Precision Edge fills capacity gap with LPM

What goes around comes around, and the XYZ Lean Production Machine (LPM) is a case in point for specialist manufacturer of industrial blades and machine knives, Horsham-based Precision Edge and its director Ross Candfield.
“We initially considered buying an XYZ LPM machining centre five years ago, but after due consideration we decided our workload wasn’t quite right for the machine and went for an XYZ SMX 5000 bed mill with ProtoTrak SMX control instead,” says Candfield.
As time went on, workloads changed, and Precision Edge needed additional capacity,
with the LPM still in mind it returned to XYZ, but came away with one of its XYZ 2-OP machining centres.
After having the 2-OP for 18 months, business growth meant a need for further machining centre capacity, and the advantages seen from the XYZ 2-OP, with its ProtoTrak control and Jergens Ball Lock table, finally created the opening for an XYZ LPM to complete Precision Edge’s machining capabilities.
“As we already had the 2-OP, the addition of the LPM was straightforward as the programs are compatible between the two ProtoTrak controls, while the fixture plates that we had invested in were also transferrable between the two machines,” says Candfield. “The extra spindle power means that we can also maximise cutting data and we are seeing cycle times and productivity improve dramatically as a result. The capability of the LPM goes beyond improved cutter performance as we can now machine a part from blank to finish-machined in a single set-up. Prior to the LPM’s arrival this would have been completed on three machines.”
For further information
www.xyzmachinetools.com

Foundry installs £1.8m machining cell

A £1.8m investment in a custom-built finish machining facility at the Walsall factory of Chamberlin & Hill Castings Ltd will see the installation of three high specification Chiron Scherer Feinbau automated mill-turn centres, helping the company become the UK’s only fully integrated supplier of grey iron bearing housings for engine turbochargers.
Supplied by the Engineering Technology Group (ETG), the modular machining centres offer a fully integrated machining solution combining a Scherer Feinbau twin-spindle VDZ100 vertical lathe operating in tandem (via a robot and conveyor system) with a Chiron DZ15W twin-spindle, twin-pallet milling centre.
A major, long-standing customer is Borg Warner, which had earlier advised Chamberlin & Hill that it was seeking an “integrated supply” in order to streamline the company’s supply chain.
“Without investing in machining capacity, the customer made it clear that it would have to review Chamberlin & Hill’s position as a supplier,” states chief executive Kevin Nolan. “In contrast, if we did make the investment, we were probably going to become the most significant supplier of turbo bearing housings in Europe.”
The Chiron cells were chosen for two reasons: firstly, Borg Warner already had around 60 Chiron machines producing similar parts, thus lowering the risk. Secondly, having cast the net far and wide, the company discovered that Chiron machines were one of very few which were both cost-effective and capable of producing the parts in the required cycle times.
Three Chiron machining cells were ordered, two of which were commissioned in February 2017, with a third scheduled to arrive in November this year. The capacity provided by these three machines has already been sold, bringing about additional revenue worth several million pounds per year.
For further information
www.engtechgroup.com

Cennox installs first machining centre

Banking and retail support services specialist, Camberley-based Cennox Plc,
is at the forefront in the battle against card skimming at cashpoints, developing components and systems that help banks stay one step ahead of the criminals. To maintain its lead, Cennox has an active R&D programme that requires numerous parts to be machined against relatively short lead-times. In addition, the company also has production parts to manufacture in order to back-up the service it provides to banks in repairing damaged cashpoints.
In the past, all of this machining work was outsourced, but as demand grew the cost and delays that this created was impacting on productivity, so the decision was taken to bring machining in-house. After investigating the market, Cennox chose Matchmaker CNC to supply the machine it required, as well as provide extra support in pulling together a tooling and CADCAM package (Sharp CAM). The selected machine was a Matchmaker VMC 1020 vertical machining centre with 1100 x
560 mm table that allows multiple set-ups to be in place at the
same time.

Typical savings against subcontracting these parts is running at around 75% per component. With initial batches running at 400-off, and ongoing at 20-30 off, this is a major saving.
“Considering that our starting point was of no machining experience whatsoever, we were probably a unique proposition for any machine tool company; we therefore had to place a lot of trust in Matchmaker,” says technical and operations support manager Iain Ferguson. “That trust was well placed as we now have a machining facility in which we are confident can produce anything that our design department comes up with.”
For further information
www.matchmakercnc.co.uk

Subcontractor takes off with five-axis VMC

When McGreevy Engineering made a strategic decision to move into the aerospace industry, the company realised it needed to take its first step into five-axis machining. The machine of choice was a Vcenter AX800 from Victor CNC.
Works manager Tommy Hanna says: “The reason we bought the AX800 was because it has a bigger capacity than most of its competitors, with 1.6 m in the X-axis. This capacity allows us to use it as a large-bed three-axis machine, as well as a versatile five-axis. The machine also has a 15,000 rpm spindle, which means we are conducting high-speed machining on a lot of our work. Providing jobs are set-up correctly, we can hit all five sides of the workpiece at high speed, which is making a huge saving for our business.”

The company has a variety of three-axis machining centres, but with the five-axis AX800 McGreevy needed more tool positions, as Hanna recalls: “Obviously, with five-axis we need more tool stations to hit the job from all directions, and the AX800 has 40 tool positions.”
The machine installed at McGreevy was specified with the through-coolant facility and swarf conveyor system, which supports large-capacity machining, as Hanna explains: “With 700 mm in the Y axis and 1600 mm in the X axis, plus the 800 mm rotary table, we can machine some particularly large parts. This is especially the case with the rotary table as we can machine one side of a long part and then rotate it to do the other side.”
For further information
www.victorcnc.com

Steel mill sale

Industrial and technology group Thyssenkrupp has reached agreement with Ternium on the sale of the CSA Siderúrgica do Atlântico (CSA) steel plant in Brazil. The purchase price (enterprise value) is €1.5 billion. “With the sale of CSA we are parting fully with Steel Americas. This is an important milestone in the transformation of Thyssenkrupp into a strong industrial group,” says Dr Heinrich Hiesinger, CEO of Thyssenkrupp AG. “We now generate over 75% of our sales with our profitable capital goods and services businesses.”
For further information
www.thyssenkrupp.com