Lotus completes £100m investment

Pre-production of the new Lotus Emira is getting underway following over £100m of investment at the company’s UK facilities, which includes two new production halls at the iconic home of Lotus in Hethel, Norfolk. Furthermore, with the launch of Emira, Lotus is creating more than 200 new operations roles and recruitment is already underway.

Elsewhere, recent investment at Lotus Advanced Structures (LAS) in Norwich includes a new fabrication facility. Here, the chassis and front-end assembly line, including robot bonding agent application, is now operational, supplying components for Emira pre-production. Eight new CNC milling machines are being installed, with four more transported from Worcester. The commissioning of a new laser cutting machine is also taking place to manufacture fuel tanks, rear subframes and many of the steel and aluminium components used on the vehicle.

For further information www.lotuscars.com

Centreless grinder uses NSK roller guides

The new Tschudin Cube 350 centreless grinding machine is using NSK’s RA series of low-friction, high-rigidity roller guides, which are helping to generate excellent levels of surface finish on machined workpieces.

Tschudin’s Cube 350 operates using the centreless cylindrical grinding method, where the drive design has a major impact on performance. Deploying linear drives in three axes (X-axis/control wheel adjustment, U-axis/grinding wheel adjustment and W-axis/workpiece adjustment) lays the foundation for obtaining both high productivity and flexibility. All drives must operate with micron-level accuracy. In the case of linear drives, this ethos also applies to the guide elements.

As a result, Tschudin has been using linear guides from NSK’s RA series in its centreless cylindrical grinding machines for many years. Thanks to their proven reliability, these high-performance products are now also demonstrating their worth in the Cube 350.

RA series roller guides offer high maximum load capacity and rigidity, thus delivering the traverse and repeat accuracy necessary in machine tools such as the Cube 350. Moreover, these capabilities are particularly desirable in applications that require superior surface finish.

The RA guideways run with high precision and low vibration, while at the same time meeting tough rigidity requirements. Rigidity is always a key factor in centreless grinding, where pressure and counter-pressure constantly exert on the workpiece, the grinding wheel and the regulating/control wheel. The RA guideways absorb these permanent forces to deliver traverse and repeat accuracy, as well as a prolonged service life.

For further information
www.nskeurope.com

Precise and efficient machining

The manufacturing and internal machining of small parts requires precise quality tools, such as Kyocera’s EZ Bar series, which now includes a new item: the EZBF is able to undertake a one-shot boring process including a 90° step.

According to Kyocera, the EZ Bar series is suitable for high-quality products due to its minimal deviation, longer tool life and advanced machining efficiency when compared with conventional tools. Especially with its proprietary EZ adjust function, high-precision indexing is said to be easier than ever: a wide variety of ID processes is possible – boring, back turning, grooving, facing and even threading – just by changing one tool. The latest addition to the line-up even allows for hole bottom face-finishing processes.

For an even better finish, the EZ Bar can combine with the new PR1725, a PVD-coated carbide grade. This original development of Kyocera – named MegaCoat Nano Plus – tackles several customer challenges at once: producing a better surface finish; providing a cost-effective solution with a long tool life; and integrating tools for steel and stainless steel. With its wear and adhesion resistance, the tool also results in reduced cracking while machining.

To give customers more and better machining possibilities, the EZ Bar line-up is constantly expanding. For instance, EZ Bar 45° Chamfering and EZ Bar Copying types are in the pipeline for release this summer to help address an even wider variety of applications.

For further information
www.kyocera.co.uk

Sellafield boxes

Stainless Metalcraft has agreed to enter into stage two of its contract to provide circa 1000 3M3 boxes for Sellafield. The boxes are for storing intermediate level waste retrieved from silos at legacy locations in Cumbria. In environmental terms, the storage project represents one of the most positive and important intergenerational equity deliverables of the next few decades, developing and implementing critical technology to bequeath a pristine environment to posterity. The contract is now worth up to £70m, an approximate uplift of £20m against the original contract.

For further information
www.metalcraft.co.uk

Optimise cutting with scientific data

Any engineer knows the consequences of cutting tool vibration, which is why MSC Industrial Supply is making this effect a thing of the past with the new and exclusive MSC MillMax service.

For generations, machine operators have tentatively followed the prescribed cutting speeds and feeds based on manufacturer recommendations, having to later reduce cutting parameters and productivity rates based upon excessive tool vibration and deflection. This tool chatter can be caused by a seemingly endless number of factors that emanate – individually or collectively – from the machine spindle, tool holding configuration and cutting tool. Every machine tool and its respective tooling configuration operates at a unique frequency.

An often challenging puzzle to solve, engineers can only hope for a satisfactory result by relying upon experience, best practice and in some cases luck to attain the best possible outcome. Now, MSC surpasses this perceived ‘best possible outcome’ by applying a scientific approach. The new MSC MillMax service analyses and records frequencies and interprets the data to provide the customer with optimal machining parameters, replacing guesswork with exact scientific data that MSC Industrial says delivers unparalleled results.

MSC MillMax involves undertaking a simple ‘tap test’ that analyses and records the frequencies of the tool in a matter of minutes. Experts from MSC can interpret information from the system and provide the end user with a new set of optimised machining parameters.

Already proving successful in the USA, MSC MillMax is recording a 170% average improvement in material removal rates with a 40% decrease in cycle times.

For further information
www.mscdirect.co.uk