as the hype cycle shifted. How is it now developing in the UK car market? “We are increasingly asked to fund and look at projects involving hydrogen and hydrogen propulsion, much of that is around fuel cells,” says Constance. “Some of it is around hydrogen combustion that’s more suitable for off-highway and construction.” “The APC’s view is that fast forward another 10 years, most light-duty vehicles (vans and cars) will be battery electric. Then medium-duty trucks will have a mixture of battery electric and potentially hydrogen fuel vehicles, and for heavy-duty, long distance 40 tonners, etc – there’s a big case for hydrogen combustion there.” There are three legs to this stool: the availability of the technology on the vehicle to do the job cost-effectively and efficiently, the availability of the infrastructure to support the delivery of whatever the energy medium is – hydrogen or electricity. And the third bit is, making the conditions right for the market. You need the three legs together.” Finally, what other manufacturing opportunities are there for subcontract companies in the EV transition? “Three areas, I’d highlight,” says Constance. “Giga-castings is a rising area of light-weighting and efficient vehicle manufacturing. Tesla reimagined the way cars are built by using massive front end and rear end castings rather than spot welding or bonding aluminium sections together. Can we develop more of that? Also the design of drives shafts is changing for an EV powertrain. There is growth of driverless pods operating in in secure space or in semi-secure space like airports. This is a step in completely reimagining a vehicle into lightweight, highly manoeuvrable modes of transport. Although these are complex machines, the barriers to entry here are lower than for developing a mass-market vehicle.”
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Quickgrind slots into production at TSP
09/23/2024
Quickgrind slots into production at TSP
Founded in 1945, TSP Engineering was primarily established to serve the iron and steel industries by manufacturing mining machinery, mine cars and ingot moulds. Now, the company located on Britain’s Energy Coast in Workington delivers high-quality, innovative heavy engineering solutions to nuclear, oil and gas, defence, renewable energy and construction sectors. The company recently encountered a challenge with one of its nuclear and reactor engineering customers - this led the company to find its solution from Quickgrind. With a colossal shop floor of 20,000m², TSP has the facilities to handle some of the biggest engineering and steel fabrication projects in the UK and beyond – but when it came to finding the right cutting tool solution, the company opted for a solution from the Tewkesbury based cutting tool experts. TSP was met with a nuclear reactor challenge and what drew the company to Quickgrind was its ability to offer non-standard length carbide tooling that won’t be found in catalogues or brochures. During an initial consultation, Lewis Straughton, the Production Manager of TSP Engineering, revealed the company had always had a problem finish milling slots because the tools could never push to the required length. In the past, TSP had tried high-speed steel end mills with flute lengths upwards of 220mm. However, they had issues achieving the required tolerances. To overcome this, TSP reverted to the chain boring method. The critical nuclear components required slots machined to a tolerance of +/-0.1mm at depths of 220mm. However, the existing tools were witnessing pushing-off problems as well as creating spindle issues. This was not acceptable for the machining of high-value components. Retaining the in-house machining of the £2.5m contract was of paramount importance for TSP and risking the scrapping and re-working of components worth more than £500,000 was not an option. After partnering with Quickgrind, the two companies worked closely to develop a cutting tool solution and a suitable machining strategy that could finish the slots to the high surface finish and tolerance requirements. By adopting a specialist solid carbide end mill from Quickgrind with a new toolholder, TSP could achieve the required surface finishes and tolerances whilst the exceptional quality of the Quickgrind tools delivered consistently high performance and service life. As a manufacturer that has immense pride in its quality and certifications, TSP is ISO: 9001, ISO: 3834 Part 2, ISO: 1090 at execution level 4, ISO: 14001 and ISO: 45001 certified. The company also claims to be the first in the world to achieve the ISO: 19443 standard. Not only did the Quickgrind long flute end mills resolve the issues of meeting the tight tolerances, evacuating swarf from the deep slots and eliminating the spindle issue – the tools also delivered astounding cycle time savings. The Quickgrind end mills reduced the 260-hour cycle time to just 16 hours, yielding cycle time reductions of 244 hours per component.
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On the right track with VISI
09/23/2024
On the right track with VISI
As one of the world’s leading manufacturers of model railways, PECO is a forward-looking family business that started trading back in 1946. Initially concentrating its manufacturing skills on the production of trackwork for model railway enthusiasts, the company has grown exponentially. To support its expansion, the Devon company relies on VISI CAD/CAM/CAE software from Hexagon in its design and manufacturing facility. Located on the idyllic South Devon coast, PECO is a company that has expanded from its humble beginnings of manufacturing individual components to producing HO/OO ready-made track and then on to all things ‘model railway’. This includes ‘Pecorama’ one of Devon’s leading tourist attractions that has a model railway exhibition and model shop, a ride-on miniature steam railway, a gallery and award-winning gardens as well as industry-leading model railway publications. As a company with a ‘fan base’ as well as a customer base, PECO is a world-renowned brand in the model rail industry. From the foundations that stem from manufacturing a simple coupling, PECO now runs a facility that makes over 3,000 product lines. Discussing this, Simon Cockerham from PECO says: “We make everything that is part of the hobby building model railway industry. We have been in business since the 1940s and we started as a company making very small couplings that hook two pieces of rolling stock together. It has expanded from there to a business that makes everything from concepts right through to the final product.” With a manufacturing site that hosts state-of-the-art technology, PECO relies on VISI CAD/CAM/CAE software for its workflows. As Simon continues: “We use VISI throughout our manufacturing facility, from concept through to the final press or mould tool being created. We have numerous licences of VISI throughout our many departments and we also use VISI to generate laser-cut wooden kits for customers with textures upon them. It is also used to create the instructions that will guide enthusiasts and users on how to assemble the equipment.” “VISI has always been very good for our business as it focuses on just what you need to do the job. Some other software packages that we had before VISI had caused issues due to the high tolerancing of our components and the very deep nature of the machining processes that we have to undertake to achieve the geometries that we require in our press and mould tools.” As one of the world’s leading PC-based CAD/CAE/CAM software solutions, VISI incorporates modules such as Modelling, Analysis, Mould Design, Flow, Electrode Design, Die Tool Design, 2.5, 3 and 5-axis Toolpaths, Blanks and Reverse. This provides PECO with the facility to create solid models; design, analyse, validate and prepare mould tool geometries as well as the pre and post-production analysis of plastic parts. With dedicated modules for creating electrodes, designing dedicated progressive die design and press tools, comprehensive machining strategies and even reverse engineering of editable solid models from scanned data – VISI provides the complete package for the company. As Simon adds: “One of the key reasons that we have VISI in our environment and we have been customers for almost 17 years – is because it is very reliable and comprehensive. We have an intimate knowledge of the VISI environment and systems throughout our experienced generations of designers and toolmakers who are here. This means we have the experience to support more junior members of the team here - but even we need assistance now and again because every engineer looks at things differently from time to time.” “Another key reason why we use VISI is down to the complexity of our products. We need jobs to be correct the first time. We also use very expensive machine tools from Roders, Sodick and Hurco as well as high-end peripheral equipment and cutting tools, and VISI has always kept us safe throughout the entire process of generating these tools.” The holistic Hexagon mould and die workflow removes blockers so the team can try new ideas. Simon explained: “We use VISI throughout most of our departments, especially within the wider ‘innovations department’. This means we use VISI for everything from design to producing wooden laser-cut kits for the factory to producing custom machinery for our production facilities. We also use VISI for all of our press and mould tooling too. The benefits of having VISI in the workplace are the integration between plot view, CAD/CAM, and the ability to create surface translations for mould flow analysis and laser ablation files. It streamlines integration between departments.” Many other features the business needs are all connected within a single environment, which makes PECO’s training and application of VISI a lot easier for everybody concerned. Over the 17 years PECO has standardised its workflows on Hexagon’s mould and die software its had a positive impact on its business. Simon concludes: “We know we have saved a lot of time and money with VISI. The savings are down to the VISI software having all of the components and modules that we require to take our products from concept through to production and export all around the world – all from under one roof.”
