Howells on track forsuccess with ITC

Founded in 1946 as a radio and TV repair shop, Howells Railway Products has travelled a long way since its early days. Today the company has an extensive list of marque clients that include household names like Siemens, Network Rail, Alstom, Transport for London, Bombardier, Babcock Rail and others. To work at the cutting edge of technology, Howells Railway Products has added a new 40,000 sq ft CNC machine shop with 26 Haas machine tools and cutting tools from Industrial Tooling Corporation (ITC).

The company has worked with ITC since 2018. A recent project saw ITC introduce the Widia line of indexable cutting tools with modular drills and high-feed shell mills on CLA3 alloy steel castings (end bracket components for rail stretcher bars).

A 63 mm Widia M8065HD face mill set about removing 6 mm of excess casting stock in a single pass as part of a facing and shoulder milling process. With the previous high-feed face mill removing material at a rate of 1mm per pass, the M8065HD significantly improved cycle time.

Always looking to take productivity gains to the next level, ITC then introduced the benefits of aBig Kaiser system to the end bracket components, helping to produce an 88.1mm diameter bore at a depth of 65mm. Previously performed using a 50mm diameter indexable shell mill helical interpolating inside the bore, the process took 3 minutes 30 seconds.

The idea to change the process from helical interpolation to a plunging application paid dividends using a Big Kaisertwin-bore tooling system (SW rough boring head). Howells Railway Products runs the twin-bore head at 542rpm and 81mm/min feed rate, reducing the cycle time by 2 minutes 50 seconds per part.
For further information www.itc-ltd.co.uk

New initiative equips teachers for 3D printing

Daemon3D Print is launching a new initiative that equips and supports teachers to deliver highly effective lessons on how to use and apply 3D printers and scanners. The initiative, which is part of the company’s Makerspace services, targets both STEM and arts subject specialists for key stages 3 and 4.Makerspaces help teachers create and deliver engaging learning experiences so that students of all abilities can find their strengths and realise their potential. Working individually or in teams, students are able to constantly motivate and support each other in their individual tasks and learning.
For further information www.daemon3dprint.com/makerspace

Floyd presents cool solution for ‘crazy milling’

Now available in the UK from Floyd Automatic Tooling is the new CrazyMill Cool Micro series of micro end mills manufacturing by Mikron Tool. With micro-machining applications increasingly commonplace in the electronics, medical, optics, automotive, aerospace and defence sectors, Floyd Automatic says the high-performance CrazyMill Cool Micro end mills are a game-changer.

For the first time, engineers at Mikron Tool have successfully transferred high-performance cutting tool geometries to micro-dimension end mills. Suitable for operations as diverse as sidemilling, helical interpolation, slot milling and drilling, the CrazyMill Cool Micro is available with three or four flutes, diameters from 0.2 to 1mm, and effective cutting lengths of 3xD and 5xD. The high-quality micro-grain carbide grade permits the grinding of special filigree geometries that maximise strength and performance, minimising the potential for tool breakages, especially when machining challenging materials.

The combination of innovative geometries, the high-quality carbide grade and a patented new cooling concept deliver double the tool life performance and three times higher productivity levels than rival product lines, reports Floyd Automatic. Integrated through-coolant channels guarantee high levels of cooling. Furthermore, with a cooling channel for each of the three or four flutes, swarf evacuation issues in micro-machining applications are now a thing of the past.

Also introduced is coating technology that prevents the loss of sharp edges which can be so critical in micro-machining applications. The new arrivals are available with an S geometry for machining stainless steel, steel, cast iron, non-ferrous metals and titanium alloys, while the SX geometry type is suited for particularly challenging materials such as Inconel, Monel, and CoCr alloys.
For further information www.floydautomatic.co.uk

ASG Group championsapprenticeships

ASG Group, a Manchester-based manufacturer supplying detail parts and tooling to OEMs, risk-sharing partners (RSPs) and associated supply chains, has taken on a new cohort of manufacturing apprentices in partnership with the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) in Coventry.By partnering with the MTC, ASG Group is able to offer its apprentices access to state-of-the-art facilities and training from experienced industry professionals.

