Press investment helps Cotmor expand

A £250,000 investment drive with Worcester Presses is helping a leading Black Country metal pressing specialist take advantage of new domestic and reshoring opportunities.
Cotmor Tool & Presswork, which employs 16 people at its Brierley Hill factory, has seen sales soar to £2m following the easing of lockdown and is now setting its sights on an additional £1m of orders over the next 12 months.

The company has formed a strategic partnership with Worcester Presses to capitalise on this growth, resulting in the installation of one 160 tonne and two 110 tonne Chin Fong machines, two Tomac decoilers, Titan monitoring technology to improve tool and press life, and a die cushion to help accommodate multi-functional tools.

“Volumes have bounced back stronger than any of us expected and this has given us the impetus to look at new equipment that will make us faster and provide capacity to take on up to £1m of new work,” explains David Cotterill, who runs Cotmor with his wife Wendy and daughters Louise and Natalie. “80% of our work is overseas and we ship deep-drawn, precision and progression presswork to clients in Brazil, China, Germany, Japan, Turkey and South Korea.”

He continues: “We knew we needed more capacity so we started talking to Worcester Presses about our future requirements and the flexibility of the machines to produce components for the agriculture, commercial vehicle, foundry and food and drink sectors. After much discussion, we agreed on the robustness and durability of the Chin Fongs and the installation process and training were superb. Now the challenge is to win the work to fill them.”
For further information www.worcesterpresses.co.uk

Farina forging line for boules balls

Boules or Pétanque is a popular sport across the whole of France. Since 1955, Obut has been producing the steel balls weighing around 700 g and enjoying a veritable cult in the country. Starting next summer, the company will produce the balls at its headquarters in Saint-Bonnet-Le-Château near Lyon on a 1300-tonne forging press from Farina.

“Schuler and Farina have been great in helping us find the equipment to meet our needs,” says Romain Souvignet, president of La Boule Obut, whose grandfather joined the company in 1958. “The new forging press impressed us not only with its high productivity, but also with the low energy requirements and high connectivity that our manufacturing needs.”

The starting material for the boule balls, which have a diameter of just over 70 mm, are steel rods sawn into sections, which a press first forms into discs and then into half shells. Obut welds the shells together, before machining and polishing to a mirror finish. On the company’s website, visitors can not only choose between different models made of stainless or carbon steel, but also mark them individually. Once the customer has clicked on ‘order’, the job goes straight into production.

The 1300-tonne Farina forging press replaces two lines with a press force of 600 and 800 tonnes respectively, which are becoming obsolete. The future line, which also includes a transfer and a furnace, will form a half shell every two seconds. This rapid throughput is necessary, because every month 200,000 balls leave the factory.
For further information www.schulergroup.com

Fifth Nakamura ramps-up productivity

As part of its continued investment strategy, Velden Engineering has just taken delivery of a Nakamura-Tome NTY3-150 twin-spindle, three-turret turning centre from the Engineering Technology Group (ETG). The new addition will produce high-volume components beyond the size capacity of the company’s sliding-head turning centres.

Based in Bolton, Velden says it was the first UK job shop to achieve ISO9001 in 1987 and has since won a multitude of prestigious OEM contracts and awards. In 2012, the manufacturer acquired its first Nakamura-Tome turning centre, a compact WT100 twin-spindle, twin-turret machine.

The relationship with ETG blossomed and, in 2013, the company took delivery of a larger Nakamura-Tome WT150II twin-spindle, twin-turret turning centre with an upper turret Y axis after winning a new contract. Four years later, a second WT150II was planned to service an increase in demand, but with no machines available in European stock at that time, ETG loaned Velden an AS200. As it turns out, the Nakamura AS200 was perfect for certain lower volume projects with its fast set-up and programming. The result was Velden taking delivery of the second WT150II and purchasing the AS200 that had been loaned.

As part of its continuous improvement strategy, the company replaced its oldest Nakamura, the first WT100 machine that arrived almost a decade ago, with a brand new WT150II which arrived in November. The new Nakamura-Tome NTY3-150 has since followed.