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Manufax follows the Leader
09/23/2024
Manufax follows the Leader
As a leading name in the design, production and fabrication of engineered solutions, Manufax in Stockport manufactures jigs, fixtures and components primarily for the aerospace, defence, automotive and nuclear industries. Now in the third generation of the Rhodes family, Manufax has just invested in a large horizontal borer from Leader CNC Technologies. The investment in a Fermat machine from Nuneaton-based Leader CNC is part of an ongoing diversification strategy. As David Baines, Group Production Director for Manufax Engineering says: “Up to and during Covid, we were heavily into the aerospace industry with around 90% of our work in the aerospace sector. We suffered hugely during the pandemic, so we needed to diversify and we now do a third of our business in the aerospace market with another third in defence and the remaining third in the nuclear sector. With this diversity, we have seen the need to invest heavily in new technology for the future.” Looking at the company’s plans for diversification, David adds: “The criteria we were looking for was a good horizontal borer and I found that the Fermat machine was a very good replacement machine with modern capabilities such as the rotary table that we have built into the machine. The quality of this machine builder is excellent.” Vince Heffernan, Leader CNC Technologies Technical Manager says: “The Fermat WFT 13 is the machine that has been supplied to Manufax. Fermat is a brand that has been around for over a hundred years and it now makes over 100 machines a year. As a machine builder, Fermat will cater to the specific needs of the customer, providing fully modular machines with up to 90 tools on the ATC or a robot loading system that can load an infinite number of tools. The Fermat WFT 13 has the option of different heads, so customers can have a 5-axis head.” The machine has a 2.6 by 1.8m table with 4 by 2.5 by 1.5m of travel in X, Y and Z axes with an additional W-axis that expands by 600mm. “The advantage of the W-axis is that customers can do some deep hole boring. The machine also has a large capacity where you can fit anything on the machine. You can always do a small part on a big machine but you can’t always do a big part on a small machine,” continues Vince. David from Manufax adds: “The relationship with Leader CNC has been fantastic and they have helped us with the implementation of the machine and getting Fermat engineers over here to install and commission the machine.” Adding to this, James Leet from Leader CNC Technologies says: “We work closely with Manufax as the company trusts Leader CNC Technologies as a business that they can consult with on quite a complex issue. If we were positioned to sell hundreds of machines a year, we couldn’t consult and support our customers - we are not positioned to do that. We are positioned to help companies like Manufax. The word ‘partnerships’ is used a lot in this industry, but you cannot make installations like this happen without a partnership approach.” Concluding on the installation, David says: “This is our first machine from Leader CNC Technologies and it’s very exciting for us to be collaborating with them - and we are looking forward to the future with Leader CNC.”
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Laser Radar aligns with new automotive VDA standards
09/23/2024
Laser Radar aligns with new automotive VDA standards
As a subsidiary of the Nikon Corporation, Nikon Metrology has welcomed the recent comprehensive update to Volume 5.1 of the automotive measurement standards issued by the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA). The newly updated VDA standards cover a more comprehensive array of measurement applications within the automotive sector, addressing the industry’s growing demand for more diverse and sophisticated metrology solutions. As Andreas Fuchs, Application Engineer at Nikon Metrology explains: “We already offer innovative, traceable measurement solutions based on national and international standards for the automotive industry. The new standard defines very precisely the procedures for evaluating the precise technology that we provide. After all, with the APDIS Laser Radar, our portfolio has featured a product for some time now that can also deliver traceable inline measurements as described in VDA Volume 5.1. Incidentally, those who use this technology no longer need a dedicated measuring room for a fixed CMM – enabling them to save a great deal of money, time and space.” The APDIS Laser Radar represents a USP with its proven ability to measure details at a distance without needing handheld probes, targets or surface preparation. This makes it ideal for automating repetitive inspection tasks with high accuracy. The system covers many manufacturing, industrial and research applications, including those that involve hard-to-reach features and are complex, delicate, or labour-intensive. The additional benefits of the APDIS Laser Radar include fast and accurate automated measurements with minimal set-up time for maximum productivity with flexible and portable installation. This allows for the absolute and accurate measurement of parts during production or wherever required, including directly on the production line. The APDIS Laser Radar, in particular, displays its strengths in the automotive industry. For example, the system can measure automotive features with absolute accuracy at high speed with no part preparation, whether inline or offline. With inline measurement, data can be collected in a much larger sample, resulting in a much more extensive data volume for process control. Therefore, it is wise to develop and use smart evaluation methods or systems and, in the process, adapt the reaction speed to the increased data volume. “These days, inline measuring technology tends to measure 100% of the parts, giving a very dense test sample with an extremely short response time and close to production,” says Fuchs. “When the part goes through, a real-time statement regarding the quality of the part is delivered immediately – meaning the response time, as well as statistical and general process control, are far better than before. A measuring room, on the other hand, only provides information about ongoing quality with a delay. In addition, there are no statements about the ongoing process, and production continues.” VDA Volume 5.1 appears to consider the trend that measurements are increasingly being made using traceable inline measuring systems instead of offline in the measuring room, making the implementation of suitability certificates for inline measuring processes in accordance with VDA Volume 5 more critical. VDA Volume 5.1 introduces an eight-stage model for evaluating inline measuring systems throughout their lifecycle. This model generates suitability certificates crucial for system release, ensuring compliance with automotive manufacturing standards. These certificates are significant in procurement as tenders for measuring systems regularly reference VDA volumes, highlighting the importance of standards in guiding industry-wide quality control and measurement practices.
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Hexagon introduces factory optimisation with digital reality
09/23/2024
Hexagon introduces factory optimisation with digital reality
Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division has launched its new digitalisation solution, Digital Factory that has been designed to help manufacturers build highly accurate digital replicas of their factories. It enables manufacturers to optimise floor plans and pivot production lines for smarter and more sustainable future factories. With open interfaces that enable digital twins of shopfloor assets, this could save a global manufacturing company £35 million per year* by avoiding costly mistakes. Hexagon has expertise in delivering accurate reality capture and surveying equipment, software to visualise, explore and simulate scenarios in 3D, and collaboration workflows. Digitalisation technologies are a proven technology and have been used for over two decades in civil infrastructure, architecture and public safety, but their potential has yet to be fully realised in manufacturing. Digital Factory is a future-ready alternative to traditional factory planning that empowers more efficient collaboration between manufacturing and operations teams from anywhere in the world. Digital Factory leverages a comprehensive portfolio of hardware and software solutions that includes Hexagon’s range of reality capture technology – such as the Leica BLK2GO handheld imaging laser scanner, the Leica BLK ARC autonomous scanning module for robotic and mobile carriers and terrestrial laser scanners like the Leica RTC360. These systems allow manufacturers to capture and create dimensionally-accurate point clouds of the factory floor using the Leica Cyclone software portfolio and Hexagon’s Reality Cloud Studio, powered by the HxDR, manufacturers can easily collaborate and quickly process data from Hexagon or a customer’s preferred scanning hardware to recreate up-to-date 3D spaces. Hexagon offers complete workflows to ensure manufacturers achieve the maximum value from scanning the factory and processing the data into actionable 3D models for various applications to managing the data in the cloud. It will also provide remote team collaboration, facilitating remote collaboration among key teams at any time, using cloud-based tools with analysis and modelling capabilities with on-demand data. The system will facilitate the planning and remodelling of factory layouts with accuracy and detail, capturing precise measurements of a factory and creating an exact and reliable digital model that can be accessed anytime from anywhere. Additionally, by testing out new machines, factory floor layouts and workflows in the virtual 3D environment, companies can quickly identify feasibility and emissions considerations, enabling them to better understand the potential benefits of new technology and make future-ready smart factories a reality. Nicholas Lachaud Bandres, VP of Industry Solutions at Hexagon commented: “Hexagon has developed a deep understanding of manufacturers’ needs. Digital Factory allows users to bring the physical world into an accurate virtual sandbox of their factories on-demand. Collaborating with their team and suppliers, they can consider ‘what-if’ scenarios to shape more effective plant designs and layouts and oversee implementation with irrefutable and accessible 3D plans. We’re making the digital factory more affordable and accessible, and we’re excited to see how our customers apply this to ramp up and remain competitive with smarter factories.”
