Hague commits to £100,000 investment

A Black Country manufacturer that supplies critical components to iconic buildings, train stations, sport stadiums and power stations is celebrating a big birthday in style. Hague Fasteners, which produces non-standard fasteners and bespoke bolts, turned 50 years old last week and marked the big anniversary by investing more than £100,000 into a new three-axis CNC lathe to help it deliver more complex parts and increased capacity.

The new XYZ CT 65 LTY is already playing its part in the delivery of contracts for the oil and gas sector, with the company hoping the additional turnover will help it move towards its target of £2m sales by the end of the year.

Managing director Jon Hague says: “The new three-axis CNC lathe is a perfect way to celebrate five decades in business and puts a marker in the sand for the technology we’re trying to embed into our future capabilities.”

Hague Fasteners has been manufacturing in the Black Country for the past five decades, its most recent move being to an 8500 sq ft factory in Willenhall in 2017. From here, the company produces specialist fasteners, headed bolts, studs, nuts and milled components in high-integrity materials and critical nickel alloys. Hague Fasteners can produce parts ranging in size from 2 to 250 mm in diameter.

Company owner Claire Hague says: “We also wanted to do something in our 50th year that left a lasting positive legacy, so we made the commitment to become carbon neutral by 2024.

This has seen us create the ‘Hague Forest’, where we will endeavour to plant and grow 200 trees every year in Haiti, Kenya and Madagascar to offset the 75 tonnes of CO2 we create manufacturing specialist fasteners for use across the globe.”

For further information
www.haguefasteners.co.uk

Velden orders fifth Nakamura

As part of its continued investment strategy, Velden Engineering has ordered a Nakamura-Tome NTY3-150 twin-spindle, three-turret turning centre from the Engineering Technology Group (ETG). With delivery planned for next month, the new addition to the plant list will complement existing Nakamura-Tome turning centres at Velden Engineering.

Based in Bolton, the foundations of the company were formed as a partnership in 1973, and when the company acquired another business in 1984, the name Velden Engineering was born. Velden rapidly reached 50 employees and over 100 by 1990, and was the first UK job shop to achieve ISO9001 in 1987.

Today, the subcontract manufacturer offers a complete range of services including CNC machining, laser cutting, waterjet machining, sheet metalwork, assembly, product build, busbar production, design and development and more.

In 2012, the company acquired its first Nakamura-Tome turning centre, a WT100 compact twin-spindle, twin-turret machine. A year later Velden 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. A second WT150II arrived in 2017, followed more recently by a third.

“Many of the enquiries we’re starting to receive now are for parts in higher volumes with increased complexity,” says plant manager Lee Valentine. “As a three-turret machine, all with Y-axis capabilities, the Nakamura NTY3-150 opens up a greater opportunity to do even more simultaneous machining and will deliver even faster cycle times. This is possible through the use of special tooling on what will be very price-sensitive parts. The additional cost of the Nakamura NTY3-150 will be offset by allowing us to be even more competitive on certain packages of work and will therefore enable us to win a lot of new business.”

For further information
www.engtechgroup.com

Machine tool orders continue rising

Orders received by the German machine tool industry in the third quarter of 2021 were 69% up on the previous year’s figure. Orders from Germany rose by 67%, while foreign orders were 71% higher than in the previous year. Of particular note, orders received by German machine tool manufacturers increased by 61% in the first three quarters of the year.

“The levels of orders on hand are good, although supply bottlenecks and sharp rises in the price of raw materials and components are increasingly holding back business,” says Dr Wilfried Schäfer, executive director of the VDW (German Machine Tool Builders’ Association). “Orders are expected to continue rising in the coming months. They are being driven by catch-up effects that will continue for quite some time.”

For further information www.vdw.de

Dugard adds new staff

As part of its ongoing growth strategy, machine tool supplier Dugard has employed two new area sales managers to support customers along the M4 corridor, London, the southeast and Norfolk. Mark Tipper (pictured) has joined Dugard as the new area sales manager for north London, Hertfordshire, Oxford and Norfolk, while Mark Drummond will support customers in south London, Berkshire, Kent and Sussex.

Managing director Eric Dugard says: “Employing area sales managers with the wealth of experience that both Mark Tipper and Mark Drummond have, will be a huge asset for our business. The Dugard brand is well-positioned in the south of the UK, where the presence of two highly experienced sales engineers will certainly help to drive sales and growth even further.”

For further information www.dugard.com

Improved 3D image processing

Using newly developed and recently patented technology, Cognex has eliminated the speckle effect of laser lines, optimising triangulation-based 3D imaging. The In-Sight 3D-L4000 embedded vision system is the first product to bring the benefits of speckle-free laser lines to users.

The laser triangulation method has established itself as the definitive technology for 3D image processing in order to generate high-resolution and precise 3D image data. However, a weakness of the laser triangulation method has always been that the projected laser lines exhibit so-called speckles. Developers have been trying for years to reduce speckles using various methods, such as varying the wavelength and camera aperture, or taking multiple images and then calculating an average image. However, previous efforts did not lead to noticeably better results.

With its new, patented process, Cognex has found a solution to eliminate the occurrence and effects of speckles and produce extremely straight, clean and bright laser lines.

“The basis of the new technology is a blue laser with a wavelength of 450 nm,” explains Thomas Ruhnau, director of engineering at Cognex. “This laser beam is then deflected by a microelectromechanical mirror with ultrasonic vibrations in a plane to create a fanned beam. The beam is then directed on to a diffuser optic featuring a unique property: this optical element creates a perfect laser fan with a precisely defined width and an intensity distribution that is absolutely uniform along the line, eliminating the formation of speckle in the approach.”

Cognex has already integrated the new speckle-free blue laser optics into one of its products: In-Sight 3D-L4000 3D vision system, which enables users to achieve inspection speeds at least twice as fast as comparable competitive products, reports the company.

For further information
www.cognex.com