£600,000 press installed at Brandauer

Metal-stamping specialist Brandauer has spent £600,000 on a Yamada Dobby NXT 80XL as part of a three-year plan to boost its capacity and provide additional production flexibility at its Birmingham facility. The technology gives the company a 100% reduction in press setting time that releases manufacturing capacity to take on new contract wins in the plumbing, automotive motor lamination and fuel cell segments.

Thanks to the arrival of the Yamada Dobby NXT 80XL, Brandauer has topped off the £2 million modernisation of its facility, a spend which has also included a new GF wire-cut EDM machine, two Andmar surface grinders and an OGP Smartscope Vantage 250 to help with inspection.
Operations manager at Brandauer, Don Walters, says: “We first came across the press at Blechexpo and were impressed with what we saw in terms of its speed, repeatable quality and usability. Our subsequent visit to their showroom in Italy gave us the chance to see the Yamada in all its glory, and we worked with their experts to configure the machine so it delivers the accuracy and performance required.”
It took just nine months from the order being placed for the Yamada NXT 80XL press to be installed and commissioned, with the machine now working on components that use material ranging in thickness from 0.2 to 0.8 mm. The 1.5 m bed is the largest the company currently has available, and it can operate at speeds of between 100 and 800 strokes per minute.
Press shop team leader Karl Jeavons says: “The quality is second to none and we run off thousands and thousands of components every day,
thanks in part to the double link motion mechanism that delivers Yamada’s repeatability, while helping to prolong the life of the tool.
For further information www.brandauer.co.uk

Multi-roll leveller used on tinning line

A Redex Tension multi-roll leveller has been used on a tinning line (electrolytic tin plate – ETP) for the first time in China, a move that will help Baosteel (Baoshan Iron & Steel Co Ltd) to expand its share of the export market.

The Redex PMR 1300 Tension eliminates the flatness defects of strip steel and improves its shape. It can apply force on both tensile and bending deformation of the strip at the same time to achieve precise elongation control. Thus, all fibres in the strip are stretched to the same length to obtain high flatness and effectively eliminate internal stress.
Since the tinning lines are required to run around the clock, the time for equipment delivery, installation and commissioning had to be minimised. However, it took only eight days to complete the entire process, nearly half a month ahead of schedule. It was the first time that Redex had worked with Yaskawa Electric Corporation, a Japanese-funded company, to complete the modification of Baosteel 1420 cold rolling No. 2 tin-plating units, and ultimately realise full automation of the operation.
With growing domestic demand for high-end packaging from the food, beverage, medical and chemical industries, the tin-plating production line is expected to gradually take the place of traditional aluminium lines. When the time comes, suppliers able to offer advanced tin-plating units and supporting equipment, such as the Redex Tension multi-roll leveller, will be one step ahead in the international market, and in a position to pursue further growth.
For further information www.redex-group.com

Sir Ranulph Fiennes to speak at Hexagon event

Sir Ranulph Fiennes has been announced as a keynote speaker at Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division’s HxGN Local Smart Manufacturing UK conference.

This two-day event, taking place on 1-2 October at The Belfry Hotel and Resort near Birmingham, invites industry leaders and innovators to discuss manufacturing trends including the challenges and opportunities of digital transformation and the smart factory. In his speech, Fiennes will share inspirational stories from his international expeditions as he reveals how he and his teams disrupted the status quo in pursuit of adventure. Hexagon’s keynote ‘Smart is Hiding in Plain Sight’ will pick up on these themes.
For further information https://is.gd/elufuw

SL Engineering chosen for SiG

Sharing in Growth (SiG) has selected rapidly growing Lincolnshire-based engineering firm SL Engineering to join its award-winning aerospace productivity programme.

SL Engineering, based near Grantham, produces rigid tube assemblies, complex fuel manifolds, core engine pipes and flexi-metallic rigid pipes. The company has experienced 87% growth in the past three years, particularly from aerospace, where its customers include Rolls-Royce, Eaton Aerospace, Safran Aerosystems, Kawasaki, and GKN. To continue this rapid growth and help increase its turnover from almost £6m to over £12m by 2023, the company applied for SiG’s support.
For further information www.sig-uk.org

Renishaw supports Brunel at FS

In its 20th year of participation at the Formula Student (FS) competition, Brunel University London’s race team was supported by Renishaw.

Metal additive manufacturing (AM) expertise was contributed by Renishaw engineers to help Brunel Racing create a manifold part for the team’s BR-XX car, which was used to compete at FS-UK in Silverstone and FS-ATA in Italy, both in July.
Matthew Crouch, a mechanical engineering student and one of the managers of the Brunel Racing team, says: “Renishaw’s expertise and advice on how to design a part for the additive manufacturing process was invaluable. To design for AM, both overhangs could not be more than 55° from the vertical axis, and each part required smooth transitions of cross sectional thickness. AM proved itself to be a much more suitable manufacturing method than a traditional approach. The final part performs better in the car due to its increased strength, and we also had the benefit of reduced post processing.”
For further information www.renishaw.com