300 members of Tomorrow’s Engineers Code

The Tomorrow’s Engineers Code, managed by EngineeringUK, is celebrating an important milestone: the community now has over 300 members dedicated to increasing the diversity and number of young people entering engineering and technology careers.United by this common goal, the collaborative community has expanded to include organisations from across the engineering, technology and education sectors. Aiming to improve their engineering outreach programmes for young people, members share knowledge and best practice, and commit to four pledges to shape their engagement activities and strategy.

For further information www.code.tomorrowsengineers.org.uk

NCMT reaches milestone

NCMT is celebrating 60 years of trading. The company was formed in 1964 by Gerry Gray after he won the exclusive right to market Japanese-built Makino machining centres and spark-erosion machines in the UK and Ireland, an agreement that persists to this day.In 1976, a second agency was added to sell Okuma machine tools, also from Japan, into the same markets. The move introduced extra CNC machining centres to NCMT’s portfolio as well as CNC lathes and grinders. In other news, NCMT will stage a pre-MACH open house at its Coventry showroom on 7-8 February.

For further information events@ncmt.co.uk

FourJaw doubles customer base

FourJaw Manufacturing Analytics says that the number of manufacturers using its plug-and-play machine monitoring platform more than doubled in 2023. In addition, the company’s installed base – the number of machines monitored by manufacturers using FourJaw technologies – increased almost threefold. FourJaw’s platform captures real-time production data from machinery and combines it with operator feedback to generate insights that improve productivity, operational efficiency, and financial and environmental performance. More than 120 manufacturing businesses worldwide now use FourJaw. 

For further information www.fourjaw.com

From seven operations down to two

It is only within the past five years that Nuneaton-based subcontractor Oaston Engineering, which specialises in work for the aerospace and biotechnology industries, has embraced sliding-head turning. July 2018 saw the arrival of the firm’s first sliding-head lathe, a 20 mm bar capacity Cincom L20-VIIILFV from Citizen Machinery UK. It was followed in October 2022 by a second, larger model, a 32 mm capacity Cincom L32-VIIILFV.

Oaston Engineering’s managing director Sean McCarthy says: “We were always led to believe that sliding-head lathe operation was a dark art and that you need to produce large batch quantities, say 50,000, to justify setting them for a new run. We had been looking at the technology since MACH 2008 and, a decade later, when the Cincom L20 was delivered, we discovered the myths were untrue.”

Oaston Engineering had a particular job in mind for the Cincom L32: the production of a light aircraft pump camshaft from martensitic stainless steel.

The component, which is produced from 1.25-inch bar, formerly needed seven separate operations: outside diameter turning and grooving; milling on a machining centre; two separate turning operations in offset fixtures to machine the cams to a dimensional tolerance of 0.07 mm; drilling a longitudinal bore on a machining centre; cross drilling a tooling hole in another operation; and off-site grinding of two spigots to within 0.015 mm.

The camshaft produced in this way required a total of 18 minutes 30 seconds of cutting time, plus inter-machine handling, as well as 30 to 60 seconds for deburring and more time for inspection at each stage. Now, six of the operations are performed in one hit in less than 15 minutes on the Cincom before the part goes out for grinding.

For further information www.citizenmachinery.co.uk

Turn-milling gear parts for premium for klifts

Owing to their high rigidity and damping properties, Index Werke says its machines are suitable for the complete machining of complex workpieces, including the integration of gear teeth. The Czech Linde Pohony plant knows this all too well, recently decommissioningits existing Index G400 turn-mill machines, after 20 years of service, and investing in six new Index G420 models. The new turn-mill centres should achieve amortisation within three years. Index machines are available in the UK via Kingsbury.

Head of production and technologyPetr Vitásekand his team tested various offers and decided once again to go for Index.

“Few suppliers were able to offer a machining centre that is equipped with two turning spindles, two turrets and a powerful motorised milling spindle that masters power skiving technology,” he says.“This gives us decisive advantages, particularly since we are able to achieve complete machining with our new Index G420 machines. Before, we had to use a lathe, a milling machine and a gear cutting machine.”

The investment allowed Linde Pohony to increase the productivity of its machines and, at the same time, save space in the production hall and thus increase productivity per unit area.

A special Indexpower skiving cycle and user-prompted input screens for workpiece, tool, process and correction data ensure easy operation.

Miroslav Vařečka, head of production engineering, mentions dry machining as a further advantage: “Compared with the former machining technique, it’s no longer necessary to clean off any oil residues on the workpieces, which implies time and financial savings.”

He adds: “We can use our turn-mill centres not only for shaft production, but also for other tasks, such as manufacturing transmission housings.”

For further information www.index-werke.com