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Going for sustainable growth
09/23/2024
Going for sustainable growth
Barrs Court Engineering has recently invested in a new DN Solutions’ DNM 6700 vertical machining centre from Mills CNC to increase its in-house milling capacity and capability. The Hertfordshire precision subcontract specialist has acquired a DN Solutions’ Siemens 828D controlled DNM 6700 at the company’s 11,500sq/ft facility in Rotherwas in June 2024. It is being used to machine complex parts in low volumes for a range of customers in the marine, renewables, nuclear, steam, automotive and yellow goods sectors. The DNM 6700 is also being used to finish machine fabricated parts prior to assembly. Barrs Court Engineering, established in 1983, regularly invests in new, advanced machine tools as part of a rolling, company-wide continuous improvement programme to increase productivity, performance and process efficiencies across all of its machining operations, and is no stranger to technologies supplied by Mills CNC. In 2001, Barrs Court Engineering invested in its first Doosan lathe, a Puma 300 and it has also acquired a sub-spindle, Y-axis turning centre from Mills CNC to strengthen its in-house turning capacity and capabilities. The DNM 6700 is, however, the first milling machine the company has acquired from Mills in its 41-year history. Almost 12 months ago, Barrs Court Engineering began a strategic process of rationalising and streamlining its business by creating three discrete machining areas in its machine shop - each one focused on a specific production model designed to meet different customers’ machining needs and requirements. Explains Toby Kinnaird, Barrs Court Engineering’s managing director: “The new manufacturing strategy is focused on growth, and has imposed a discipline across all our planning and production operations. We analysed our existing business, including what our customers expected and demanded from us and identified three different production ‘models’ which would direct how we would organise our machine shop and manufacturing operations.” Barrs Court Engineering has at its disposal several dedicated machine tools with integrated automation for its low mix high-volume manufacturing operation which is predictable and is characterised by ‘scheduled’ repeat business. Manufacturing bespoke, high-quality components in small batches has always been a particular strength of Barrs Court Engineering, and is perceived as a high growth area for the company. Often requiring a ‘turnkey’ approach with machined parts characterised by their high precision, complexity and long cycle times, the company specifically acquired the new DNM 6700 machining centre to strengthen its performance in this high-value production area. “To increase our high-mix low volume machining capacity, we decided to invest in a new high-performance machining centre to replace two of our older machines that had limited capacity”, remembers Toby Kinnaird. “We were particularly looking for a machine with a larger X-axis to handle bigger parts which had been out of our reach.” Barrs Court Engineering compiled a ‘must have’ technical checklist for its future machining centre investment and visited the MACH 2024 Show in April to identify a suitable machine. Continues Toby Kinnaird: “We visited Mills CNC’s stand on the first day of the show, and discussed our requirements with their sales staff. They provided details on the DNM 6700 that was in stock at their Leamington facility and would be available for immediate delivery. After a short while negotiating the deal, we placed the order for the machine later that week.” The model acquired by Barrs Court Engineering is equipped with the 828D Siemens control with ShopMill software and features an 18.5kW directly-coupled spindle, a 1500mm x 670mm worktable and a 40-tool position ATC. Says Toby Kinnaird: “Our new DNM 6700 is powerful, fast, accurate and flexible. The Siemens Control is intuitive and easy to use, making programming and job setups quicker and more accurate. The integration of the 4th-axis table enables us to machine complex parts with intricate features in a single setup, avoiding the time and cost involved in re-fixturing operations and the potential for losing accuracy, and the inclusion of Renishaw workpieces and tool probes improves process efficiencies.
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Coolant can achieve 20% increase in cutting speed
09/23/2024
Coolant can achieve 20% increase in cutting speed
The demand for faster, cheaper, and greener aerospace solutions comes with challenges. CO2 emissions have been the main focus, but the impact of manufacturing operations is equally crucial. Fortunately, a solution is correctly applying coolant to maximise output, enhance process security and improve tool performance. Here, Henri Sevonen, Senior Industry Segment Manager – Sandvik Coromant, explains the benefits of high-precision coolant and tooling concepts. The role of coolants has undergone somewhat of an evolution. Machine shops have used coolants by directing tubes that flood the machining zone, particularly on the materials that need coolant to be machined. But now, by applying coolant with high precision accurately into the machining zone, new advantages are available. If coolant is to be applied effectively and make a difference, it needs to be applied as jets at high precision, in sufficient volume and directed correctly. Qualified applications can make a distinct difference in chip formation, heat distribution, surface integrity and tool wear. When applied correctly, precision coolant maximises output, increases process security and improves tool performance and component quality. The positive effects start at low coolant pressure, but the higher the pressure is, the more demanding material can successfully be machined. Precision coolant application can make a difference to machining in general, but when machining more demanding materials, such as heat-resistant super alloys (HRSAs) and titanium alloys, the practice makes a dramatic difference. Many modern CNC machines have coolant supplies at pressures of 70 to 100 bar. This is sufficient to incorporate high-precision coolant, which makes a noticeable performance difference. An essential basis for high-precision coolant use is modular tools to ensure quick tool changes for minimising machine stoppages. The modular Coromant Capto® tooling system is the basis for new standard high-precision coolant tooling. This modular platform designed with an internal coolant supply is also suited as the means with which to supply coolant at high precision. It is an established ISO standard and an option on many CNC machines with stationary and rotating tools. Turning tools with precision coolant are equipped to give accurate coolant jets with laminar parallel flow. The jets give rise to a hydraulic wedge between the insert and chip, affecting the chip form and flow and reducing the temperature in the machining zone. Employing nozzles, mounted close to the cutting edge, accurately projecting the high-velocity jets, forces the chip off the insert face and cools and breaks the chips into smaller lengths, helping to evacuate them. Benefits in finishing operations have been established even at lower pressures, down to ten bars in material including steel, stainless steel, aluminium and heat-resistant superalloys. Apart from higher security brought about by better chip control, precision coolant can bring about considerable tool life improvement and a potential for higher cutting speed. By applying precision coolant, 50% tool life increases can be the result. Precision coolant can play a vital role in ISO S machining. The effect of precision coolant can therefore provide the potential to raise performance by way of higher cutting speeds without the usual rise in temperature and loss in tool life. There is a clear cooling effect and not the higher cutting forces through higher feeds. For ISO S-classified materials, a 20% increase in cutting speed can be achieved while maintaining the same cutting length. Internal turning is also an area where precision coolant can play an important role in helping ensure good chip formation, as well as improving shearing properties in demanding materials such as titanium. In this way, the concept adds higher security and longer tool life to boring operations. When machining relatively large, deep holes with boring bars, such as in landing gear components, modular tooling at the back as well as the front end of the tool can be advantageous. Being able to change the small cutting head on the clamped bar provides quick, easy and accurate changing, adding considerable flexibility for various cuts in one set-up. The CoroTurn® SL combines damped boring bars with serrated locking heads for boring larger holes with depths of ten times the diameter and this is also equipped with precision coolant facilities.
