Balancing solutions suit SWD Precision

In 2019 Accretech acquired the SBS Balancer Product Range. In the two years since, the synergy between the brands has resulted a range of benefits to global manufacturers, not least in the area of grinding.

Alongside many other machine tool and inspection applications, Accretech provides high-precision in-process gauging that delivers real-time measurement during grinding cycles. SBS is a specialist in the field of grinding wheel balancing and grinding process monitoring. Both Accretech and SBS products are available as OEM equipment on new grinders or as retrofit solutions to existing machines.

A prime example of a precision grinding company that relies on both Accretech and SBS products is Tamworth-based SWD Precision.

Having recently ordered a universal grinder from Timeline Machine Tools, managing director Stephen Drew travelled to central China to observe the production and assembly of his new machine and pass it off. Although the universal grinder featured an Accretech in-process gauging system, to further expand the machine’s capabilities, the decision was made to retrofit an SBS balancing system.

In consultation with Accretech UK it was decided that an SBS non-contact, automatic balancing system, consisting of an SB-5500 controller, an external balance head and an acoustic emission monitoring system card, would constitute the ideal solution. The compact SB-5500 controller features an all-digital electronic design and has a large, high-resolution detachable display.

Pointing out the benefits, Drew says: “We produce precision ground components for motorsport and other equally demanding sectors involving short production runs. It therefore helps that, in addition to increasing our grinding throughput and saving set-up time, our new SBS balancing system is ensuring part quality by automatically balancing our grinding process to an accuracy of 0.02 µm.”

For further information
www.accretech.eu

£8m sales and technology boost

A UK designer and manufacturer of cooling and HVAC products to the transport sector has sealed a string of new contract wins that has seen it take sales past pre-Covid levels. Birmingham-based Grayson Thermal Systems has bounced back from the pandemic after securing more than £8m of orders from customers including ABB, Solaris, Skoda and Wrightbus. Group turnover has now risen to £32m supported by the creation of more than 40 new jobs.

The company’s new Battery Thermal Management System (BTMS) is proving extremely popular with its core bus and coach market, as well as other customers in the off-highway commercial vehicle and rail sectors. This ‘plug and play’ technology helps to regulate the temperature of electric vehicle batteries.

For further information www.graysonts.com

Select Committee visits manufacturing leaders

Members of the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee visited the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) to hear about how research and innovation is creating new jobs and boosting economic growth across the West Midlands. The committee met with Clive Hickman, chief executive of the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC), Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands, and Katherine Bennett CBE, CEO of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult. The group toured the MTC’s Antsy Park campus to see first-hand the advanced research and development work taking place across the site.

For further information www.the-mtc.org

DMC installs vapour polishing system

The Digital Manufacturing Centre (DMC) will be the first service provider in the UK to take delivery of DyeMansion’s Powerfuse S – a state-of-the-art, eco-friendly industrial vapour polishing system. Integral to the DMC’s polymer part finishing, the system was acquired through Laser Lines, DyeMansion’s UK reseller.

With its capabilities, the Powerfuse S will significantly improve the DMC’s polymer surface finishing, delivering sealed and washable parts with injection moulding-like surfaces. As one of the first facilities to adopt this system, DMC engineers will be working closely with DyeMansion to maximise its potential and investigate new materials and applications.

DyeMansion’s VaporFuse Surfacing (VFS) minimises surface roughness by flooding the machine’s entire vacuum chamber with vapour. The result is a highly reproducible process that works for complex geometries and internal surfaces on all common plastics.

The system uses DyeMansion’s bespoke VaporFuse Eco Fluid – an environmentally-friendly solvent – to process plastics in accordance with food contact regulation (EU) 10/2011. Circulated continuously and recovered by the system, the fluid allows the Powerfuse S to operate in a closed loop as a contact-free process without chemical waste or the requirement for users to wear protective equipment.

Aligning closely with the DMC’s vision of a connected, Industry 4.0-ready AM production facility, the Powerfuse S offers fully automatic loading, connectivity and batch tracking. Specialised programs have been developed and validated for all common materials to make the Powerfuse S ‘plug and play’, while all process parameters can be tailored to suit additional materials.

With the addition of the Powerfuse S, the DMC has also become the first AM production facility to utilise DyeMansion’s complete reference architecture.

For further information
www.digitalmanufacturingcentre.com

Productivity gains provided by Vericut

With an impressive machine shop that equals many of the motorsport teams it supplies, Blackmore Precision Engineering has invested in a selection of advanced manufacturing equipment to produce complex, tight-tolerance components. Helping the company achieve its promised lead times is Vericut CNC simulation and optimisation software from CGTech.