The decision to take on these apprentices is an important step for both ASG Group and the wider UK manufacturing industry. With the sector facing a shortage of skilled workers, investing in apprenticeships is crucial to ensuring a sustainable future for manufacturing in the UK. By recruiting these apprentices, ASG Group is doing its part to address the skills gap and secure its future workforce, with over 150 CNC machine tools, coupled with the latest technologies and cutting techniques.
For further information www.asg-group.co

OPEN MIND TECHNOLOGIES FORGES A LEADING TEAM WITH MOTORSPORT AFTERMARKET MANUFACTURING SPECIALIST

Forge Motorsport & Engineering is a business that evolved from Forge Engineering, a subcontract manufacturing company founded in 1983. Down the years, the firm developed what it claims to be the world’s largest and diverse supply of aftermarket car tuning products.It is this evolution that led to a change of name, becoming Forge Motorsport & Engineering in 1996.Like many motorsport manufacturers, the company today relies on HyperMill from Open Mind Technologies for the CAM programming of its components.

The company has offices in the US and Taiwan, retaining its R&D activities and manufacturing in Gloucester. Discussing the business, Peter Miles, managing director at Forge Motorsport, says: “Forge Motorsport Engineering is a manufacturer of performance products and aftermarket parts for a range of petrol and turbo vehicles. We specialise in CNC machining, turning and fabrication, producing the largest range of performance aftermarket parts worldwide. The components we manufacture are extremely complex. For our engineers to get the best from our machines, it’s vitally important that we have the best software on the market, to drive our innovation and designs.”

It is here thatOpen Mind plays a major role with its HyperMillCAM suite, as Miles explains: “In 2019, we recognised that we’d been inactive in updating and improving our machining capacity. That led to us looking in detail at our CNC machining capability. Ryan Speck, our chief engineer, led us down the road of investment in five-axis machining capability and, subsequently, the need for CAM software to help further improve our engineering capability. This brought the need for us to invest in the right kind of software to drive our processes.”

Discussing the on-boarding of HyperMillfrom Open Mind, Speck says: “My role is to ensure our manufacturing operation is as efficient as it can be, and that we’re as competitive as possible within our industry. That prompted us to look at our five-axis options and the software to drive that. We scrutinised various different products on the market, but we felt that the HyperMillproduct from Open Mind Technologies was the right CAM solution for us.”

He adds: “What we need from a CADCAM system is the ability to program parts accurately and in the most efficient way possible. Not only that, but to post the program and, when we get to the machine, have trust in the program that’s been posted – for it to run as intended.

“Everybody encounters problems, and we are no different,” continues Speck. “During the time when we’re programming our components and we’ve come across problems, Open Mind has been able to support us really well in that aspect. Every time we call, they do their best to put things right there and then. It also enables us to upskill our staff. Open Mind doesn’t just put things right and then not explain how it’s done – they continually involve our staff and make sure that we stay up to date with any changes in the software. For us, using HyperMillmeans that we can hit our deadlines and our lead times don’t drift.”

A great example of the support provided by Open Mind is the Team Viewer function, which enables programmers to view exactly the support that’s being given on the screen live right in front of them. It almost mimics an in-house training session.

“What’s really interesting is that Open Mind’s HyperMillhas given us the ability to increase efficiency by reducing our cycle times and enabling us to program offline,” says Speck.“This has made us more competitive within the subcontract engineering industry and helped us to re-launch our Forge Engineering brand.”

Looking at some of the components programmed and machined with HyperMill, Rich Rymer, CNC machinist atForge Motorsport & Engineering, says: “There’s quite a lot that goes into these parts. We have one particular component that we actually do in one operation. We get the raw stock, hold it in the five-axis machining centre, perform the profiling or the pocket milling, and then flip it over and just skim off the back.Finally we snap it off in the vice.”

Alluding to another component, Rymer continues: “These parts are DV37s, which is a dump valve. It requires quite a lot of trochoidal milling. I think if we were to use a long-hand machining strategy, we wouldn’t be able to get into the gaps, as they are a little tight. Trying to get any cutter in there would necessitate very light cuts in a horizontal plane. However, we use a trochoidal toolpath, so we go to the full depth of cut with light movements in a radial axis.”

Discussing specific features within HyperMilland, in particular, the merge function, Rymer concludes: “It’s a very good function. There’s always model and drawing changes in engineering. This function allows us to update a model rather than re-program the whole part through HyperMill. Effectively, we can take the old and new model and just merge them into one. Any changes can be edited by ‘cut and pasting’ the faces on. From there, it’s just a case of going through what we’ve programmed and selecting the new faces. It makes things a lot easier, and it allows us to just continue with the program so we don’t have to restart from scratch.”
For further information www.openmind-tech.com