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CERATIZIT puts Alitech in pole-position
09/23/2024
CERATIZIT puts Alitech in pole-position
Based in Silverstone, a short walk from the world-famous race circuit, Alitech Precision is a subcontract design, concept delivery and manufacturing company that specialises in the motorsport industry. To serve this demanding market, Alitech has invested in high-end machine tools, CAM software and cutting tools from CERATIZIT. Alitech opened its doors for business in 2014 with a 3-axis machining centre and CAM package. As the business evolved, it moved to fully simultaneous 5-axis VMCs. Specialising in the design of motorsport solutions and taking concepts through to manufacture, the company works with everything from high-performance road cars to F1 teams in the ‘motorsport valley’. With high-precision and lightning-fast turnaround times a customer pre-requisite, Alitech demands the same from its suppliers – that is why the company relies on CERATIZIT for its cutting tool solutions. Looking at how the company has grown since its inception, Alitech Precision Parts Ltd Managing Director Darren Cudd says: “We started with conventional entry-level machines and as we got into 5-axis machining, we quickly realised you get what you pay for. We haven’t looked back since we bought our first Hermle machine and we now have four with a fifth machine on order.” Discussing CERATIZIT, Darren adds: “The relationship with CERATIZIT is not too different to what we have with our customers. We manufacture parts to a very high level and we need very good tooling to do that, especially some of the more specialised tools like long gun drills and bespoke cutters. We work closely with Nev, our CERATIZIT engineer, and we have an ongoing unofficial competition. If Nev gives me a number regarding machining parameters – I always have to try and beat it. Luckily, we know that our machines are more than capable of doing what Nev suggests, so we always try to push as hard as we can.” The Northamptonshire company machines a diverse range of materials and CERATIZIT is always on hand to meet any challenge. As Darren says: “We are on board with a lot of racing teams and this has changed the nature of our machining. For example, our pallet-loaded Hermle C22 UP machine spent 4.5 months straight, just cutting titanium through the winter rush. It’s been a fantastic learning curve and Nev has been there all the way recommending the right tools. We got dialled-in on speeds and feeds pretty quickly and we are getting excellent tool life, which has been above what we were expecting to see.” As a forward-thinking company, Alitech is happy to sacrifice tool longevity for productivity rates. Commenting on this, Darren says: “Being in the motorsport industry, parts are often required in less than 24 hours, so we are always looking at the bottom line. The hourly rate of the machine is typically more than the cost of the tool cutting the part. So, it’s simple math - if we’re going to blow two tools to make a job in half an hour instead of 1.5 hours, it’s a simple equation. However, the quality and longevity of the CERATIZIT tools always go beyond our expectations.” Looking at specific tools, Darren highlights the performance of the CERATIZIT 3-flute rippers, saying: “We have some large parts that are roughed on a 3-axis before 5-axis machining. The roughing cycle was around 4 hours and this is now down to less than 1.5 hours. This is credit to the length of the flute and how hard you can push the CERATIZIT rippers. We now find that we are limited by the power of the spindle rather than the tools.” As a company that operates around the clock, Alitech has invested in a CERATIZIT ToolSupply vending to ensure that production is always running. Darren says: “The vending has been a ‘game changer’. We can be running automated manufacturing on our 18 pallet machine and we may have 5 or 6 sister tools for each tool on that job. Even if we pre-order tools on what we think we will need, things don’t always work out as you wish. It is here that the vending machine comes in as a safety net to make sure our machines are always running – its removed tool breakages as a ‘failure mode’ from our business.” It is often said that Centro-P or ER32 toolholders are not suitable for rough machining, Alitech has not only debunked the myth, but taken it a step further – applying Weldon Lock toolholders from CERATIZIT to eliminate tool ‘pull-out’. Darren suggests: “Traditionally, you look at two factors when roughing. Firstly, can the spindle turn the tool, and secondly, will the tool take the stress before it breaks? We found the limits on both factors. We were pushing so hard that a third concern arose - are you pulling the tool out of the collet during machining? Centro-P’s are fantastic but when you lean on them as hard as we do, they can pull out of the machine. To overcome this, Nev recommended the CERATIZIT Weldon shank collets. They drop straight into the Centro-P, lock onto the Weldon shank and we have achieved some pretty ludicrous numbers on how hard we can rough machine jobs.” “We also use the CERATIZIT shrink-fit system for machining the large complex jobs that other machine shops will shy away from. This includes jobs like engine blocks where we need very long series heat shrink holders to reach ludicrous angles and depths.” CERATIZIT tooling now accounts for 95% of the tooling supplied at Alitech. Recalling the incremental switch from a multitude of suppliers, Darren recalls: “Time is money and we are often here six or seven days a week. In the busy seasons, we really don’t have a spare hour to call around cutting tool companies for products and support. The CERATIZIT website and App just make it so easy to jump on, find exactly what you want within two or three minutes, click ‘buy’ and it’s here the very next day. CERATIZIT really is a ‘one-stop-shop’ and we now buy everything from end mills and ball nose cutters to specialist titanium drills, long gun drills, T-slot cutters, collets, shrink fit and much more.” Adding to this, Sales & Production Manager at Alitech Ben Philips comments: “When I joined Alitech, we were predominantly buying Centric-P’s and heat shrink holders for HSK and BT40 machines, but CERATIZIT helped us to diversify from primarily aluminium machining to heavier metals and superalloys.” Looking to the future, Darren concludes: “We cannot get another ounce of machinery into our factory, so we have been holding off for the last year or two to try and make a big leap. We will make this huge leap to a site that would be five times larger than what we currently have, from 3,500 to 14,000sq/ft. As we evolve, our success will be reliant upon the strong relationships we have with both our customers and our supply chain partners like CERATIZIT.”
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Be QUICK in turning operations
09/23/2024
Be QUICK in turning operations
Many people regard the lathe as the forerunner of modern machine tools. Its introduction which made turning operations possible, marked the dawn of machining. Today, turning is still one of the most commonly used machining processes, and lathes remain a substantial part of global machine tool sales. This is why turning tools make up a considerable portion of the product range for leading cutting tool manufacturers. It is not surprising that LOGIQUICK, ISCAR’s latest campaign, brings new developments to the market with a significant focus on innovation in the field of turning. Some of the newly introduced products extend the existing families within ISCAR’s turning line, while others offer solutions for advanced manufacturing. Such novelties not only reflect the trends of modern metal cutting but also aim to enhance the profitability of machining operations, particularly in turning. Several key features characterise the development directions in turning tools and this includes the following: • Higher Efficiency and Precision: This involves turning tools that can enhance productivity and precision, accelerate the overall machining process and minimise waste. • Advanced Cutting Materials and Progressive Coating Methods: Cutting-edge materials such as ceramics and cubic boron nitride (CBN) are becoming more common in turning tools. Through excellent heat resistance and durability, these extra-hard materials offer superior cutting speed when compared to traditional tungsten carbide. Concurrently, the need for rapid metal removal is driving interest in progressive coating technologies for cemented carbides. Innovative coatings can enhance cutting capabilities, extend tool life, and reduce wear. • Multi-Directional Turning Tools: These high-quality, versatile tools not only increase productivity and machining efficiency by reducing the number of tool changes but also minimise tool inventory, decrease machine downtime and maintain tighter tolerances. • Digitalisation: The Industry 4.0 approach underscores the importance of a turning tool’s digital impact as an integral part of smart manufacturing. • Sustainability: Given the pressing nature of environmental issues, there is a growing demand for cutting tools that have a smaller environmental impact. This means they should be less energy-intensive and generate less waste. With the above in mind, the new products in ISCAR’s turning tool line that are part of the LOGIQUICK campaign accommodate these criteria. Indeed, turning encompasses many external and internal machining applications, including longitudinal turning, facing, profiling, chamfering, grooving, parting and boring. Let’s study ISCAR’s most recent turning advancements and highlight their features. Advanced Cutting Material to Boost Turning Efficiency ISCAR has significantly broadened the range of available ceramic grades for ISO-standard turning inserts. The recent additions to the range have been designed to facilitate efficient machining of difficult-to-cut materials, particularly hard steel and cast iron (ISO H group of application). The newly introduced IC1017 carbide grade was specifically developed for machining challenging nickel-based superalloys. This complementary grade features a high-hardness submicron substrate and a PVD coating to enable turning superalloys at higher speeds. For cutting non-ferrous materials such as aluminium, copper, platinum, bronze, brass, and others (ISO N group of application). The product range has been enhanced with new turning and grooving inserts featuring a nano-composite diamond-like coating (DLC). Multi-Directional Benefits QUICK-T-LOCK is an innovative tool family designed for productive multi-directional cutting. This includes front and back turning, profiling, and facing operations, all achievable with just one tool. The family uses a new insert-clamping concept to provide exceptional stability during machining at extremely high feed rates. A notable feature is the advanced chipformer, specially designed for high-feed turning, especially in backworking machining (Fig. 1). V-shape CUT-V-GRIP inserts offer a versatile solution for bi-directional external turning operations. The inserts, suitable for installation on modified existing holders, are capable of entering narrow machining areas where common V-type ISO inserts cannot be used (Fig.2). The Boring Line When boring with a long overhang (usually more than five times bore diameters), vibration is a common issue. These vibrations can affect surface finish, reduce tool life, increase power consumption and limit performance. While changing cutting conditions is a typical method to reduce vibrations, it may not always be the best solution, as it can result in longer machining time. However, a new anti-vibration holder with an active vibration-damping mechanism offers an alternative approach to overcome this challenge. It enables a high level of productivity in various boring operations, from rough to finish. ISCAR’s PICCO is a tool system primarily designed for machining small parts. This versatile system, which can be applied to a wide range of turning, boring, threading and drilling operations, is highly popular in workshops that manufacture various miniature components. A typical PICCO tool consists of a holder and a solid carbide cutting insert secured within the holder. The system has now evolved with the introduction of PICCO-INDEX, a family of steel and carbide boring bars designed to be mounted on existing toolholders. The bars are specially engineered to carry small ISO-standard indexable inserts (Fig. 3). The new addition offers a viable cost-effective alternative, particularly for rough and semi-finish operations for compact part production. Swiss-Type CNC Swiss-Type turning centres play a crucial role in modern manufacturing due to their precision, efficiency and ability to perform multiple operations simultaneously, such as drilling, milling, turning and knurling. They are instrumental in the production of miniature components required in several industries. This includes watchmaking, medical devices, automation equipment and electronics. Consequently, the development of more advanced cutting tools and toolholders dedicated to Swiss-Type lathes is a top priority for most tool manufacturers, including ISCAR. The LOGIQUICK campaign has also highlighted Swiss-Type machining tools. The new modular system, QUICKSWISS, provides a solution for most applications on the sub-spindle of Swiss-Type lathes. This system (Fig. 4), which features a height adjustment option, offers a wide variety of bases, holders, and heads for various turning operations. For grooving, parting, and recessing, the QUICK-2-CUT family shows promise. The tools in this family carry high-precision, narrow, double-sided inserts which are tangentially mounted on the tool from the side. The insert clamping concept ensures high rigidity and excellent dimensional repeatability. The targeted coolant, directed to the cutting zone, improves tool life and contributes to a better surface finish (Fig. 5). The LOGIQ-4-TURN family of turning tools with indexable double-sided inserts has been well-received in the market. In response to this positive feedback, the company has expanded the family range to include smaller-sized inserts, providing a cost-effective solution for Swiss-Type and compact lathes. In ISCAR’s electronic catalogue, two new filter search options specifically related to Swiss-Type lathes have been added. These options allow for the search of modular adaptations to find more efficient tools for main and back tool posts. The LOGIQUICK campaign’s turning package encompasses far more than the products currently under consideration. The company is gradually introducing new product families in quick succession and plans to allocate more time to analysing these new arrivals. Will they boost productivity and contribute to a rapid increase in customer profitability? ISCAR firmly believes the answer is a resounding ‘yes’.