Kidlington-based Blackmore Precision’s 12,000 sq ft facility is equipped with a range of five-axis CNC machining centres: three Matsuura MAM 72 machines (each with 32 pallet stations), four DMG Mori DMU 50 modes (some of which feature automated pallet changing) and a DMU 70 for larger parts. The company’s immaculate machine shop has grown and developed rapidly since Brendan Blackmore started the business back in 2005.

“Back then,” recalls company director Jeremy Gray, “Brendan was based in a small unit where he used a machining centre and CADCAM software to successfully produce parts on a quick turnaround for Formula One teams and other motorsports customers. Due to high demand, additional staff and machine tools followed, with a move to a larger unit before relocating to our existing site in 2010.”

Bringing his general management experience to the company Gray joined Brendan Blackmore, who still owns the business, in 2008.

“Initially it was all about turning parts around very quickly; we were accustomed to having drawings arrive on a Friday and having to supply parts on the Monday,” says Gray. “We still do this today, but in addition, we go through the rigorous inspection criteria that is required in every industry sector.”

Since the business made the decision to invest in Vericut simulation and optimisation software from CGTech in early 2021, it has further improved the efficient turnaround of customer parts.

“We had looked at Vericut in the past – however, when two new team members joined, both of whom had prior experience with the software, we were persuaded that was the way forward,” explains Gray. “From a business perspective, investing in Vericut has been very impressive right from the start. Having the whole CGTech team, from sales to training, help get everything in place very quickly, has been exceptional. Thanks should also be given to technical support for getting all our machines modelled and set up in the software.”

Lead CNC programmer Jan Plovucha was a catalyst for the application of Vericut at Blackmore Precision Engineering. For CADCAM, the company uses Open Mind’s HyperMill software, which has a direct interface with Vericut to import all of the necessary detail, including the Lang high-pressure clamping system and zero-point plates used across the shop floor. The goal is to use the experience of the programmers to ‘hit’ the component in one.

Says Plovucha: “We can rely on Vericut, so our prove-out time has dropped dramatically. This is vital as we’re running small batches of components with complex geometries, and we do not keep parts on file. Each job is treated as a new job, so every part gets the Vericut treatment each time because it may not be run on the same machine or by the same machinist.”

In fact, Vericut substantiated its value in the very first week as one job planned for a DMU 50 machine was identified as exceeding the limits of the machine tool.

“Previously, the machine would have been set up with the tools and run until it encountered this issue,” says Plovucha. “Then it would need to be broken down and reset on a different machine, losing time and possibly accuracy as we try to match the datum points.”

He continues: “We use the Autodiff module to check the parts for excess stock material and eliminate gouging where the CAM program may want to go through the part stock material. Vericut is so good we don’t think about some of these problems anymore, and the technical support and training provided is first class.”

At around 25% of the company’s annual turnover, motorsport is still an important market, but the business has broadened its customer base and diversified over the years. Many businesses supplying the various Formula One teams in the UK and beyond understand the cyclic nature of the industry, which has fantastic opportunities during the ‘car build’ that lasts for about 5 or 6 months. However, for the company to remain busy throughout the year requires demand from other industries.

“We targeted work that matched our capabilities, and now supply Rolls-Royce Aerospace, Jaguar, Bentley and many tier-one automotive companies,” says Gray. “We also do a lot of scientific and instrumentation work; here in Oxfordshire there are many start-up companies that spin out of the university.”

Metallic materials cut by Blackmore include aluminium, titanium and Inconel, as well as mild and stainless steels, while engineering and glass-filled plastics are also precision machined. Cycle times vary between 30 minutes for a simpler aluminium part to around 30 hours for a complex casing cut from titanium.

Volumes are never excessive, although the automotive batches at up to 100 parts are much higher than those demanded by motorsport customers.

“We may have suspension parts for Jaguar and they could be batches of around 70, but they also do a lot of special builds and vintage cars, and that can be as low as batches of 10 or so,” explains Gray. “The work is certainly very interesting, and the rising demand of EV will bring lots of challenges, but it’s a big market going forward with lots of opportunities.”

He concludes: “We’re hungry to get bigger and carry on varying the customer base to a level we can still handle and give the service that people require. To do this we try to organise things really well, so everything is always available, like the consignment tools we hold here in a vending system. If you only have a few days to complete an order, you don’t want to spend an hour looking for a tool – so that’s all part of what we do here. Vericut has been an important link that allows us to deliver quickly when required, and always reliably. The software certainly has added benefits that we didn’t consider beforehand.”

For further information
www.cgtech.co.uk