College hosts landmark Haas facility

West Nottinghamshire College (WNC) has become the UK’s first Gene Haas Centre for Advanced Manufacturing, bringing a major investment in engineering facilities and training programmes for students, apprentices and employers.The link-up will see the college awarded £500,000 to develop its engineering facilities and employer-focused curriculum, aimed at growing the number of skilled manufacturers in the local area and beyond.

The money will fund improvements to the college’s Engineering Innovation Centre in Sutton-in-Ashfield, by remodelling the building to dedicate a larger area of its groundfloor to manufacturing, automation and robotics. WNC will also construct a new mezzanine floor containing classrooms overlooking the existing open-plan workshop space.In addition, the college will rebrand the building, which currently boasts six Haas CNC machines used by engineering students and apprentices, as the Gene Haas Centre for Advanced Manufacturing.
For further information www.wnc.ac.uk

LOI set to propel AM in the aviation sector

GKN Aerospaceand Materialise, a global specialist in 3D printing solutions and services, have signed a letter of intent (LOI) aimed at advancing the research, designand production of polymer additively manufactured (AM) parts for the aviation industry. The signing of the LOI took place at the recent Paris Air Show and represents an extension of their successful collaboration. Materialise has been a supplier of polymer AM to GKN Aerospace since 2015 and supported the delivery of the additively manufactured wingtip for Eviation’s Alice, the world’s largest all-electric aircraft, which made its maiden flight in 2022.
For further information www.materialise.com

Biggest ever Design & Make Challenge

The UK’s biggest independent STEM event crowned four winners last week in a competition that attracted more than 80 pupils keen to get an insight into engineering. Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School, Great Wyrley Academy, John Taylor High School and Lawrence Sheriff High School took the prizes at the Design & Make Challenge 2023, the largest ever staged by the Manufacturing Assembly Network (MAN).The Year 10, Year 11 and Year 12 students split up into teams of four to design, test and build an aircraft using just a box of simple materials and a selection of hand tools.
For further information www.man-group.co.uk

Tomorrow’s Engineers Week

Following a successful first decade, the popular Tomorrow’s Engineers Week will return this November, taking place from 6 to 10 November 2023.Now entering its 11th year, the annual celebration is an opportunity to inspire young people with modern engineering and technology, and showcase the benefits of a career in the sector.Tomorrow’s Engineers Week sees schools, employers, professional engineering institutions and individuals working in engineering and technology come together to bring engineering careers to life for young people.
For further information www.teweek.org.uk

Subcontractor takes-off with 18th Nakamura-Tome

West End Precision is now in possession of its 18th Nakamura-Tome turning centre from the Engineering Technology Group (ETG). The Bideford-based subcontractor serves the automotive, aerospace and general subcontract manufacturing supply chain; all industries that have faced challenges in recent years – but business is certainly booming now. In 2022, the company took delivery of a Nakamura-Tome NTY3-150, a WT150II and it has just added to the plant list with a Nakamura WT150IIF, the third WT150 series machine in 18 months. With over 15 sliding head lathes, multi-spindle autos, centreless grinding and 18 Nakamura machines, West End Precision is no run-of-the-mill manufacturing business.

Alex Dziurzynski from West End Precision says: “We are predominantly a high-volume manufacturer and we’ll typically set the machine and run it for a long time. We do all the programming at the console; we don’t do any offline programming and the onus is that once the machine is set, it will keep running. This means we can have one operator running multiple machines and, as long as spindles are turning, we’re making money. The Nakamura machines give us that ability.”

The latest Nakamura-Tome is machining a family of aluminium 6026 components for a brake system manufacturer.

“We machine two different parts in batches of 10,000 to 20,000-off, with the WT150IIF producing around 6000 parts a week,” says Dziurzynski. “The 60mm diameter cast billets were previously machined on a gantry-loaded machine and the major saving has arrived from our ability to change to bar stock and bar-feed the parts on the Nakamura WT150IIF – slashing component loading times.”
For further information www.engtechgroup.com