NCMT appoints sales manager for southeast

Luke Insleyis the new NCMTarea sales manager for southeast England. Insley is now responsible for sales of the company’s product portfolio, which includes Okuma machining centres, CNC lathes and grinders, Makino machining centres, and photo-activated adhesive work-holding systems manufactured by Blue Photon. Apprentice-trained with a HNC in mechanical engineering, his recent roles include applications and technical support engineer at a cutting tool company, assisting both end users and distributors, and sales engineer for a tooling supplier.
For further information www.ncmt.co.uk

Knowledge Hubs will be core theme at MACH

MACH 2024 (15-19 April, Birmingham NEC), will attempt to help reverse UK manufacturing’s poor record for adopting new technology. The show’s organiser, the Manufacturing Technologies Association (MTA),is ona mission to spearhead growth by using its flagship event to launch its new Knowledge Hubs initiative.The programme helps manufacturers learn more about the potential offered by the latest technologies, as well as when to adopt it and how to implement it to best effect.

The initiative received a major shot-in-the-arm with the recent announcement of £4.5bn of Government funding to support advanced manufacturing. The funding will directly benefit several of the exhibition’s key themes, especially energy efficiency, with the fund earmarking £960m for clean energy manufacturing through a Green Industries Growth Accelerator.
For further information www.machexhibition.com

Green light for Robotics Institute in Yorkshire

The University of Bradford is partnering with Keighley College and Bradford Council in creating an Advanced Institute for Robotics Engineering. The Institute, which will be based in Keighley, West Yorkshire, will benefit from a slice of the £20m Levelling Up funding announced on 20 November. It will be housed in a new, two-floor facility thatwill accommodate up to 250 full-time undergraduates and 40 postgraduate students in the study of robotics, advanced engineering, automation, artificial intelligence and computer science.
For further information www.bradford.ac.uk

Integrex i-H culminates 40 years of innovation

Mazak celebrated 40 years of multi-tasking innovation at the recent EMO 2023 exhibition in Hanover with four Integrex machines on its stand.Mazak’s multi-tasking journey started in 1983 with the Slant Turn 40N ATC, the forerunner of the modern Integrex. The latest Integrex variation, the i-H series, culminates 40 years of turn-mill innovation and learnings that has produced the most compact, automation-friendly and productive Integrex ever manufactured.

At EMO 2023, the Integrex i-200 H ST partnered with a world debut for the Ez Loader 30 collaborative robot cell. Handling workpieces up to 18kg and 50 to 200mm in diameter, the Ez Loader 30 offers a flexible solution for today’s fast turnaround manufacturing.

The Integrex i-200 H ST comes equipped with 5000 rpm main and second spindles and a 12,000 rpm rotating B-axis second spindle for done-in-one capability. The growing requirement for automation is fundamental to the design of the i-H series. All models feature a flat front, while the tool magazine sits at the rear, providing greater accessibility to site automation at the front of the machine while maintaining accessibility for the operator. The rear-mounted 38-tool magazine reduces the machine’s overall footprint (optionally expandable to 74 or 112 tools). As well as providing access to the magazine area at the rear, tools can also be loaded and unloaded at the front of the machine for convenient operation.

Through innovative technology, the Ez Loader 30 solves the problem typically associated with automating high-mix, low-volume production of varied diameter components. Thanks to the automatic chuck-jaw changing function, the robot exchanges work-holding for both spindles to eliminate manual set-up and costly downtime between component runs.
For further information www.mazakeu.co.uk

Single-opmachining of heavy-duty chains

Precision Chains in Dudley makes heavy-duty roller chains for use in quarrying, agriculture andescalator applications, to list but a few. The smallest chain link is 2” and the biggest can weigh as much as 25kg.

Ian Thomas, general manager of Precision Chains, says: “Our challenge was to find a better way of manufacturing therollers, pins and bushes required for the chains. Previously, we had to turn, mill, cross-drill, drill down the centre, counterbore and deburr them. All these operations were very labour intensive and time consuming with set-ups on up to three machines, not to mention all the handling involved. Furthermore, moving between these machines has an impact on accuracy.”

Precision Chains chose an XYZ TC320 LTY with parts catcher, swarf management and Hydrafeed bar feeder. The XYZ TC320 LTY has a Siemens 828D control with ShopTurn for easy programming of the Y axis and live tools. It can chuck up to 300mm diameter and has a bar capacity with the bar feeder of up to 78mm diameter. The machine features Ceratizit tooling with two sets of live tools for cross drilling, milling flats and machining lubrication spirals. The company also doubles up with some tools performing both turning and facing operations.

“We run the XYZ TC320 LTY from 07:30 to 21:30, making a complete part in one operation with one operator checking the machine from time to time while completing other tasks,” says Thomas. “We’ve also been able to dispose of two machines which we no longer need.”

Four people underwent training on the XYZ TC320 LTY at XYZ Machine Tools’ Nuneaton office and, working from drawings, the trainees were quickly confident in using the machine and Siemens control.
For further information www.xyzmachinetools.com