“As three-turret machine, all with Y axes, the Nakamura NTY3-150 machine opens up a greater opportunity to do even more simultaneous machining,” explains Lee Valentine, plant manager at Velden. “On one specific part that we’ve transferred to the NTY3-150, we have seen a reduced cycle time of 40%.”
For further information www.engtechgroup.com

ATS joins Composites UK

Advanced Tooling Systems UK Ltd (ATS), a UK-based engineering service provider to the automotive, aerospace, moulding and tooling industries, has joined industry association Composites UK. With over 350 members, Composites UK acts to encourage continuous growth and development of the industry, promoting the best practice use of composites materials. The ability of ATS to manufacture in-house in the UK and provide sample composite over-mould tooling using very specialised materials, such as heavily glass-fibre loaded PEEK and PPS, have been instrumental in its continuing success and growth.
For further information www.atsuk.com

Biomass proves to be an inspired decision for XYZ Machine Tools

The energy price crisis is well documented with bills doubling for many, which is leading individuals and businesses to look at alternative and environmentally-friendly ways of tackling the problem. At XYZ Machine Tools the issue was not just energy costs, but also the environmental and financial impact of disposing of over 100 tons of wood every year, the majority of which went to landfill.

The volume of wood is generated from the pallets that its machines are delivered on, XYZ Machine Tools investigated every option to re-cycle/re-purpose these pallets, but the costs involved to make the timber useful meant that nobody was willing to take them, meaning the only option at the time was landfill. “We tried everything we could to make use of these pallets, but the time and cost involved in removing nails and bolts and sorting the wood, given that we had two tons/week to deal with simply made it unviable for anyone to be interested,” says Nigel Atherton, Managing Director, XYZ Machine Tools.

Removing this volume of wood to landfill also came with the significant cost of over £50,000/year for transport and landfill charges. Add to this the then £25,000/year gas bill to heat the factory and with business growing and factory extensions in the pipeline these costs would only increase. An alternative had to be found and that came in the shape of a biomass boiler. XYZ Machine Tools’ initial research showed that the economic benefits of investing in this system were significant as well as the positive environmental impact of delivering near carbon neutral heat to the factory. The investment would be around £180,000 to include the biomass boiler, hot air distribution system, an industrial scale wood chipper, and a bulk fuel store and feed system that delivers fuel to the boiler as and when required.
The installation of a Froling TX200 250kW Woodchip Biomass Boiler with an attached Untha wood-chipper that feeds a silo that can contain 10 days worth of wood-chip, resulted in annual saving of around £100,000 as a result of eliminating costs for transport, landfill, and the gas bill, as well as a rebate for the energy saved. These savings were at a time prior to the current spike in energy costs, so savings generated now may well be £25,000/year greater. The rebate is due to the system at XYZ Machine Tools qualifying for the UK Government’s The Non-Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme [now closed to new applicants] which provided business with a cash incentive for every kWh of heat generated, which has to be monitored along with the volume of wood used, along with samples of the wood. Businesses that qualified for this scheme receive a quarterly index linked rebate over a 20 year period.

All of the wood used is sourced from pallets and packaging within the business, and XYZ Machine Tools had to register as a ‘self-supplier’ and work within the constraints of strict rules as to what type of wood can be used. As part of that process the company became certified by Woodsure, the UK’s only quality certification scheme that identifies responsible and trustworthy fuel producer or supplier. This certification demonstrates an ability to
produce fuel to the correct standard. This certification is further backed up by Ofgem that confirms that emissions are within acceptable standards.

While XYZ Machine Tools had a ready-made source of fuel for its biomass boiler the efficiency of the systems, especially in the current economic climate is compelling. A biomass boiler provides increased efficiency thanks to the burning process where the fuel is burnt at around 600˚C. The gas created in this burn is then subject to a secondary combustion with air being introduced to increase temperatures up to 1200˚C. These super-heated gases then pass through a heat exchange system containing water, this is then pumped around the building to maintain a comfortable working environment when outside temperatures drop.
www.xyzmachinetools.com