When precision creates joy

The headline phrase is not commonly associated with mechanically engineered parts, but it sums up how one company owner views his production facility.

Werner Buschor owns Buschor Praezisionsmechanik AG, a medium-sized subcontract manufacturer in Switzerland, where he had two growing problems. The first was the increasingly tight nature of customer tolerances, prompting a reliance on operators to ‘tweak’ programs and tooling to achieve the desired results. His second issue was delivery times becoming shorter, causing him to look at unmanned production in the evenings and at weekends.
When trying to find answers to his accuracy problem Buschor found Kern Microtechnik and soon realised that the Kern Micro milling machine was also able to solve his second problem of working unmanned.
“The Kern Micro is the first milling centre that can stand up to our measuring machine,” he says. “The measuring machine has a measurement uncertainty of half a thousandth of a millimeter,
while the Kern Micro offers a positioning accuracy of half a thousandth of a millimetre. Our first Kern Micro was immediately connected to a System 3R automation system, with the possibility of adding another machine. The large tool magazine with 186 tools and the repeatability of the Kern Micro are ideal for automatic production.”
Key to repeatability is the thermal stability of the machine, with its smart cooling management system that ensures the temperature of structural components remains constant with a maximum deviation of 0.2ºC.
To improve matters even more, a second Kern Micro has been installed and connected to the workpiece changer. Kern is represented in the UK by Rainford Precision.
For further information https://rainfordprecision.com/

Business Minister at AMRC Cymru

Nadhim Zahawi MP, the Minister for Business and Industry, says technologies being developed by the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) are crucial to reducing the environmental impact of air travel and enabling the government to reach its target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Zahawi made the comments during a speech at AMRC Cymru in Broughton, which he was visiting as part of an event to launch the ‘Aerospace Sector Deal – One Year On’ report by the Aerospace Growth Partnership (AGP).
During his speech, Zahawi highlighted the importance of the aerospace sector to the national economy: “The value of this industry is there in black and white for everyone to see in the report, and I’ve been pleased to see that the sector is focussed firmly away from the southeast, with more than 90% of businesses located elsewhere across the country. The UK is the home of innovation and enterprise in aerospace, with a significantly large number of companies creating thousands of jobs for local communities.”
For further information www.amrc.co.uk

Bearing change on mill saves €35,600

After experiencing ongoing problems with the bearings on a vital milling machine at a steel plant, the management team turned to NSK for a solution. This decision proved to be extremely lucrative, with the steelmaker now enjoying annual savings of €35,600.

The steel facility produces rails for lift equipment that require the machining of two flat areas at the ends, which assist the fitting of the rails during assembly. While the time required to mill these rough surfaces is short, the stiffness of the machine’s spindle is critical due to the length of the rails. However, using the milling machine’s original bearings, the steel plant noticed that spindle stiffness reduced after just three months, making it necessary to change the spindle assembly, including motors.
Faced with a recurring and expensive situation, NSK was asked to find a solution. Expert NSK engineers visited the plant and analysed the spindle design as part of its AIP Added Value Programme. Following their analysis, it was recommended that the spindle be redesigned with a four row bearing set, instead of three, thus increasing the radial load capacity and radial stiffness. The contact angle was also changed from 15° to 25°, to increase the bending stiffness of the shaft.
NSK’s high precision angular contact ball bearings (ACBB) were selected from its range of standard products.
After the steel plant had implemented the change, the bearings continued working in the milling machine for more than 12 months, with no failures experienced in the motor or transmission. Today, the steelmaker no longer has to endure four production stops a year, while the costs for the replacement spindle assemblies and motors have also been eliminated. Taking these factors into account, it has been calculated that the plant is
saving €35,600 per annum.
For further information www.nskeurope.com

UK’s first Universal Robots training centre

RARUK Automation has opened the UK’s first Universal Robots authorised training centre at its headquarters in Shefford, Bedfordshire.

The move will allow the company’s certified UR trainers to provide tuition in collaborative robot (cobot) programming, empowering UK customers to get the best return from their UR investment. Says Mark Gray, UK sales manager at Universal Robots: “Through our partnership with UK application specialists such as RARUK Automation we can now expand our online training to hands-on classes, so manufacturers can extend their use of cobots and drive even more value from their automation investments and employees.”
For further information www.rarukautomation.com

Leading from the front and by example

Mills CNC, the exclusive distributor of Doosan machine tools in the UK and Ireland, has supplied Hertfordshire-based precision subcontract specialist Qualiturn Products with a Doosan DVF 5000 five-axis machining centre.

The machine, one of the first in the UK, was installed at Qualiturn’s modern and spacious 20,000 sq ft facility in February 2019, and was timed to coincide with the company’s relocation to these new premises.
Says Nick Groom, Qualiturn’s managing director: “We operate a high-productivity, highly-efficient and flexible milling cell that runs 24/7 and provides customers with high-quality, competitively-priced machined components, delivered in double-quick time. The DVF 5000 investment was made to improve our milling capabilities and complements our existing technologies.
“We are keen advocates of one-hit machining and, wherever possible, look to automate our processes,” he adds.
This commitment to continuous improvement through automation led Qualiturn (in 2014) to invest in its first Lang Robo-Trex robot system. The system uses mobile trollies which are loaded with multiple vices that hold workpieces. These workpieces – when prepped – are loaded into the Doosan DNM 650 machining centre by the system’s robot.
Such has been the success of the DNM 650/Lang Robo-Trex automated manufacturing cell that the company decided to invest in a second cell based on the new DVF 5000.
Says Groom: “Our new cell is fully operational and runs 24/7. The Doosan DVF 5000 is a high-performance machine and, by integrating it with an automated parts-handling system, we’ve been able to exploit its full potential. As a result we have experienced dramatic productivity gains and significantly reduced lead times, both of which make us more competitive.”
For further information www.millscnc.co.uk