Ficep systems take ACFS to next level

Investment in Ficep UK’s automated drilling and profiling lines has helped Wolverhampton-based Advanced Cold-Formed Sections (ACFS) to maximise its levels of factory pre-fabrication, reduce fabrication time, improve quality and save significantly on material costs.

ACFS, which is part of the Metek group, manufactures light steel frames, stud and tracks, as well as floor and mezzanine cassettes and cladding rails, primarily for the residential, hotel and student accommodation markets. The investment in two new Ficep systems, which include an Excalibur 12 drilling system, comes as part of ACFS’s continued commitment to driving innovation and meeting long-term sustainability objectives.

The new Excalibur system is now in situ at ACFS’s 7900 sq m facility in Wolverhampton. Since purchasing the machines, company owner Oliver Rogan reports a 120% increase in output of materials and a significant reduction in welding time with 42% fewer welders needed to produce the product range.

ACFS’s Excalibur is a CNC drilling system with an 18-m bed that allows ACFS to carry out tasks that include scribing, ID marks, notches and copes, as well as drilling. The system’s milling capability has enabled components to be connected with a single bolt, helping with cost reduction. According to Rogan, the Excalibur alone has enabled ACFS to process a record-breaking 60-tonne job in five days with only five welders. It also allowed the company to process beams beyond the capabilities of its stockholders.

Ficep’s software interface is another huge benefit. The Excalibur’s CNC software allows for remote diagnosis that allows Ficep’s service team to perform system diagnostics and routine checks.

“The results have far surpassed our expectations,” says Rogan. “Ficep’s systems help our welders to speed up production and reduce NCRs, giving us an end result that fits together seamlessly.”

For further information
www.ficep.co.uk

Heller releases HF 3500 Gen2

German-owned Heller Machine Tools, whose factory in Redditch produces selected four-axis and five-axis horizontal machining centres (HMCs) for world markets, has released its second-generation HF 3500 five-axis horizontal machining centre. The HF 3500 Gen2, with its 710 x 750 x 710 mm working volume, as well as the larger HF 5500, are available with a fixed table or an automatic pallet changer. Both are built in Redditch and incorporate a multitude of improvements over the previous-generation model. The machines are available with either an HSK-A63 or HSK-A100 tool interface in three versions – POWER, SPEED and the new PRO option – the latter intended for long periods of simultaneous five-axis machining.

Designed to raise cutting performance, innovations in the second generation include: an approximate halving of the minimum distance between the spindle nose and the centreline of the 225° swivelling trunnion; the availability of twin motors and ballscrew drives for moving the trunnion/rotary table assembly in the Z axis, with position feedback via linear scales; and the offer of six new spindles produced in an automated facility at Heller’s headquarters in Nürtingen.

Other notable improvements include increased stiffness of key components, shorter chips-to-chip times and faster tool change from a chain-type magazine with up to 240 pockets or a rack-type magazine with up to 405 positions. The high-end PRO package additionally offers 10 m/s2 acceleration in X, Y and Z.

The guideways employ linear roller bearings, enabling high dynamics and rapids up to 90 m/min, while the rotary axes have direct drives and YRT bearings. There is also increased feed force in the Z axis, dynamic motors driving the rotary axes and the option of adding a turning function using a high-speed rotary torque table.

For further information
www.heller.biz

WH Lead appoints area sales manager

Terry Turner is the new area sales manager for machine tool supplier WH Lead in the Midlands and north of England. WH Lead, headquartered in Towcester, is the sole sales and service agent in the UK and Ireland for turning centres and vertical machining centres built by Leadwell, Taiwan. Based in the Sheffield area, Turner holds a BTEC NC and an HNC in Manufacturing Engineering, as well as a BEng degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Open University. He subsequently benefitted from 18 years of highly relevant experience in the machine tool sector.

For further information www.wh-lead.co.uk

FINE-TUNING PRODUCTION WITH XYZ MACHINING CENTRE

For almost 50 years Southend-based Rega Research has, to the point of “obsession”, used engineering as the basis for the design and manufacture of its home audio systems. Employing engineering to produce the best music for its customers, while maintaining a high level of reliability and affordability and, wherever possible, a strong UK-supplier base, has led to innovative designs that are both aesthetically pleasing and produce the highest sound quality. This combination has created a loyal customer base, with the past two years seeing significant sales growth, which resulted in its latest investment in an XYZ 750 LR vertical machining centre.

Rega Research is owned by company founder Roy Gandy, who struggled to find an audio system that met his expectations. He was advised, possibly by a frustrated audio dealer, to “build his own” if he could not find what he wanted. The rest, as they say, is history.

Using engineering skills gained in the automotive sector Gandy reviewed what was available, and even the best turntables at the time were said to “offend his sensibilities”, so the quest to re-engineer and create new concepts in audio began. The company now designs and assembles a full range of home audio equipment, including turntables, amplifiers, phono stages, CD players, tonearms, cartridges and speakers. Production stands at over 5000 turntables every month made up of 3000 units a month of its entry-level P1 turntable, over 1000 a month of its mid-range P3 turntable and even 70 units a month of its range-topping P10 turntable, which retails at around £5000. Add these to its other products and production tops 10,000 units every month. The company assembles all products in-house, with components sourced mainly in the UK.

