Capacity in the Suffolk workshop of Jim Lawrence Traditional Ironwork is mainly taken up by producing parts for a range of lighting products. With recent growth, particularly during the pandemic when the company virtually ran out of stock, the focus of company owner Jim Lawrence is firmly on making investments to maintain high productivity and efficiency. This is among the reasons he recently approached XYZ Machine Tools to look at more effective ways of manufacturing the housing for the company’s popular ‘Harbour’ range of outdoor lights.

Production manager Chris Moore says: “We were machining these housings in six operations with the added complication that they are coming from a brass casting. The aesthetic appearance of these lights is critical to our customers, so ensuring that the two parts fit together correctly and the wiring inlets are central to the boss is of paramount importance.”

Having provided drawings and samples to XYZ, the applications team looked at how the cycle time could be reduced and that every single one of the housings machined looked pleasing on the eye. The team proposed an 800 HD vertical machining centre fitted with a Nikken 5AX-201 five-axis table and Renishaw OTS tool setting probe, along with an OMP 40 spindle probe arrangement.

“With the help of XYZ, we’ve reduced the machining of these parts to two operations,” reports Moore. “Having produced a fixture to hold the part on the bed for op 1, the parts are then located on a fixture which sits in the tilt/rotary table where [for op 2] we can machine not only the main face of the housing but also the features located around the outside in the same set up.”

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