Foundry divisions merge

Thomas Dudley Ltd has merged both of its West Midlands foundries into one seamlessly integrated business.

Named Thomas Dudley Foundry Ltd, the new business encompasses the company’s existing facilities in and around Dudley. Mick Cramphorn, foundry director, said: “We celebrate two new milestones today as we formally join the Duport foundry and Thomas Dudley castings foundry. The integration can provide a complete solution to produce complex cast iron components up to 120 kg in weight. We now have unrivalled expertise in design and development, combining a team of engineering specialists who hold a vast amount of experience across a broad range of sectors.”
Following the merger, the company says that all processes are now aligned to streamline the manufacture of castings and further enhance quality, offering a reliable and extremely cost-effective source of supply, for any given requirement.
For further information www.thomasdudleyfoundry.co.uk

600 UK names northern sales manager

600 UK has appointed Chris Smith as its new area sales manager for the north of England, selling both Colchester and Harrison lathes, as well as Clausing mills, drills, saws and grinders.

Smith was apprentice trained in mechanical engineering at TS Harrison & Sons before moving into a wide variety of machine-tool sales roles over the past 30 years. Paul Rushworth, 600 UK sales director says: “Chris’ wealth of experience in the machine-tool industry and vast knowledge of Colchester and Harrison lathes further enhances our continued commitment to expanding our UK sales, applications and service network of direct and distribution selling.”
For further information www.600uk.com

Crowds expected at Expo Manufactura

The most important manufacturing event in Mexico, Expo Manufactura, is set to get underway on 6-8 February. Last year, over 330 exhibitors (91 from overseas) presented their products and services to around 12,400 visitors, and similar if not higher numbers are expected in 2018.

Staged at the Cintermex venue in Monterrey, among the special areas at the 22nd edition of the show are automation and robotics, additive manufacturing, medical manufacturing and plastics manufacturing. The LA Times recently reported that “Mexico is in the throes of a manufacturing boom”, with exports jumping 13% since 2012. The country has also climbed to become the world’s seventh largest producer of cars. MTI will once again be among the exhibitors at Expo Manufactura, where the team will be busy handing out copies of the show issue to all visitors interested in acquiring machine tools and associated equipment.
For further information www.expomanufactura.com.mx

Metrology specialist announces restructuring

Measurement Solutions, the UK partner for Creaform 3D portable metrology and Metrologic inspection software, has announced plans to restructure its business activities in response to the changing demands of customers and the 3D measurement and scanning market in the UK.

The changes have been made in light of the manufacturing industry progressively moving away from traditional fixed CMM solutions towards portable metrology systems, in particular hand-held scanning technologies, and the implementation of automated inspection using industrial robots. Measurement Solutions says the changes will provide customers with a more responsive and technically capable sales and support experience.
The new business structure will see the formation of two separate technology teams, each dedicated to different market application and product requirements. The Portable Metrology Division, headed by Jason Bridge, who has over 20 years’ sales experience within the metrology and 3D measurement sector, will focus primarily on portable measurement solutions. Activities will centre exclusively on the sales and support of portable measuring systems for industrial applications, such as the HandyScan 3D and MetraScan 3D solutions from Creaform.
To complement these activities, David Harper will head the Metrology Integration Division to focus on providing software solutions so that customers can make full use of their 3D measuring systems. This will include not only traditional CMM applications and services, but also be dedicated to providing quality control solutions through the integration of proven metrology software within the emerging automated measurement market using industrial robots. Harper has over 30 years’ experience in CNC CMM applications.
For further information www.measurement-solutions.co.uk

Blum helps firm achieve 2 μm precision

A complex component incorporating four long slots among other features was posing problems for Timo Lehmann, the CEO of Karlheinz Lehmann GmbH in Oberwolfach, Germany. The solution for the subcontract manufacturer was ultimately provided by a Citizen Cincom M32 turning centre and a TC76-Digilog touch probe from Blum-Novotest.

“Highly complex components are part and parcel of our business, but manufacturing a quick-coupler for a compressed-air input was a tough nut to crack,” says Lehmann of the challenges posed by a project for customer Parker Hannifin GmbH. “The key components are made from hardened and coated free-cutting steel with threads, bores and four lightly tapered slots. The slots were the crucial point of the whole design.”
The parallelism of the slots was only allowed to vary by 2 μm from the reference values. Otherwise the fully automated machine that assembles the component unit at Parker-Hannifin, would abruptly stop. Moreover, the quick-coupling would not work if the tolerance was exceeded.
Blum’s TC76-Digilog touch probe proved the only cost-effective means of verifying the design’s dimensional accuracy. Analogue measurement is always advantageous for assessing areas or lines. If a switching digital probe were to be used in the Lehmann application, a very large number of points on the slots would have to be measured in order to attain an adequate resolution. In contrast, the TC76-Digilog scans across the surface at a measuring speed of 2 m/min. As this is happening, the system generates an extremely large number of values (50,000 per second in fact) in a fraction of the time required for analogue data acquisition.
For further information www.blum-novotest.com