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Advanced CT Scanning
07/18/2024
Advanced CT Scanning
Industry-leading computed tomography (CT) scanning technology provided by Nikon has been employed to uncover the secrets of a rare 17th-century pendant watch, part of the Museum of London’s renowned Cheapside Hoard. The intricate details revealed by the scans have transformed the Museum’s understanding of this unique piece of early modern technology, providing new insights into its mechanism, case, and historical significance. The heart of the goldsmiths’ trade in post-medieval Britain was on the south side of Cheapside in the City of London. Here, on 18th June 1912, beneath a brick-lined cellar floor in a timber-framed building, workmen discovered a remarkable cache of almost 500 items of jewellery, gems and other precious Elizabethan and Jacobean objects. Probably buried in about 1640 at the onset of the English Civil War, the so-called Cheapside Hoard is now housed in the Museum of London and contains only one item that can be directly attributed. It is a gilt-brass pendant watch, made in Geneva between 1610 and 1620, bearing the signature of its maker, G Ferlite (Gaultier Ferlite). For a catalogue to be published to coincide with the opening of the new London Museum in 2026-2027, Hazel Forsyth, Senior Curator Medieval & Early Modern Collections responsible for the Cheapside Hoard, wanted to check a few facts and figures concerning recent further research on the watch. In 2023, she approached Nikon for assistance and was delighted when Alistair Watson, X-ray Sales Manager, suggested rescanning the watch. The watch movement had first undergone X-radiography and CT reconstruction in 2005, but the technology has progressed enormously since then and there was potential to discover much more detail. The latest investigation was undertaken by James Finch, Applications Engineer at Nikon’s X-ray CT production, demonstration and subcontract inspection centre in Tring in February. The watch was scanned in a Nikon XT H 450 system equipped with a source having a 450kV rotating reflection target manufactured on-site. Scan parameters were 430kV, 100W and a 2mm tin filter was used. A total of 3,800 projections were acquired with a voxel size of 31.8 microns. Each exposure took 1,415 milliseconds, so the overall scan time was 90 minutes. Nikon’s CT scans produce ‘staggering’ results “The results were staggering. For the very first time, it was possible to see details that were blurred in 2005, or simply invisible. The results showed precise features and gear components and relative metal densities, including imaging of the areas which still retain gilding,” says Hazel Forsyth. “It was also possible to obtain precise measurements of particular features. Even more exciting was the possibility of scanning the case and movement so that we could virtually re-insert the mechanism into its original housing. This meant we could work out what its early 17th-century owner would have seen through some of the apertures in the dial. The latest images have had a transformative effect on our understanding of this important watch and its place in early modern horology.” The watch, designed to be worn around the neck, is intriguing because it has a reverse-set chapter ring; the numbers 12 and 6 are transposed so the wearer could read the time by inclining their head. Other interesting features include a piercing in the case for an alarm, as well as astronomical and calendar indications on the dial. When it was made, it would have been a very expensive, luxury item. Unfortunately, it is in poor condition. Most of the enamel on the dial is lost and the hinge and cover are missing. The dial is currently supported by a modern acrylic insert and the mechanism, which was removed for conservation reasons, is heavily corroded. Very little of the internal structure can be seen with the naked eye, which is why the detail revealed by CT scanning has been so valuable.
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What role does tool holding play in sustainability?
07/18/2024
What role does tool holding play in sustainability?
Sustainability considerations are currently ‘trendy’ and Individual elements such as toolholding are often considered. However, if you want to act sustainably, you should not focus too much on finite details and look at the overall process. When it comes to sustainability, the product life cycle and the process in which it is integrated are critical factors. In machining, there are a lot of variables to consider such as the material, component geometry, quantities, type of machine, tools and clamping devices used. External circumstances such as the production location, the qualifications of the employees and automation must also be considered. Apart from materials, energy efficiency is probably the main factor that determines a sustainable process. Therefore, a promising approach is to look for the largest consumers and optimise their use. The machine tool offers savings potential as it consumes the majority of the energy used with its spindle and axis drives, peripherals and auxiliary units. When purchasing new machines, the user can significantly reduce consumption by paying attention to energy-saving components. Andreas Haimer, Managing Director and President of the HAIMER Group, explains: “In our production, we have learned that replacing an old machining centre with a new one using the same machining process requires around 30% less energy. As a family business, we pay a lot of attention to sustainability. In the last financial year, we invested a total of over €1m and we have saved over 250 tons of CO2.” Machining savings can be made with examples like CAD/CAM-optimised machining strategies. Andreas Haimer says: “A customer provided us with data on how he reduced machining time by 75% from 71 to 18 minutes per part by trochoidal milling with our HAIMER Power shrink fit chucks and the HAIMER MILL cutters. The change in machining strategy was accompanied by energy savings due to significantly lower power consumption. While the spindle load was 80-85% for 10 parts with a face mill that had a total energy cost of around €150, the trochoidal milling strategy with a spindle load of 8-10% and shorter cycle time reduced energy costs to €5 for 10 parts. This was a higher output with lower energy consumption per part produced.” The sustainability of toolholding Have you ever thought about how a tool holder could contribute to sustainability? Where a milling machine consumes an average of around 30kW, plus the power of hydraulic and pneumatic devices, automation equipment and robots - toolholding only plays a subordinate role. This is because the tool holder is a comparatively small detail, even if using a shrink-fit chuck with a marginal energy consumption. Looking at other clamping systems, the energy consumption during shrinking is higher in operational use than with a hydraulic or milling chuck. Looking at the entire product life cycle of a tool holder, which includes production, maintenance and disposal, a completely different picture emerges. The production of a hydraulic chuck requires significantly more effort and energy due to its complicated structure. There is also the soldering of the expansion sleeve, additional heat treatment to prevent the solder joint from breaking, as well as the effort required for cleaning, assembly and filling with oil. “From our experience, the energy required for production is around three times higher for the shrink-fit chuck,” explains Andreas Haimer. “In addition to shrink-fit chucks, we also have hydraulic chucks. Although their list prices are higher than shrink-fit chucks, they are the right solution for certain applications. However, they are not more sustainable. Our analyses show that a hydraulic chuck requires around 25kWh more energy to manufacture than a shrink chuck. In product life cycle terms, a shrink fit chuck with an energy requirement of 0.026kWh per shrink fit and the cooling cycle can be shrunk almost 1,000 times before it requires more energy than a hydraulic chuck.” The same applies to milling chucks, which are much more complicated and contain more components as well as grease and lubricants. Life cycle and process reliability are crucial. Haimer shrink chucks are maintenance-free and can be shrunk in and out an unlimited number of times, whereas hydraulic chucks and milling chucks have to be serviced every 2-3 years to check the clamping force. The contained hydraulic fluid or grease also makes environmentally friendly disposal more difficult than with shrink-fit chucks. As well as the life cycle, there are differences in terms of process reliability. But how is energy consumption calculated during the shrinking process? Heating a shrink-fit chuck takes about 5 seconds. The maximum output of a HAIMER Power Clamp shrink-fit machine is 13kW, but the average is 8kW. This means that a single, complete shrinking process consumes around 0.011kWh and cooling consumes 0.015kWh resulting in a total of 0.026kWh. If a kilowatt-hour costs 20 cents, shrinking and cooling costs a marginal 0.5 cents. How should the energy consumption be classified when considering the machining process with a power consumption of around 30kW? Assuming that a tool is in use for an hour and 1% machining time can be saved thanks to the high concentricity and rigidity or the improved milling strategies due to the slim contour holder, that would be 0.3kWh of energy saved. Andreas Haimer summarises: “The energy consumption per clamping process plays a negligible role compared to the issues of life cycle and machining strategy. Modern CAD/CAM-optimised milling strategies can save 75% of machining time. Machinists must focus on such processes if they want t sustainability and productivity.”
