Students complete sustainability challenge

Six students gave up time in their summer holidays to take part in an engineering sustainability challenge that has inspired them to pursue future employment opportunities. The aspiring engineers, all from Cumbria and either at college or having just sat GCSEs, spent eight days on a project looking at ways of reducing carbon emissions at Sellafield Ltd’s Engineering Centre of Excellence at Cleator Moor.The Summer Sprint project was the first of its kind and was set-up by Lorna Devine, Sellafield’s engineering development solutions lead, in collaboration with Lakes College and the Centre for Leadership Performance.
For further information www.bit.ly/3L3Tgyz

LVD makes bending automation affordable

LVD is introducing D-Cell, its most competitively-priced robotic bending cell yet. D-Cell combines a 50-tonne hydraulic press brake with a Kuka industrial robot and LVD’s proprietary programming software.

As manufacturers look to balance costs, quality, throughput and agility, LVD says that D-Cell offers the flexibility to handle production of a wide range of parts with fast throughput, in varying lot sizes, and at a minimised cost. At the heart of D-Cell is the versatile PPED press brake. A simple, cost-efficient design makes PPED practical and easy to use for a variety of bending jobs. According to LVD, the machine’s rigid construction, welded one-piece frame and servo-controlled hydraulic system ensure consistent bending results. It delivers 50 tonne of pressing force, has a 2000 mm working length, four-axis backgauge, and handles part sizes from 35 x 100 mm up to 400 x 600 mm with a part weight of up to 4 kg.

D-Cell features the same automatic programming software as LVD’s Dyna-Cell and Ulti-Form robotic bending systems. Using CADMAN software, D-Cell accelerates ‘art to part’ production in 20 minutes or less. It generates the bending and robot program automatically in 10 minutes and then takes just 10 minutes for set-up and first part production. No robot teaching is needed, making D-Cell easy to program no matter the user’s experience level. Also simplifying its operation: the system uses one interface, one controller for both press brake and robot.

A universal gripper designed by LVD handles different part sizes, bends up to three flanges without regripping and moves easily between tool stations. Its universal application saves investment in custom grippers, reduces changeover time and keeps production continuous.
For further information www.lvdgroup.com

International award for Renishaw co-founder

Sir David McMurtry, co-founder and executive chairman of Renishaw, is the recipient of the I-Form Advanced Manufacturing Excellence Award 2023. The award, presented at the 72nd CIRP General Assembly hosted at University College Dublin, Ireland, recognises McMurtry’s outstanding contribution to innovation and research in advanced manufacturing over many decades. This year marks 50 years since McMurtry and John Deer founded Renishaw, which is a specialist in a range of engineering fields, including dimensional metrology and metal additive manufacturing (AM).
For further information www.renishaw.com

Get set for Manufacturing World

The build-up is underway to Manufacturing World 2023, which takes place at INTEX, Osaka, Japan on 4-6 October. One of Asia’s leading manufacturing shows with over 1000 exhibitors, visitors must pre-register to gain admission. The organiser is expecting more than 33,000 people through the doors over the course of the three-day event.

The show, comprising nine concurrent exhibitions, will focus on solutions such as DX, AI and IoT, as well as additive manufacturing, factory automation, motion control, mechanical components, factory facilities/equipment and more. There is also a conference where visitors can learn about cutting-edge case studies from industry leaders. Speakers will include representatives from major blue-chip OEMs such as Toyota, Panasonic and Mitsubishi.
For further information www.bit.ly/3Z0MS0E

XYZ streamlines medical device development

ATL Technology in Cardiff is a specialist manufacturer of medical devices, particularly energy-driven instruments used in minimally invasive surgery. These devices use low-voltage, high-current RF energy waveforms to seal, coagulate, dissect, vaporise, resect or mobilise tissue. ATL utilises two tool rooms to produce prototypes, tooling, jigs, fixtures, special in-house machinery for assembly and disassembly, and spare parts.

The R&D toolroom initially adopted an XYZ SMX 2500 bed millin 1997. Over time, the company expanded its capabilities with the addition of a 660 HD vertical machining centre, a 1340 lathe and an XYZ 500 LR vertical machining centre featuring linear rail technology.

Meanwhile, the maintenance tool room utilises an RLX 1630 lathe, an XYZ 1500 manual turret mill and an XYZ RMX 2-OP, which machines light alloy and plastic parts from stock materials. The recent acquisition of an XYZ 500 TMC in March 2023 further highlights ATL Technology’s long-standing investment in XYZ machines.

Process development engineer Stephen Greensays: “The XYZ 500 TMC has a larger working area that enables us to machine bigger mould tools, jigs and fixtures in-house. It has more power, a 12,000 rpm spindle that is ideal for small tools, and through-tool coolant. This capability makes it easy to machine tool steels for injection moulds and electrodes for die sinking. It is also good at deep-hole drilling, delivering faster material removal rates. Withsubcontracting, it took many weeks to deliver a tool. Now we can produce an entire tool within a week, or a single part to repair a production line breakdown within 24 hours.”

Tool-room technician Ashley Gardiner adds: “90% of our work is one-off, small batches or spares, so the 12 tool pockets on the 500 TMC are sufficient for most of our needs.”
For further information www.xyzmachinetools.com