The benefits gained from automating the machining of prismatic components in a high-mix, low-volume production environment are no better exemplified than at Alitech Precision Parts in Silverstone. Since 2019, the subcontractor has invested in four German-built Hermle five-axis, trunnion-type machining centres from UK agent Kingsbury. Two are equipped for automatic exchange of pallets (with fixtured workpieces) between a storage system and the machining area.

Alitech’s owner and managing director Darren Cudd says: “The essence of making this type of production profitable is to buy a high-quality, powerful, reliable machining platform, equip it with accurate zero-point clamping systems and use high-end carbide tools that we can push to the limit of their performance. You must also have the confidence to program and simulate a new cycle in CAM before leaving it to run overnight without anyone present.”

This is exactly what Cudd has been doing since a Hermle C 22 UP machining centre, equipped with a PW150 storage and handling system for 18 square pallets (320 mm), was installed in 2020, six weeks before the start of the Covid pandemic. Two years later, a Hermle C 42 U arrived on the shop floor. Then in October 2024, a second automated Hermle cell was installed, a 650 x 600 x 500 mm capacity C 32 U machining centre featuring an HS Flex two-level store housing 12 square pallets (400 mm).

Cudd calculates that, disregarding this latest purchase, the other automated C 22 UP cell accounts for less than 30% of the site’s machine tool investment, yet has for the past few years generated up to 50% of Alitech’s turnover, a performance-to-cost benefit approaching 2:1.

More information www.kingsburyuk.com