£1m electrification project

A Birmingham-based stamping specialist is pressing the button on a £1m project that will see it develop a new process to support the UK’s acceleration into electrification.

Brandauer has secured over £300,000 of funding from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund run by UK Research and Innovation to help it set-up a high volume e-machine stack line that will produce thin laminates required by the automotive and aerospace sectors. Working in partnership with WMG and supported by Jaguar Land Rover, the firm believes there is an initial £500,000 opportunity it can secure once the methodology is in place.

For further information www.brandauer.co.uk

Takeover at Vernet-Behringer

The 100% integration of Vernet-Behringer (VB) into the Behringer Group is part of a long-term relationship between the two companies. For over a century Behringer GmbH has been synonymous with steady growth, new innovations and continuity. Together with the existing management team, these goals will continue moving forward.

Since 1996, Behringer GmbH has been the key shareholder and strategic partner of VB, in particular for the supply of bandsaws integrated into VB’s automatic drilling-sawing lines.

The transition will allow VB to continue its development in France and internationally, as well as to conduct larger technological projects to meet the growing expectations of its customers around the world for ever-more integrated and automated lines. This merger will also make it possible to develop technological, industrial and financial synergies to meet the requirements imposed by exacerbated global competition in the current context and accelerating the transformation towards Industry 4.0.

Pascal Denis, president and CEO of VB, says: “The Behringer-Group is the ideal partner for the future of VB, in terms of both corporate culture and our complementary activities. I’m delighted with this merger, which marks a new stage in our more than century-old history. The strength of the group will undoubtedly enable us to promote our know-how and our cutting-edge technologies in terms of industrial processes, software and automation.”
Christian Behringer, managing director of Behringer, adds: “We’ve been supporting VB for many years and believe more than ever in the technological progress developed by the company. This integration is therefore a natural evolution of the group, which will benefit from the sharing of skills and the complementary product ranges in an integrated long-term approach.”

For further information
www.behringer.net

New financing models from Meba

Metal bandsaw specialist Meba is now offering new, independent financing options to customers from Germany and Europe. The company will no longer pursue the usual industry approach of working with a fixed financial service provider. Instead, Meba is co-operating with Mietfinanz, a leading provider of corporate finance consulting. Mietfinanz is not bound to specific providers, but independently attains the best solutions available from the market for Meba customers.

Leasing, hire purchase or investment credit? Especially for small and medium-sized companies it is often a challenge to procure machinery in order to survive in the market and at the same time remain liquid. A tailor-made financing solution can be a decisive component in this respect.

Carsten Oberwelland, managing director of Meba, underlines the importance of individual financing concepts: “The financing of production machinery requires flexibility and individuality. What makes sense for one company does not always fit for another. Financing strategies are different. We decided to work with Mietfinanz because they enable us to offer our customers this necessary differentiation and individuality. In addition, the independent position of Mietfinanz ensures the best solutions.”

Using a financing calculator, interested parties can make a quick pre-selection on the Meba homepage. In only five clicks it is possible to find the optimum financing solution. The customer then receives a tailored financing concept from Mietfinanz that is adapted to the existing structure. The system takes the entire spectrum of possible subsidies into account.

Customers receive financing outside of their own banking circles without the future burdening of working capital. Since no negotiations with potential financing partners are necessary, purchasing decisions are quick. The entire process runs confidentially; data protection is secure and support provision is on hand.

For further information
www.meba-saw.com

The 3D printing of composite tooling

A new white paper from Stratasys reveals how manufacturers can make 3D-printed lay-up mould tools that are compatible with existing processes, including vacuum and envelope bagging with autoclave cure, shrink tubing and shrink tape. In addition to mould tooling, 3D printing offers advantages for ancillary tools used in secondary operations such as trimming, drilling, assembly, bonding and inspection. Benefits include reduced lead time and cost, design simplification and ‘easy-to-print’ geometric complexity. The white paper includes sections on tooling applications, design consideration and adding metal inserts to prints.

