Turning up the volumes!
Mills CNC has recently supplied West Midlands-based CNC Technology Ltd, a privately-
owned precision subcontract specialist, with a new heavy-duty lathe. The machine, a Puma
GT 31000 two-axis box guideway lathe manufactured by DN Solutions, arrived at the
company’s 929 m² Cradley Heath facility in January 2025. Since its arrival, the machine been
predominantly machining a range of complex, high-precision parts for a UK oil and gas
customer supplying corrosion monitoring equipment to the Middle East.
Oil and gas operations take place in demanding and often unpredictable environments that
can significantly affect the performance of high-value machinery and equipment. In order to
maintain production, protect valuable assets and meet rigorous health and safety
regulations, corrosion monitoring equipment finds extensive use throughout the global oil
and gas sector, and other refining industries.
Corrosion monitoring equipment components machined by CNC Technology are used in its
customer’s retrievable and retractable access systems. These pipeline-situated systems
retrieve in-process condition monitoring data via sensors and probes without affecting
production.
Towards the end of 2024, one of the company’s long-standing oil and gas customers
announced its intention to ramp up the volume of high-quality machined components
required for its corrosion monitoring systems. These components – which include valves,
housings and mountings – are made from difficult-to-machine materials such as Inconel
alloys and superalloys. They are characterised by their tight tolerances, exacting surface
finishes and complex features.
The components were previously machined in small volumes (typically one- or two-off) and
supplied by CNC Technology to its customer as standalone parts ready for assembly.
However, the new order, designed to allow the customer to build up its stock of the most
commonly used corrosion monitoring equipment components, required batch sizes of 300-
off.
Says Steve Littlehales, CNC Technology’s managing director: “The advanced notification that
volumes would increase dramatically to batch sizes of 300-off was clearly good news but, as
we’re not specifically geared up to handle large batch work, we knew fulfilling the contract
in line with our customer’s quality, cost and lead-times demands would require an urgent
review of our existing in-house turning capacity and capabilities.”

The resulting internal audit into the company’s existing turning capacity revealed it would
be difficult meeting the increased volumes without potentially affecting and compromising
lead times for other customers.
“It was clear that we needed to invest in a new lathe,” states Littlehales.
CNC Technology had previously, back in 2013, invested in a Doosan Lynx 220LM, a compact
multi-tasking lathe with full mill and drill capabilities.
Says Littlehales: “The Lynx lathe is a great machine. It’s fast, accurate and flexible, and
continues to serve us well. As we were in the market for a new lathe, we naturally
approached Mills CNC as a potential supplier for the new machine.”
Owing to the nature of the workpiece materials required for the corrosion monitoring
equipment components, and to help meet and future-proof its turning requirements
moving forwards, the company decided against investing in another Lynx lathe in favour of a
more powerful, box guideway machine with a longer turning length (790 mm) and larger
turning diameter (525 mm).
It was the cost, availability and technical specification of the Puma GT 3100, along with Mills
CNC’s pre- and after-sales support that helped seal the deal.
The 12” chuck DN Solutions Puma GT 3100 is a heavy-duty machine equipped with a 22
kW/2800 rpm high-torque spindle, a 12-station servo-driven turret, a live-centre (MT5)
tailstock and the FANUC 0iTP control with 15” iHMI touchscreen. The machine supplied to
CNC Technology also features a parts catcher with conveyor, an automatic tool setter and a
Filtermist extraction unit. It was installed at CNC Technology’s facility in January 2025 and
has been in operation ever since.
“We are delighted with our latest investment,” says Littlehales. “The GT 3100, with its rigid
construction and its high-torque spindle has allowed us to ramp up speeds and feeds and
take more aggressive depths of cut without compromising quality. As a result, part cycle
times and overall productivity and process efficiencies have improved.”
He adds: “We’ve acquired a powerful, flexible and high-performance lathe that not only
meets our immediate requirements but will stand us in good stead in the future.”
In addition to the corrosion monitoring equipment parts, the GT 3100 has already been used
to machine pairs of precision roll forming tools for a steel processing customer, and a range
of components for a client that manufactures can printing machines.
CNC Technology, established in 2008 and currently employing 11 highly-skilled members of
staff, is a company committed to continuous improvement and, as such, regularly invests in
its people, plant and equipment. To maintain and strengthen its supply chain position with
customers, and to ensure the high-quality of its machining services, the company regularly
invests in advanced CNC machine tools.

“We have a well-resourced machine shop with nine CNC machining centres from three to
five axes, six CNC lathes and turning centres, and a number of manual machines that include
a horizontal borer and a jig borer.”
The company has a solid reputation in the market for the quality of its machining services
and for a business approach based on honesty, integrity transparency and trust. Alongside
high-end milling and turning, the company is recognised for its small batch machining
expertise, and for its reverse engineering skills and capabilities which have resulted in
winning a number of different and more esoteric machining jobs over the years.
These jobs have included machining and supplying vintage aircraft replacement parts (wing
spars, fuselage, landing gear, cockpit equipment) for Supermarine Spitfires, from original
drawings. The components were made from original 1930s/1940s aircraft-grade aluminium
alloys and S154, a nickel-chrome-molybdenum steel alloy.
Concludes Littlehales: “We recognise that, despite our long-term relationships with many of
customers, we’re only as good as our last job. That’s why we make sure that every job we
handle is the best it can possibly be. Our latest investment in the Puma GT 3100 will help us
keep our promise to customers: the supply of high-quality, competitively priced and right
first time…every time machined components.”
More information www.millscnc.co.uk