Manufacturing capacity doubled

British luxury watch manufacturer Bremont made the most of a strategic partnership between Sandvik Coromant and DMG Mori as it introduced a turnkey manufacturing cell to double capacity at its factory in Henley-on-Thames.

High demand and the launch of six new watch designs meant that Bremont’s production capacity had to be increased, leading the company to purchase a DMG Mori NTX 1000 turn-mill machine equipped with tool packages from Sandvik Coromant.

DMG Mori’s NTX 1000 is equipped with a magazine for 38 Coromant Capto tools, with the option of expanding the capacity up to 76. The machine is suitable for turning and high-speed milling in five axes, simultaneously.

Frederick Shortt (application technician at DMG Mori) and his development team created and simulated the NC programs with Vericut software.
“Together with Sandvik Coromant we optimised all of the programs in such a way that as few tools as possible are required,” he says. In other words, Bremont only bought the tools it really needed. As this all took place before installation, Bremont was able to start producing from day one.

“This joint optimisation meant that any teething problems were reduced to a minimum and the investment quickly paid-off for Bremont,” adds James Rhys-Davies, strategic relations director, northern Europe at Sandvik Coromant.

Malcolm Kent, production manager at Bremont, says: “We produce very complex parts with tolerances of 3 to 5 µm, where quality and precision are of paramount importance. Thanks to the NTX 1000 in combination with Sandvik Coromant tools, the processes are absolutely trouble-free.”

For further information www.sandvik.coromant.com

Sarginsons selected for partnership

Coventry-based light-weighting specialist, Sarginsons, has been chosen to be part of a ground-breaking engineering partnership led by Lotus, which has won UK Government support and funding to develop an all-new, next-generation Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) architecture.

Lotus will collaborate with supply chain partner Sarginsons Industries and leading academics from Brunel University London to harness the full ‘light-weighting’ potential of the vehicle architecture. Sarginsons is set to develop the vehicle chassis using a new alloy.

For further information www.sarginsons.com

Large aerospace order

In what is one of its largest single orders to date, Stratasys says that Latvia-based additive manufacturing service provider, AM Craft, has purchased four large-scale production-grade Stratasys F900 3D printers to provide certifiable 3D-printed parts for a wide range of aircraft interior applications, including aircraft seating, panelling and ducting.

“In recent years, we’ve seen ongoing demand for 3D-printed production parts among major aircraft OEMs,” says Jānis Jātnieks, co-founder and CEO of AM Craft. “Although COVID-19 has shocked the industry in the past few months, we’re seeing efforts to restart business by remodelling passenger planes for cargo shipments, as well as projects to increase customer safety measures and improve the in-flight experience. In such cases, additive manufacturing is way ahead of slower and more costly traditional methods.”

For further information www.stratasys.com

Estanc relies on PEMA technologies

Estanc, an Estonia-based family-owned company that specialises in products such as environmentally friendly heat exchangers and pressure vessels, has been relying on solutions from PEMA for the past 10 years.

“We manufacture a lot of pressure vessels, shells and tanks, and they need to be moved around frequently,” says explains Tõnis Tuuder, designer at Estanc. “That’s why PEMA welding turning rolls for heavy workpieces are so crucial for us.” With this in mind, the latest delivery of PEMA solutions included two PEMA welding positioners: PEMA APS 1500 and PEMA APS 3500.

For further information www.pemamek.com

Walter boosts drilling and turning

Tooling expert Walter GB has announced additions to two product ranges that will generate benefits in deep-hole drilling and turning. The company’s solid-carbide X-treme Evo drill now extends to capacities of 16-30xD and offers deep-hole drilling without the need for pecking, while new CBN insert grades for machining ISO K and H materials complete the company’s CBN turning range.

Part of the DC160 Advance range of drills – the successor to Walter’s Alpha 4xD drills – the new drills have optimised coating and geometry. Also featured is a thinner web with 140° point angle, while the fourth land is in an ‘advanced position’. The former ensures increased positioning accuracy and reduced centralised cutting forces; the latter optimises drill guidance. Furthermore, polished flutes optimise chip evacuation.

The drill grades (WJ30ET and WJ30EU) are also new. These grades comprise the K30F fine-grained substrate and a TiSiAlCrN/AlTiN multi-layer coating (as a point or as a complete coating). The layer structure makes the drills both tough and wear-resistant, as well as playing a crucial role in process reliability and performance. Walter offers the drills in intermediate sizes and in special dimensions, on request, via its fast-delivery Xpress service.

For turning, the new CBN indexable insert grades for ISO H and ISO K materials are WBK20 for finishing cast iron and WBK30 for high metal-removal rates in hardened steels (and for finishing with a heavily interrupted cut). Both grades are also suitable for roughing and finishing sintered steel. Walter offers the new grades in all of the most popular ISO sizes and radii.

For further information www.walter-tools.com