MTC apprentice wins award

Olivia Burton, a first-year apprentice at the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC), has been honoured with Coventry & Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce Training’s Business Administration Apprentice of the Year Award.

Burton, aged 19, is on the MTC’s three-year business administration apprenticeship at the Coventry-based MTC.
“This award shows that hard work doesn’t go unnoticed,” she says. “I love my job and progressing in my career, so it gives me a great sense of achievement. I’d 100% recommend the MTC business admin apprenticeship to anyone looking for a business-related apprenticeship, particularly as the scheme is structured to rotate us around various departments within the MTC. This gives us so much experience and a very good understanding of the business as a whole.”
For further information www.the-mtc.org

Promotion at In-Comm

In-Comm Training, a West Midlands training provider, has appointed a new director as it looks to capitalise on recent investment and a record year of performance.

The company, which supported more than 2500 people with apprenticeships and upskilling opportunities in 2018, has promoted Chris Reeves to operations director, overseeing the further expansion of its academies in Aldridge, Bridgnorth and Shrewsbury. As a former member of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, Reeves joins directors Colin Mills, Geoff Jones and Bekki Phillips on the senior management team.
For further information www.in-comm.co.uk

Investment provides opportunity for growth

Family-owned Stevens & Carlotti is a subcontractor supplying metal fabrications to a wide range of industries from its 64,000 sq ft facility in Sandwich, Kent. These fabrications, which can be anything from a simple bracket to fully-assembled and tested machines, are supplied to customers in the power generation, oil and gas, and yellow goods sectors, among others.

At any one time Stevens & Carlotti can have up to 1200 individual jobs in progress which, in addition to laser cutting, CNC punching and folding, welding, and painting, also require the support of a machining facility. Investment in turning and milling capacity with machines from XYZ Machine Tools has enhanced productivity on the company’s fabricated components, and created opportunities to develop a dedicated subcontract machining capability.
“The machining of parts used in our fabrications remains the bread and butter for our machine shop, but with the increased capacity and capability we have now, we’ve seen a growth in pure machining work for customers,” says Joe Douglas, planning manager at Stevens & Carlotti. “This now accounts for between 10 and 15% of our machined output, and is growing year-on-year.”
Most recently Stevens & Carlotti has taken delivery of additional capacity in the form of an XYZ TC 320 LTY turning centre, an XYZ 1510 HD vertical machining centre and an XYZ 710 HD VMC.
The XYZ TC 320 LTY turning centre replaced a temperamental lathe from another manufacturer and provides greater capacity with its barfeed, 78 mm bar capacity, 32 kW spindle and 100 mm Y axis. It is the turning workhorse of the business, with operator Callum Jones simply stating “it works” when asked why he likes it.
For further information www.xyzmachinetools.com

Quality prosthetic parts and dental implants

In Catalonia, Terrats Medical has gradually grown and developed a workshop that can produce the most surprising workpieces on an automatic lathe.

Today, the company that was founded by the family grandfather, is managed by three brothers: Roger Terrats (sales manager and COO), Jordi Terrats (CEO and production manager) and Ramon Terrats (technical office manager).
Before it advanced to become a key player in the dental sector, the company focused on job order production and the manufacture of connector parts. Since these sectors are extremely cyclical, the company decided to turn to a project that dealt with a new product distributed under the brand DESS, which specialises in the production of medical and dental parts. While searching for a partner for this new adventure, the company soon opted for Tornos. Why? Well, because Tornos and its machines have earned an enviable reputation in the implant market.
“Our business started with Tornos Deco machines,” states Roger Terrats. “They are really excellent machines, quite apart from the fact that, in our sector, machine tools are not subject to excessive wear and we could thus resell them at a high price. Today, only a few machines can be resold as they have been here 20 years or more, which is the best proof – if any such proof were needed – of the quality of Tornos products. So, one by one, we’ve sold our Deco machines in order to invest. Firstly, in Tornos Gamma 20 machines and then in Tornos Swiss GT13
machines. Our current machine inventory consists of 23 Tornos models.”
For further information www.tornos.com

Chuck for Swiss-type lathes

According to Big Kaiser, the company has released the world’s first hydraulic chuck designed specifically for Swiss-type automatic (sliding-head) lathes.

Now available in the UK from Industrial Tooling Corporation (ITC), this chuck solution overcomes the problems frequently encountered when using ER collet chucks.
Swiss-type machines make widespread use of ER collet chucks. However, operators often face difficulties when replacing their cutting tools as the available space inside the compact work envelope is extremely tight, providing very little space for tightening the nut. The hydraulic chuck from Big Kaiser simplifies the tool replacement process by using just a single T-wrench. In addition, the chuck facilitates the connection of a coolant tube from the underside.
Head of sales and marketing at Big Kaiser, Christian Spicher, says: “This hydraulic chuck finally provides a simple, easy-to-use solution for all Swiss-type machines, including those from Citizen, Star, Tornos and Tsugami. With the chuck, customers can simplify and accelerate tool replacement. In addition, the system achieves even higher precision cutting results than ever before.”
The new chuck offered by ITC is a world-first concept and Big Kaiser is said to be the only company currently producing such a hydraulic chuck solution. This chuck promises to save time and take the frustration out of tool replacement, essentially superseding existing ER chucks. The Big Kaiser hydraulic chuck for sliding-head lathes is available in six sizes.
For further information www.itc-ltd.co.uk