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Workholding upgrade doubles productivity
07/18/2024
Workholding upgrade doubles productivity
At Archway Engineering, a Leadwell V-50L 3-axis VMC performs some of the more arduous machining operations at the Elland-based company. On the shop floor of the West Yorkshire factory that manufactures drilling equipment for site investigation, mineral exploration, water well construction and environmental monitoring, the productivity of parts going through this machine has been doubled simply by changing the way workpieces are clamped. The transformation has been achieved by the September purchase of three US-made Chick OneLOKs from sole UK agent 1st Machine Tool Accessories, Salisbury. One of the units remains permanently at one end of the machine’s 1,420 by 610mm table, where it has been clocked into a known position to within 10µm across the 152mm face of the clamp’s fixed hard jaw. The other two OneLOKs may be removed to make room to mount a 4th-axis indexer, but they are quick to set up again relative to the permanently positioned clamp using a parallel bar. During frequent small-batch runs, it is a simple matter to secure three parts side by side, write a sub-program to machine the workpiece in the permanent OneLOK, probe the position of the parts in the other two clamps, repeat the sub-program twice at the appropriate offsets and run the complete cycle in one go. This process differs markedly from previous practices involving either bulkier conventional vices, only two of which would fit on the table or a lathe chuck for holding round parts, an arrangement so large that just one could be accommodated in the working area. The positions of all these former workholding setups were slow and laborious to establish accurately and in practice each machining cycle was executed individually. Another advantage of the Chick product is that it has a time-saving ratchet mechanism to allow the operator to adjust the position of the rear, moveable jaw in one swift action so that it almost touches the workpiece. A few turns of a handle move the jaw in the same direction over the last few millimetres to complete the clamping action quickly, contributing further to short setup times. The mechanism’s novel squeeze clamping action with pull-down as the jaws close applies an equal and opposite force on both sides, resulting in repeatability to within 20 microns. A practical example of the time savings is in the production of a so-called TC shoe for a drilling machine, produced from an S355 hot-finish steel tube weighing 50kg. Setting up three billets in machined aluminium jaws side-by-side in the OneLOK takes 1.5 hours, compared with a total of four hours previously needed to clamp the parts individually one after the other in the lathe chuck on the VMC table. Furthermore, clamping forces were lower using this workholding equipment, as well as when employing conventional vices, compared with up to 26.7kN of retaining force exerted by a OneLOK. Therefore, feed rates previously needed to be slower, lengthening cycle times. The versatility of the new units to hold prismatic parts in hard steel jaws, or round parts in soft aluminium jaws machined to match the shape of the component being secured, sets the Chick product apart from conventional vices and underpins the elevated gripping pressure. Danielle Toner, production manager at Archway Engineering commented, “Most of our production involves one-offs or small batches, with individual cycles generally running for several hours. Being able to clamp parts of any shape so firmly in the OneLOK allows us to mill much more aggressively using high-feed inserted end mills and solid carbide drills. In one instance, an EN8 steel drive unit end plate that previously took six hours to machine is completed in one hour.” She explained that it is now possible to feed at 7m/min a 32mm diameter end mill rotating at 1,200rpm, whereas the previous maximum feed rate was 2 to 3m/min. At the same time, higher quality tools may be employed and the depth of cut has increased from 0.3 to 1mm. Additionally, because parts are held more rigidly and the OneLOK is of low-profile design, there is less vibration so tools last longer and the machined finish is better. It helps particularly with the production of the TC shoe as well as phosphor bronze sliding plates, both of which require features with a near-polished surface. Mrs Toner concluded: “The quicker setup times using the Chick OneLOKs and the faster machining cycles that their secure clamping means that a typical short batch of parts can be produced on the Leadwell in two days, compared with up to one week previously. I estimate that productivity across the parts produced on this VMC has increased by 100% and probably more. The machine operator is also more productive, as he has extra free time and can plan his work around the factory more effectively.”
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Sodick meets the challenge
07/18/2024
Sodick meets the challenge
When Wall Colmonoy needed to modernise its EDM machining capacity, the manufacturer turned to Sodi-Tech UK and the Sodick brand of wire EDM technology. As the industry benchmark in the manufacture of Colmonoy® surfacing and Nicrobraz® brazing products, precision castings, coatings and components, Wall Colmonoy had three key areas of concern in its wire EDM department. Installing a Sodick ALC800G Premium wire EDM machine resolved them all. The Michigan-based company with European headquarters in Pontardawe, South Wales had two machines with table sizes of around 300 by 400mm, so any large work outside this envelope either had to be subcontracted out or turned away. THE CHALLENGES Wall Colmonoy had deadlines and capacity challenges – it needed a more productive solution that could improve cutting times. The third challenge was overcoming poor precision levels. With existing EDM machines over 10 years old, Wall Colmonoy needed precision levels to within +/-5 microns. It was Sodick that had the answer with its ALC800G Premium wire EDM machine. Looking at why the company invested in a Sodick ALC800G Premium wire EDM machine, Wall Colmonoy Process Engineer Kevin O’Connor recalls: “Our existing machines were ageing, and the programming side of manufacturing became very dated. We were also facing increasing maintenance costs and machine downtime.” Supporting this opinion, Aaron Patton, EDM machinist at Wall Colmonoy says: “The programming was taking too long and the cutting process was extremely time-consuming. Another issue was capacity, we needed to put large parts on the machine, and we couldn’t do this with our existing machines.” As Kevin O’Connor continues: “Sodick has had a relationship with Wall Colmonoy dating back 30 years. We went on a fact-finding tour of Sodick as well as other manufacturers to see if they could supply us with a suitable machine. We needed to know if they had a machine capable of cutting our specialist alloys. So, we took samples to Sodick for them to prove that the machines could do ‘exactly what they say on the tin’.” Adding to this, the Business Development Manager at Sodi-Tech, Mr Tony Berry says: “Wall Colmonoy needed a machine with a capacity to accept their diversity of parts in both dimensions and complexity. The existing machines were too small and the Sodick ALC800G Premium wire EDM machine has a worktable of 800 by 600mm, more than double the bed size of existing machines. By purchasing the Sodick ALC800G Premium wire EDM machine, Wall Colmonoy can manage larger parts, eliminating the need to subcontract work to external sources.” “The new ALC800G Premium has replaced one of the previous EDM machines and it is more productive than the two previous machines combined. This is a credit to both the productivity increase and the ability to run unmanned for extended periods overnight due to technology like the Smart Pulse electrical discharge power supply unit, Sodick’s Smart Linear technology, the fixed Jet AWT wire threading and the iGroove Plus wire rotation technology. From a programming and operational perspective, Wall Colmonoy can now process up to four different parts simultaneously in a single set-up – and even multiples of those parts.” Confirming these points, Sodi-Tech UK Technical Sales Manager, Mr Conor Plaskitt adds: “The reason Wall Colmonoy decided to invest in the Sodick ALC800G Premium supplied by Sodi-Tech is to increase the capacity of what they can cut on the machine and take on larger components. This is one of only two machines of its type in the UK and from a market perspective, it really gives Wall Colmonoy an edge over their competition.” Tony continues: “They have now had the machine for almost a year and it has performed very well. I think Wall Colmonoy are now ready to progress. As part of the free packages that we provide, we can offer advanced training that incorporates things like angle cutting, cutting compound angles, machining unusual shapes and moving on to the machining of specialist alloys, which is exactly what they do here at Wall Colmonoy.” Looking back at the installation of the Sodick ALC800G Premium wire EDM, Aaron Patton, EDM machinist at Wall Colmonoy says: “When we took delivery of the machine there was quite a steep learning curve, but now we are running the machine confidently, the benefits are impressive. There is still an advanced course that we can undertake to further enhance our capabilities as well as maximise what we can get out of the machine.”
