Dormer Pramet moves to Industry 4.0

Global cutting-tool manufacturer Dormer Pramet has started to incorporate Industry 4.0 within its production processes and is currently working with IBM on several key projects.

This work includes using large amounts of data to map the value chain throughout every department of its production unit in Sumperk, Czech Republic, and incorporating computer software to identify defects in tools during the early stages of manufacture.

All of the project’s digital elements aim to enhance Dormer Pramet’s existing manufacturing capabilities. The company will use these elements to further improve its production, increase the quality of cutting tools, reduce waste and advance the service provided to customers. Each of these digital tools form part of Dormer Pramet’s ‘Make the Shift 2030’ activities, which will ultimately help to create a more sustainable business.

For further information www.dormerpramet.com

New MD for Addison Saws

Midlands-based metal-cutting machinery supplier, Addison Saws Ltd, has appointed Chris Wilson as its new managing director. Wilson was previously the company’s UK sales director and will be taking over from previous managing director Gary Knight. Knight drove the company forward in his role for 16 years and is now handing over the reins to his second-in-command for good, after Wilson demonstrated his abilities in a short but successful period as acting managing director during the COVID-19 crisis.

The shift comes at a crucial time for all manufacturing businesses and, having spent 15 years at Addison occupying various roles, Wilson is fully equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to continue pushing the company forward. He has more than proved his capabilities in leading the business over the years by building solid relationships with both customers and suppliers.

For further information www.addisonsaws.co.uk

Productive sliding-head partnership

NSR Engineering, a Bristol-based subcontractor specialising in turned and milled components, is celebrating 20 years of success through its partnership with sliding-head lathe supplier Star Micronics GB.

Buying its first Star lathe in 2000, the immediate advantages of incorporating sliding-head technology enabled NSR to quickly expand its machining portfolio just 18 months later. With the additional two Star machines it acquired, the company’s expanding order book soon led it to outgrow its workshop. In response, NSR purchased its own dedicated 5000 sq ft facility in 2002 and transferred its full capacity of three Star lathes and 14 cam auto machines.

With work for its sliding-head section increasing in demand, and each machine already in production around the clock, the company structured a continuous improvement programme which would see each of its cam auto machines systematically upgraded to Star sliding-head lathes. Furthermore, NSR became the very first company to take delivery of a Star SR-20RIII following its launch in 2007.

Fast forward to today, NSR has a total of nine modern Star lathes running 24 hours a day, offering over 1500 hours of machining potential per week.

Company owner John Duerden says: “The performance and reliability of the machines often allows us to compete with prices abroad, and the short set-up time between jobs gives us truly dynamic production capabilities to suit the demands of our customers. As our components come off the machines complete, running the Stars lights-out means that each morning we are presented with nine bins full of parts.”

The company’s most recent investment is an SR-20JII Type B: this latest addition to Star’s 20 mm SR range offers enhanced power on the spindles and live tools, more tooling positions, increased rigidity and the latest Fanuc control.

For further information
www.stargb.com

Bindatex secures funding

Bindatex, a provider of specialist process and cutting services, has secured an Innovate UK grant of almost £100,000 from the Sustainable Innovation Fund. The purpose of the grant is to support a critical six-month R&D project that will further develop and upscale its 1 mm wide slitting capability for next-generation composite parts manufacturing technology. Innovate UK funding will support the research, testing and development of bespoke technology to enable Bindatex to produce 1 mm wide thermoplastic UD slit tape in volumes that meet the future growth demands of lightweight aircraft and other key applications.

For further information
https://bindatex.com/

The collaborative imperative

Mills CNC, the exclusive distributor of Doosan machine tools in the UK and Ireland, has entered into a collaborative research partnership with Irish Manufacturing Research (IMR), an independent, not-for-profit research and training organisation (RTO) based in Mullingar, County Westmeath. To support the organisation’s research programme in the Irish market, Mills supplied IMR with a new Doosan Puma 2600SY II lathe in August 2020.

The 10“ chuck box-guideway multi-tasking lathe features a 22 kW/4000 rpm spindle, a Y axis (±52.5 mm), a sub-spindle (15 kW/6000 rpm) and driven tooling capabilities (7.5 kW/5000 rpm). Furthermore, the model supplied to IMR featured a number of ancillary technology additions to increase its productivity and efficiency, including: a Hydrafeed servo-driven bar feeder; Filtermist oil/mist extraction unit; Renishaw optical workpiece inspection probe; LNS swarf conveyor system; FSE filtration system; and Hainbuch collet chucks.

The lathe also features an automatic door and a robot interface to facilitate automated workpiece loading/unloading in the future.

Although the Puma was only installed a few weeks ago it has already been involved in a number of customer-led projects. One of these involved exploiting the lathe’s multi-tasking capabilities – using the Puma lathe’s Y-axis, mill-drill and capabilities to significantly reduce the number of machining operations, cut cycle times and conduct in-process inspection to improve part quality.

The project has demonstrated that the Puma lathe’s on-board technologies (including its thermal compensation capabilities) can significantly reduce component processing times – from five down to just one operation – and increase part accuracies.

For further information
www.millscnc.co.uk