There is a subtle difference between music lovers and hi-fi enthusiasts and Rega’s products appeal to the former: “Our customers love music – many would go to concerts daily if possible – so we strive to deliver a level of quality that can replicate that experience for them,” says Ky Gandy, supplier co-ordinator at Rega Research.

The blend of high quality, design and value for money has seen Rega grow from 130 employees at the start of 2020, with a turnover of £13m, to a £20m turnover and 180 employees at the end of 2021.

“The lockdown arrived and, while the first few weeks impacted on operations, it also had a positive effect,” says Ky Gandy. “Sales boomed due in part to people being stuck at home, many with more disposable income.”

This significant growth added pressure to Rega’s tool room, which was populated with manual machines to produce assembly jigs and test rigs, as well as some prototype machining. A move to CNC had been on the cards for many years, but had been put off for several reasons, particularly lack of space. A re-organisation combined with increased workload finally allowed the purchase of an XYZ 750 LR vertical machining centre to go ahead. The machine will be used on a variety of materials from aluminium and high-pressure laminate through to MDF, so Rega opted for the 12,000 rpm model and, for added versatility, the 4th axis and 24-position arm-type tool-changer options. Notably, the XYZ 750 LR features linear rail technology.

“We had been looking at introducing CNC to our tool room for several years,” says Ky Gandy. “We did our research, as we do with all our suppliers, and while the machine was important, ongoing support and service was a priority. This resulted in a shortlist of one: XYZ Machine Tools. During our search we kept coming back to XYZ and, in the end, it became a straightforward choice due to the confidence we had in their ability to support us with technical and aftersales help.

“We also received glowing reviews from our existing component suppliers,” he adds. “Another factor that made the decision easier was that during the quotation process they didn’t try to upsell. We indicated an interest in their HD machines, but they did the right thing and sold us the machine we needed, not what we thought we wanted.”

The aftersales service was immediately put to the test for the delivery of the machine, which due to limited access had to be stripped back to its carcass and re-assembled in-situ, a process that took just four days from unloading to powering up and running.

Throughout the pandemic, focus was on delivering audio systems to meet demand, so product releases were put on hold. Now, with a degree of normality returning, new products are on the horizon with new turntables and amplifiers ready for launch this year.

As a result, Rega Research will see an increased workload for the XYZ 750 LR in terms of machining development parts, as well as the testing fixtures required. Having the machine will enable Rega to respond quickly to change, and meet increased demand for fixtures from its assembly department.

There are no plans for the XYZ 750 LR at Rega to be used for production work, but it is filling a need for reworking existing stock components that may need rectifying or adjusting. A recent example was a batch of plinths that were out of concentricity tolerance on two bores.

“The obvious solution was to return the entire batch to our supplier, but that isn’t the Rega way of doing things,” says Ky Gandy. “We respect our suppliers and accept that occasionally errors arise, so we took the decision to rectify the parts ourselves. We used the XYZ 750 LR to manufacture a fixture, which it was then able to use for reworking the parts to within microns, something that saved time and money thanks to the efficiency of the machine.”

For the past 50 years Rega Research has stuck to its belief that applying the best engineering processes not only creates value for money, but the highest sound quality.

“There’s an assumption that to be high-end, and made in the UK, it has to be expensive, but through application of engineering disciplines we’re able to deliver what our customers want: a product that generates high-quality music in a cost-effective and an aesthetically pleasing way,” concludes Ky Gandy. “This isn’t always easy, as developing parts to meet our founder’s guiding principles can sometimes take two years, and they may not be the easiest components to manufacture. One example is our one-piece tonearms, which require detailed tooling for die casting. However, the result gives high stiffness and reduces their weight down to 34 g, enhancing their performance. Working with our suppliers there is always an engineering solution to be found.”

For further information
www.xyzmachinetools.com

Precision gears from a single source

NAMCO was founded in 1976 to serve the growing demand for precision machine components, custom gears and transmission parts. With locations in Edmonton, Canada, and Chardon, Ohio, the company employs more than 75 skilled workers who manufacture products for customers in the paper, oil and gas, mining, and other industries. Since 2019, NAMCO has invested in 15 CNC machines from DMG Mori, including a DMC 125 FD duoBLOCK for gear milling with gearMILL software and two Taiyo Koki machines for grinding.

“Thanks to gearMILL gear-cutting software, we can now manufacture our special solutions quickly and, above all, easily,” states Bernard Vukovic, managing director NAMCO Machine & Gear Works. “Furthermore, thanks to the mill-turn technology on the DMC 125 FD duoBLOCK, we achieve high precision in one clamping.”

To be competitive on the production side, NAMCO relies on CNC machine tool technology from DMG Mori. Vukovic explains the high investment volume in the past three years with the need to expand production capability: “On one hand, we need innovative machining technologies to manufacture efficiently and in the required quality, and on the other hand, it was a matter of increasing capacity.”

The versatility of DMG Mori machines is reflected in one of NAMCO’s core areas, gear cutting. Here, the team relies on a DMC 125 FD duoBLOCK with the exclusive DMG Mori gearMILL gear-cutting software. The mill-turn centre with pallet changer allows set-up to take place during machining and is designed for high-precision complete machining of rotationally symmetrical components up to 1250 mm in diameter – including five-axis milling and turning. Since everything is done in one set-up, errors due to manual re-clamping operations are eliminated.

For further information
www.dmgmori.com