A Hurco Hawk CNC knee-type milling machine has been the mainstay of prismatic machining at the Warsash, Southampton factory of boat fittings and accessories specialist Sea Sure Ltd since it was purchased second-hand in 2012. However, the rising level of demand for all Sea Sure products, but in particular the SHOCK-WBV range of shock mitigation systems for boat seats, led the company to supplement the Hurco Hawk by approaching the same supplier for a new VM10i three-axis, vertical-spindle machining centre with a 660 x 406 x 508 mm working volume and 12,000 rpm spindle.

The machine arrived earlier this year and required the Hurco engineer to dismantle the top of the machine, so that it would fit through a door of restricted height, and rebuild it over a period of three days.

Graham Brown, managing director, says: “The improvement in productivity has been dramatic. Previously it took 40 minutes to machine a stainless steel rear mounting block on the Hawk, for example, whereas we produce them in pairs on the VM10i in 11 minutes – over seven times faster. We now fixture a complete kit of 10 and 15 mm thick billets of waterjet-cut aluminium tooling plate and other raw material for one of our shock mitigation products so they can all be machined in one hit on the new Hurco.

“It saves set-up time and shortens overall cycles due to fewer tool changes,” he adds. “Just half an hour is needed to machine everything under the spindle, and that includes thread milling more than 40 holes of 4 mm diameter.”

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www.hurco.co.uk