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Everything's going according to plan
07/18/2024
Everything's going according to plan
Mills CNC has recently supplied Tufcot Engineering Ltd with a new, large-capacity, multi-tasking lathe to enhance its machining capabilities. The 24” chuck DN Solutions’ Puma 700LM II equipped with driven tooling and FANUC 0iTP control is one of the largest machines acquired by Tufcot in its 43-year history. Tufcot’s relationship with Mills CNC began in 2005 with a Puma 240LC and now the company has purchased the Puma 700LM II, installed at the company’s 50,000sq/ft facility in Sheffield in April 2024. Over the years, more investments with Mills have followed to consolidate its supply chain position and acquire new business. It ordered the new Puma 700LM II as well a new 21” chuck Puma 4100MC lathe to be installed in August. The latest additions will take the CNC lathes acquired from Mills CNC to 11 in total. “The high-performance lathes that Mills sells and supports are real workhorses. They are reliable and deliver the fast processing speeds and accuracies we need to meet our customers’ demands,” says Tufcot’s Managing Director, Greg Majchrzak. Since being installed, the new Puma 700LM II has been used to machine small batches of high-precision large diameter Tufcot® composite bushes and bearings for customers in the marine sectors. Tied up to tight tolerances, these parts have long cycle times and a range of intricate milled features. Tufcot® is a composite engineering material manufactured from synthetic fibres and thermos-setting resins. However, the company’s core business is supplying finished products such as wear pads, bushes and bearings. The marine sector is important to Tufcot’s growth ambitions. Says Justin Krebs, Tufcot’s Operations Manager: “Our knowledge of composites and their application has helped highlight significant new business opportunities that we could exploit if we had larger and more sophisticated in-house turning capabilities.” Tufcot always had the capacity to machine large parts on its existing lathes, but the processes involved were more labour intensive and required more work handling. This had a knock-on and detrimental effect on the cost-per-part. As Justin Krebs continues: “Owing to the increased demand for Tufcot® composites, it made perfect sense to strengthen our turning operation by investing in a new large-capacity lathe to machine these larger parts. As a consequence, we approached machine tool suppliers with our plans and asked them to recommend their preferred solution.” Having gone through what was a comprehensive and detailed decision-making process, Tufcot ultimately opted to go for the Puma 700LM II from Mills CNC. The Puma 700LM II is a large-capacity lathe with a 900mm maximum turning diameter and a 3200mm maximum turning length. Says Greg Majchrzak: “The Puma 700LM II can handle large and small parts, and the driven tooling capability enables complex, high-precision features to be machined in a single set-up.” Delivering fast part cycle times and eliminating the need to transfer components between machines has helped improve productivity and process efficiencies. It has enabled Tufcot to win new machining contracts for larger components from new and existing marine customers that, before the Puma 700LM II investment would have been out of its reach. Continues Greg Majchrzak: “To protect the new business won on the back of the Puma 700LM II acquisition, we also decided to duplicate the investment by ordering a new, similarly specified 21” chuck Puma 4100MC lathe. This will enable us to continue to meet our production and delivery schedules should the Puma 700LM II be out of action for any reason. In effect, we are future-proofing this new business, and leaving nothing to chance.” In addition to investing in the two new lathes from Mills CNC, the company has also recently acquired two, new state-of-the-art CNC routers in 2022 and increased the size of its facility with the purchase of additional premises.
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Aerospace subcontractor improves efficiency with Citizen
07/18/2024
Aerospace subcontractor improves efficiency with Citizen
Specialising in the manufacture of precision components for the aerospace industry, subcontract machining firm Apel began investing in Citizen CNC turning centres in the 1980s to help raise efficiency. Founded in 1965, the company has over time continued to re-invest in modern, highly productive lathes purchased exclusively from Citizen Machinery UK. Nowadays, Apel operates nine Cincom sliding-head lathes and one Miyano fixed-head model at its Wilmslow facility. Together they produce around 50,000 components per month across more than 3,000 part numbers. Utilisation of these Citizen CNC lathes and related technologies has led to significantly increased levels of productivity and profitability. The technology that has contributed most to raising the efficiency of production at Apel is Citizen’s proprietary LFV (low-frequency vibration) chip-breaking software, which is part of the operating system in the control of three of the six 20mm capacity Cincom L20s on site. When activated, the function breaks what would otherwise be long, stringy swarf into short, manageable chips. Around 50% of the material processed by Apel is aerospace-grade stainless steel bar. LFV is especially effective when processing this alloy. Paul Bowker, Apel’s Quality Director said: “We were an early adopter of LFV in 2018 following a visit to Citizen Machinery’s technical centre in Bushey to witness demonstrations. The function reduces the metal removal rate slightly, so we don’t use it all the time, but it’s really useful to be able to pick and choose when to program the function to start and stop. We switch it on mainly when turning stainless steel components on the LFV-equipped machines, especially when processing parts shorter than 25mm. It is normally chip breaking the metal for up to half of a typical cutting cycle.” He further explained that the decision to use LFV is also based on the surface finish required on components. Some customers’ drawings stipulate a very high surface tolerance and machining with the LFV function switched on allows this to be achieved by turning alone. It avoids the need to centreless grind parts afterwards, thereby reducing unit manufacturing costs and raising profitability. Dimensional and surface finish tolerances on many component drawings can be met and maintained when using this facility. Apel also uses Citizen’s adaptive guide bush (AGB) system. This automatically compensates for variation in bar diameter, preventing the stock from seizing in the bush. It also constantly maintains concentricity to prevent run-out issues. Downtime is avoided and tight machining tolerances are maintained. The system is used not only on the 20mm capacity sliding-head lathes but also on three 32mm capacity Cincom models on the shop floor. The aerospace sector is very busy presently and Apel is well placed to win work due to the quality management system it operates, competitive pricing and the many industry and customer approvals it holds. Exports account for 20% of turnover with India and Saudi Arabia being major overseas markets. The AGB systems ensure reliability during unattended operation by compensating for bar diameter inconsistency and preventing stoppages. Additionally, the LFV machines do not have swarf clogging the working area when processing stainless steel. It contributes further to reliability and eliminates the need for an operator to be in attendance to untangle ribbons from the components and tooling. Mr Bowker concluded: “Our nine Cincoms, as well as the Miyano for turn-milling larger components up to 50mm diameter, support all of our production and will continue to do so as we increase our volume of work in the expanding global aerospace industry.”
