Industry urged to be COSHH compliant

A UK-based oil mist extraction expert is urging manufacturing and engineering companies to ensure they are COSHH compliant. Telford-based Filtermist Systems is making its customers and wider industry aware that the HSE is continuing to run its Fabricated Metals inspection programme. Inspectors are paying particular attention to exposure to metalworking fluids and welding fume, both of which can cause respiratory and skin conditions.

Craig Woodward, divisional sales director at Filtermist, says: “Despite COSHH regulations being introduced in 1989, we’re still seeing many companies who either don’t use local exhaust ventilation [LEV] at all, or don’t think they need it on every machine tool. However, LEV can lead to many benefits, including increased productivity, lower cleaning bills, consistent component quality and support in the recruitment and retention of employees.”

For further information www.filtermist.co.uk

New capabilities for spring manufacturer

When Sertec made the decision to close its springs and wire forms division and put some assets up for sale, Emma Burgon, engineering director at Stalbridge-based William Hughes Ltd, spotted an opportunity to not only bolster her company’s existing capabilities, but introduce new ones.
“Because of the transfer of assets we’ve been able to increase our welding capacity, while we’ll also be adding a further four bending machines, taking us up to 10 in total. In addition, we’ve introduced a three-axis XYZ vertical machining centre and an EDM wire eroder, which we’re in the process of refurbishing. We’ve never had EDM capability before, but our tool-room manager is convinced that it will speed us up because it can pre-cut blocks prior to CNC milling. Our customers don’t normally give us very much time to make weld jigs, but if we can get off tools quicker than anybody else, we’ll win the project, so speed of weld jig design and manufacture is definitely a big plus.”

For further information www.wmhughes.co.uk

Strong 2021 for Mazak

The economic rebound from the Covid-19 lockdowns enabled Yamazaki Mazak to record a strong year for machine sales in 2021, including its highest monthly order intake across Europe in its history in October.

“The combination of a rebound in general subcontracting, strong sales in food and packaging, resilient yellow goods and agriculture sectors, and continued strong levels of investment from energy sector customers have all delivered outstanding sales growth,” says Alan Mucklow, managing director of UK sales, Eire and national distributors, who is cautiously optimistic about the year ahead. “The economic situation is not without challenges, but we’re expecting a rebound in aerospace and further growth in turnkey automation solutions to help machine users navigate the skills challenge.”

For further information
www.mazakeu.co.uk

£10m investment at Invertek

A Wales-based manufacturer of electric motor control technology is investing £10m as it expands following significant growth in global sales. Invertek Drives, based in Welshpool, says the investment will create an expansion to its variable frequency drive (VFD) manufacturing and distribution centre, along with the development of a new Application Centre. The investment will create 85 new jobs over the next 12 months on top of the 280 people already employed at the HQ, and follows a major recruitment drive over the past year in both Invertek’s production and R&D departments.

For further information
www.invertekdrives.com

Multi-axis machining improves productivity

Mastercam Multiaxis is an add-on for Mastercam Mill 3D, Router 3D, Mill-Turn and Mastercam for SolidWorks. It improves productivity with simultaneous four- and five-axis machining capability for Mastercam. Notably, Mastercam Multiaxis offers a wide range of multi-axis machining strategies, both basic and advanced. These tool paths are also useful for the advanced control of three-axis machines.

The new Multiaxis Unified tool path allows users to select multiple pieces of input geometry to generate the tool-path pattern. Using those geometry choices, Multiaxis Unified picks the best algorithm to calculate the path. This single tool path gives users access to all the surface-based tool paths, as well as the geodesic tool-path options, in a single interface.

New Deburr tool-path enhancements include a new option ‘number of cuts along edges’ that allows users to add multiple cuts to the deburr tool path, rounding or flattening edges, to create a quality edge on deburred parts. Additionally, new ‘tilt range’ options allow users to limit tilt when machining type is set to five-axis (simultaneous) or 3+2 axis.

Maintaining climb and conventional machining is critical for surface finish and tool life. ‘Controlling climb and conventional cutting’ now provides control of climb or conventional cutting when working with surfaces that may require using both sides of a tool. It was previously impossible to maintain this while machining a curved shape that would require the use of both sides of the cutter.

Swarf milling tool-path enhancements include the ‘drop tool to floor’ option, which controls whether Mastercam will drop the tool path down to a floor or retract to the bottom of swarf surfaces.

For further information
www.mastercam.com