Renewable electricity for Renishaw UK

To further help meet its ambition of achievingnet zero by 2050, Renishaw has signed a two-year contact with the world’s first green energy company, Ecotricity, which will now supply the company’s main UK sites with 100% renewable electricity.As part of its ambitious climate transition plan, Renishaw aims to reduce emissions relating to its business activities and purchased energy – Scopes 1 and 2 – to net zero by 2028.

Renishaw’s partnership with Ecotricity is the latest move towards exclusively using green energy across the world, with company sites in India, Japan, Mexico and the US among those already running on 100% renewable electricity. The global businessself-generates 11% of its electricity consumption and most of the electricity itacquires is certified renewable.By the end of 2024, 100% of what Renishaw purchases globally will meet its sustainability requirements.
For further information www.renishaw.com

Review published on STEM clubs

EngineeringUK has released a new report which brings together the available evidence on STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) clubs and their ability to increase students’ aspirations for engineering and technology careers.Through summarising the existing evidence, the report aims to draw out learnings on STEM clubs that is usable by STEM outreach providers to raise aspirations around engineering and technology careers. EngineeringUK hopes the learnings in its report will support efforts to increase the number of young people entering the engineering and technology workforce.
For further information www.bit.ly/46UYGnF

£370m loan for Seaway7

The UK’s export credit agency has issued a loan guarantee that allowsoffshore wind specialist Seaway7 to secure a £370m loan to scale up its UK operations.UK Export Finance (UKEF) issued the guarantee under its Export Development Guarantee (EDG) scheme, which covers 80% of the total loan.UKEF’s backing is expected to help the firm win and service EPCI (engineering, procurement construction and installation) contracts for fixed offshore wind projects which will generate UK export revenue. Seaway7 has completed successful offshore wind projects in a range of markets, including Taiwan, the US and mainland Europe.
For further information www.gov.uk

Seco R&D delivers success for Scania

A challenging project with Swedish truck manufacturer Scania brought out the best in Seco’s R&D team, which found a way to extend the life of one tool by a factor of 20 when using it to cut a new type of cast iron for engines.

“The background was this new form of cast iron, which offers many advantages: it’s more environmentally friendly and stronger, which means Scania can make the engine walls thinner and lighter,” explains Stefan Frejd, R&D specialist – drilling at Seco says. “The problem that Scania wanted to explore was the fact that this material increased wear on the production tools, shortening their life.”

A project group took shape, the work of which paid off almost immediately.

“We got together with Scania’s engineers and discussed some of the problems and applications, and came back with new tools ready for testing,” saysFrejd. “The first drilling tool we tested turned out to have a tool life of more than 20 times the existing one, so that was a huge improvement.”

Other test tools managed to outlast their predecessors by a factor of seven, which represented a huge breakthrough.

For Frejdand his team, the learnings and discoveries came about due to the close working relationship with the customer and a strong desire to understand and find a solution to issues.

“The most important thing for us in R&D is the ability to co-operate with production engineers in different companies.As with Scania there are always problems that require solving, but when we come together, we often find we can do so quite quickly.”
For further information www.secotools.com

Aluminium machining in new dimensions

Machine tool manufacturer Bavius Technologie GmbH was able to achieve impressive material removal rates of over 20 l/min on its new high-end HBZ AeroCell 160 model with a new generation of high-volume milling cutters from Mapal. The result of this successful collaboration comes at the right time for the aerospace industry, which is taking off again following the downturn caused by Covid-19.

In order to test new machines and at the same time provide customers with references, Bavius carries out milling tests that push them to their limits and beyond. Here, the OptiMill-Alu-Wave, new and improved version of the solid-carbide roughing cutter from Mapal, was selected to showcase the HBZ AeroCell 160. For the tests on aluminium workpiece, the milling cutter with the largest available diameter of 25 mm ran with a spindle power of up to 175 kW, a torque of 66 Nm and a material removal rate of 30 mm.

At a spindle speed of 25,465 rpm and a cutting speed of 2000 m/min, the spindle power was gradually increased. Slot number 6 delivered the best material removal rate with a record-breaking 20 l/min.

“With the 25 mm OptiMill-Alu-Wave, we have achieved a new dimension in aluminium machining,” states Stefan Diem, application engineer at Bavius. “The milling cutter is definitely better than anything we have used previously.”

Bavius used the Safe-Lock system as pull-out protection.

“In this speed range, symmetrical pull-out protection is very important in order not to create imbalance,” explains Tim Rohmer, product manager – solid-carbide milling tools at Mapal. “A Weldon flat, which is often attached to such tools as pull-out protection, is the wrong solution here. To guarantee the smooth running of the machine, there’s no way around careful balancing, even with symmetrical tools.”
For further information www.mapal.com