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Guhring ‘powers-up’ productivity for EVs
07/18/2024
Guhring ‘powers-up’ productivity for EVs
As a machine tool builder that manufactures high-end machines for the global market, Heller UK is frequently involved in turnkey projects for prestigious OEMs. On a recent project, the Redditch company enlisted the support of the cutting tool experts at Guhring. There has been a wide spectrum of tools used on this project for a leading manufacturer of Electric Vehicles (EVs), including the Guhring tool holders and tool vending technology. As part of the package to accompany the cutting tools, the EV manufacturer has selected a vast range of standard shrink chucks, hydraulic chucks and synchro-tapping chucks. The cutting tools incorporated in this project included a huge range of standard products, all carefully selected and tested to minimise cycle times while achieving tight tolerances. Whilst the standard range of Guhring products accounted for a significant element of the system integration project, it was the bespoke PCD combination tools that demonstrated Guhring UK’s expertise as a one-stop solution provider. With the PCD combination tools manufactured at Guhring UK and Guhring Germany, the bespoke solutions were developed to achieve ‘one shot’ plunging. The bespoke tooling aimed to reduce cycle times and adhere to the high surface finishes required – and maintain this over the life of the tool. Discussing the project, Guhring UK’s National Sales Manager Chris Bush says: “It is a project and industry that is at the very forefront of technology. The end user typically specifies a machine builder and cutting tool supplier - in this instance, it was Heller and Guhring for the cutting tools.” Looking at how the process delivers a solution for the customer, Chris continues: “In Germany, we have a large project engineering team with over 200 employees. So, when we receive a CAD model of the customers’ component and the machine capabilities, we can develop the cutting tools and machining strategy from that and create an optimised solution in conjunction with Heller.” “This requires several meetings to discuss the machining strategies and how we develop the tooling to create a seamless solution from machine tool to cutting tool. At Guhring, we supply everything from toolholder to the cutting-edge and that also entails all the speeds, feeds and cutting strategies in conjunction with the machine builder. Once we supply all the cutting data and tooling sheets, we will then visit Heller and do all the initial run-offs to ensure all the cutting data is optimised and the machining strategy is working well.” Alluding to the overall project, Chris adds: “It has been a great partnership between Guhring and Heller and the current EV project is the biggest project we have collaborated on in the UK.” Discussing the project from a Heller perspective, Tad Forys from Heller Machine Tools UK says: “We delivered 22 machines in this project. That includes eleven 5-axis machines and 11 4-axis machines - all built in the UK. With this project, we have gone from a customer drawing to a fully automated production line. From the initial enquiry with the customer, our engineers here in the UK conducted comprehensive cycle time studies. Following on from that, we developed custom hydraulic fixtures to hold the parts; and we have used these fixtures because it is a high-volume electric vehicle application.” “This recent project that we collaborated on with Guhring has been a perfect demonstration of team work. When we talk about collaboration, it isn’t just about working together - it’s about aligning our values and expertise. The first two machines for the production line are here at Heller, so we can do the initial production ‘prove off’ before the machines land on the customers’ shop floor. Guhring has been with us for every step of the journey, clocking in tools, optimising speeds and feeds to make sure we have the most efficient process for the customer before the machines are delivered.” “From a Heller perspective, this project has been an outstanding success. Our end user is very happy. Everything has been delivered on time to a particularly demanding customer - and this has been made possible by a close working partnership with Guhring who have helped us every step of the way,” adds Tad. Discussing the tooling solution further, Guhring’s Chris Bush adds: “Even though we are supplying the tools and tool holding for this project, we are also supplying the tool management vending solution. As this is a significant project with a large number of tools, we are supplying the vending machine with some add-on units. The proprietary software that Guhring programs and supplies with this can also be linked to the customer’s ERP system. This provides complete synergy and automation for the end user from tool ordering with complete transparency of costing and cost centres by the operation, the individual machine and even by the operator. This system provides unparalleled transparency, so everyone can see the costs and where the costs are going.” “From a Guhring point of view, this project has been a great success and working together with Heller has been a true partnership, and a fantastic example of delivering a proven process to the customer on time,” concludes Chris
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Innovative Tools for metal cutting
07/18/2024
Innovative Tools for metal cutting
Companies that manufacture one-off parts and small batches primarily for the mechanical engineering industry require tools that are versatile all-rounders. Just as important is a tool partner who understands what metalcutting is all about and can ‘read’ the production process. If the partner just happens to be located in the region, then they are just the right partner. Otto Beckert Feinmechanik GmbH & Co. KG discovered this when it turned to ARNO Werkzeuge not only to supply turning, milling and drilling tools but also advice and assistance. “We think European and that’s how we buy. Even if our work is focused on products and applications for the world market, we aim to keep the added value here in the region. After all, most of our customers are also from this region,” stresses Ralf Beckert, Managing Director of Otto Beckert GmbH & Co. KG in Kirchentellinsfurt. The medium-sized manufacturer is an innovative solution finder and most of its customers are located within a 50km radius. Customers include well-known machine manufacturers as well as suppliers to the semiconductor industry, powertrain specialists and other global market leaders, of which there are many in the Stuttgart region. The company’s management attaches great importance to regional responsibility and a stable supply chain with rapid response and personal dialogue. This is why ARNO Werkzeuge GmbH with its universal cutting tools has been a dependable partner. With 40 employees and 19 CNC machines that produce high-quality components from all conceivable materials, batch sizes range mostly between one and 100 or small runs up to 2,000 parts. Customers come from the motorsport, medical, drilling platform and chip production industries. “Frequent tool changes foul up any calculation,” says Kevin Göhner, Industrial Mechanic and CNC operator at Otto Beckert. The aim is not to squeeze the last hours, minutes or metres of tool life out of a tool. The essential thing, he finds, is universal tools that can be used for as many processes as possible and a wide range of materials. Here is where Tobias Breitling from ARNO Werkzeuge has arrived with the right products. The technical consultant also comes with a wealth of application knowledge and universal products for efficient machining. One highlight is the patented DuoMill FD milling system. With only one basic body, the tools can be used for corner and high-feed milling operations on steel, stainless and aluminium. “And you can even do this from a corner radius of just 0.2mm, which is virtually unrivalled,” assures Breitling. The fact that corner and high feed inserts are mounted in one insert seat is unique and patented. To machine non-ferrous metals, the indexable inserts are precision-ground and polished around their entire circumference. In addition, the nickel-plated long-life basic holders with four cutting edges per insert allow a high feed rate. Efficient milling with unique patented tools Universal tools with these features not only have a positive effect on tool change times but also the cost of the tool holders. They simplify handling, storage and stocking. “The fact that two different types of indexable inserts can be mounted on the same tool holder provides our customers with enormous flexibility,” says Breitling. “And flexibility is our top priority,” adds Beckert. The product range includes screw-in end milling cutters from 25 to 42mm diameter, as well as shell-type cutters with diameters of 40 to 160mm. The differential pitch of the tool holders significantly reduces vibrations during milling. Four efficient cutting edges at 90° angles ensure high efficiency in corner and high feed milling operations. “This is the real strength of the DuoMill and produces very smooth surfaces as a result,” says Göhner. Breitling explains that in some cases, it can even eliminate downstream work steps. “If you want to work both rapidly and at high precision, you should opt for our FD milling system.” Showing the workpiece more teeth Milling, roughing and finishing at 90° requires a lot of material removal, so Otto Beckert switches to the all-around BLN corner milling system. When a solid tool holder, large and stable indexable inserts and an infeed of up to 12mm come into play, there is no stopping them. “The machine is more likely to fail than the tool,” surmises Breitling. Göhner also enjoys using the FT face milling systems 09 and 12 with the same enthusiasm. They consist of stable tool holders with more teeth and smaller indexable inserts to match. Here too, the tool holders have a differential pitch that also ensures a smooth milling process with less vibration. “We can run at significantly higher feed rates and achieve a higher metal removal rate, especially with small allowances,” says Göhner, adding that time and flexibility are crucial factors. “Despite the small diameter, we can place more teeth in the tool,” explains Breitling. Whereas previously there was only room to fit six indexable inserts, now up to nine can be installed. This reduces throughput times and costs. The indexable inserts also cut very softly and this reduces wear on the spindle and machine. So, when the FT face milling system is tooled with cutting edges and matching smaller indexable inserts, it covers a diameter range of 20 to 125mm. Parting off and grooving In process optimiser, Tobias Nagel’s opinion, the SA parting-off tools with flange-mounted holders that Breitling has in his bag are indispensable for lathes. He likes to use the two-edged SA parting and grooving system with grooving widths of 1.5 to 10mm for grooving and parting off at large grooving depths of up to 140mm in diameter. “That’s important for us, so we don’t have to change so often,” explains Nagel. The parting-off tool, together with its many modules, holders and blades, is ideal for many applications at Otto Beckert. Nagel also appreciates the wide variety of matching flange-mounted holders for various machines. The patented ACS (ARNO Cooling System), which the manufacturer developed specifically for parting off, is an extremely important factor. In the ACS 2 variant, the coolant channel at the insert seat is coupled with a second jet that sprays coolant from the bottom onto the tool flank. The coolant channel is a 3D-printed variant and has a triangular optimised-flow shape which supplies coolant across the full width of the insert right through to the edge of the cutting edge. Nagel is therefore delighted with the tool life that is three times longer. Icing on the cake for drilling The machining specialists are also thrilled about significant savings when it comes to drilling. That’s because Breitling introduced the insert drilling system. The core drills are designed for stationary or rotary operations. Depending on the application, ten types of coated and uncoated inserts in four geometries can be attached to a range of twelve spiral or straight-fluted tool holders. They do not need the full diameter range from 14 to 32mm by any means. “But they replace our solid tungsten carbide tools for diameters from 14 to 20mm. That cuts our costs by a huge amount,” says Beckert happily.
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