For further information https://is.gd/azator

The colour of success at Cutting Blue

Mills CNC, the exclusive distributor of Doosan machine tools in the UK and Ireland, has recently supplied Birmingham-based Cutting Blue Ltd, the newly-created manufacturing arm of engineering consultancy and training specialist, Cutting Blue Solutions Ltd, with a new Doosan vertical machining centre.
The machine, a large-capacity DNM 6700, was delivered and installed at the company’s 2000 sq ft facility in Saltley in September 2020 where it is being used to machine (in mainly small batch sizes at this moment in time) high-precision and high-value components for a range of customers operating in the motorsport and general engineering sectors – to name but a few.

The creation of Cutting Blue Ltd is the brainchild of owner and managing director, Piotr Parobczy. Having started his working life, first as a machine tool setter and then as a CADCAM programmer, Parobczy used this knowledge and experience, gained from working in a number of different manufacturing environments, to develop and hone a range of specific engineering consultancy skills.

The acquisition of these skills ultimately enabled him to start, and secure, work as a contractor where over the years he was responsible for the design and implementation of innovative and high-value projects for a number of UK- and internationally-based customers.

Following on from this success, and having built up an impressive track record Parobczy, in 2017, set up Cutting Blue Ltd, an engineering service company providing specialist training and consultancy services to blue-chip and progressive manufacturing companies.

Says Parobczy: “Cutting Blue Ltd began its life as an engineering consultancy. However, even back then it was always my ambition and intention to create a manufacturing company – when the time was right.”

That time, as it transpired, was in spring 2020.
“The pandemic had a detrimental effect on the availability of contract work and this proved to be the catalyst I was waiting for,” he says. “As the creation of a manufacturing company was a long held ambition of mine, I wasn’t starting such an undertaking from scratch. To a large extent, much of the preparatory work and planning had already been done.”

These plans covered all aspects of the business, including the location of the new company, the services it would provide, typical customer profiles and so on.

Continues Parobczy: “I chose Birmingham due of its central location and because I knew the area well. From my background and experience the company would not be a ‘jack of all trades’ operation, but instead would offer specialist, high-precision milling services to customers typically operating in the high-end motorsport, automotive and aerospace sectors.”

To realise its ambitions and objectives, Cutting Blue needed access to advanced machine tool technologies and made the decision, from a reliability perspective and to provide a clear statement of intent, to invest in a new rather than a used machining centre. Cutting Blue subsequently approached a number of machine-tool manufacturers with its requirements.

“Several companies I approached sent in literature but didn’t follow things up,” says Parobczy. “I got a different reception and reaction from Mills CNC who, from the outset, adopted a more proactive and partner-led approach. They took time to understand the business and the type of work that would be undertaken, and worked collaboratively with me to identify the optimum machine-tool solution.”

Understanding the type and size of components, the typical materials to be machined (i.e. aluminium, steel, stainless, titanium and engineering plastics), the typical part accuracies and surface finishes that would be required, and the volumes/batch sizes to be machined – resulted in the identification, selection and ordering of a Doosan DNM 6700 – a large-capacity vertical machining centre.

The Fanuc-controlled DNM 6700 installed at Cutting Blue’s facility is a highly-rigid machine that delivers speed, high accuracy and unrivalled process reliability. Equipped with an 18.5 kW/12,000 rpm directly-coupled high-speed spindle, the machine also features a 1500 x 670 mm work table with a 1300 kg maximum table load, a 30-position ATC, roller LM guideways in all axes and thermal error compensation routines. In addition, the machine houses a Blum TC50 workpiece touch probe and Blum ZX Speed IR tool-setting probe.

Concludes Parobczy: “I was already familiar with Doosan machine tools and knew that they were reliable, represented great value and delivered excellent cutting performance. The DNM 6700, with its large work table, will provide much-needed capacity, capability and flexibility now and in the future, enabling us to machine large or multiple smaller parts in one set-up. Although still early days I’m delighted with the DNM 6700 and am already looking at investing in second Doosan machine.”

For further information
www.millscnc.co.uk