New Machine Dimension for HACO

Haco A/S, has taken delivery of a huge Droop+Rein portal milling machine from Starrag to meet the needs of next-generation offshore turbines with rotor diameters that exceed 220 m. The special features of this 870 T colossus include its XXL size and unusually large basement section across two storeys.

“Never before have we built such an extensive tunnel system for a production plant; it’s reminiscent of ancient catacombs and even I’ve never seen anything like this anywhere else,” explains Starrag’s senior consultant sales/renewables Hubert Erz. “This expensive and elaborate investment for our customer facilitates service access and day-to-day collaboration.”

Laying the foundation involved processing 850 m³ of concrete and 100 T of steel.

“The foundation forms the base for the machine tool, and its stability and design help determine the level of precision that’s achievable with the machine,” says

Henning Albrechtsen, owner of Danish family-owned company. “In addition, the tunnel system within the foundation provides good access to all relevant machine assemblies and thereby ensures optimal ease of servicing.”

The company already owns five Dörries vertical turning lathes, helping it grow to become one of the leading Danish manufacturers of large components for the wind power and offshore industry. With the new machine, Haco and a Danish partner will machine front and stator sheets, and brake discs for wind turbines. The companies will also produce other, primarily welded, components and multiple steel rotor housings with weights of between 50 and 90 T and diameters of almost 11 m.

The machine has a clearance of 12.6 m between stands, while the gantry axis travels over a distance of 14 m and the tool slide allows a maximum stroke of 3.5 m.

For further information www.starrag.com

Celebrating excellence in manufacturing

Subcon has announced the winners of the inaugural Subcon Manufacturing Solutions Show
Awards. The awards celebrate and recognise outstanding achievements in the
manufacturing industry. Subcon sales manager Ben Watkins says: “This is just one of the
many initiatives we introduced to Subcon this year. Thank you to our judges for giving up
their time and expertise, and congratulations to our nominees and winners.”
Among numerous stand-out awards was UK Manufacturing Partner of the Year. The judges
declared WEC Group as the winner for the company’s significant investments in UK
manufacturing in recent months. WEC Group is planning to build Europe’s largest
subcontract heavy machining and nuclear fabrication facility in Blackburn.
More information www.subconshow.co.uk

£200k machinery boost at AWI

Over £200,000 of new equipment is now in place at Alloy Wire International (AWI) where itwill deliver more than £2m of additional capacity.The manufacturer of round, flat and profile wire has got its two single-hole blocks, three-hole dry-drawing machine and four-spindle spooler fully operational at its factory in the West Midlands.Bosses have also pressed the button on upgrading the company’s tensile testing machinery, which will help it accelerate the pre-job trial process and broaden the range of support offered to customers throughout the full duration of projects.

More information www.alloywire.com

BIEMH 2024 attracts almost 38,000

The organiser of the BIEMH 2024 international machine tool exhibition in Bilbao, Spain, reports that 37,164 visitors from 67 countries attended the event held earlier this month.

With a total of 1604 exhibitors from 29 countries and 3716 products and services, large machinery in operation was the main attraction at BIEMH 2024. ‘ADDITƐD’, the International Additive Manufacturing and 3D Fair, and the BeDIGITAL and WORKinn Talent Hub took place alongside BIEMH 2024, welcoming 2831 students and 406 teachers. The next edition of the BIEMH will take place on 2-6 March 2026.

More information www.bit.ly/3KM68Ja

ETG to host Nakamura technical day

On 11 July, the Engineering Technology Group (ETG) will host a targeted Nakamura-Tome technical day for manufacturers that want to explore technology for heavy-duty cutting and multi-turret turning. ETG will showcase the Nakamura WT150II gantry turning centre and demonstrate heavy-duty turning on the Nakamura WT300 turn-mill centre. Alongside these machines will be an introduction to Heimatec tooling solutions and the latest Powerstar transformers for manufacturers looking to reduce their environmental impact while cutting energy costs.

More information www.bit.ly/3KKVEth