Biggest ever UK order for JCB

Britain’s biggest equipment rental firm is buying 2100 new JCB machines in a deal worth £65m, the biggest-ever order from a UK customer in the company’s 75-year history. Sunbelt Rentals is expanding and renewing its fleet as the construction industry rebounds strongly from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The rental specialist is investing in JCB Loadall telescopic handlers, mini and midi excavators, site dumpers, tracked excavators, and rough terrain fork lifts – all manufactured at JCB’s Staffordshire factories. Sunbelt Rentals is also investing in 350 JCB access platforms – JCB’s biggest-ever UK deal for this equipment following its entry into the $8bn powered access market in 2017. The massive order comes as JCB recruits hundreds of new shop-floor employees following soaring demand.

For further information www.jcb.com

Fibre laser tube processing

With its new ByTube 130, Bystronic says that sheet-metal processors can quickly and easily get into tube processing. The fibre-based machine opens up a wide range of applications for all metallic materials in diameters from 10 to 130 mm, and material lengths up to 8.5 m. In addition, the machine has a loading capacity of 17 kg/m, while the 2D cutting head allows the processing of a large proportion of customer requests, since vertical cuts account for 90% of the market.

Notably, the ByTube 130 has the potential to substitute complex and cost-intensive processing steps: a growing number of manufacturing companies are discovering laser cutting as an alternative to sawing and drilling. The fibre laser performs both processes at once and, according to Bystronic, considerably faster. Thanks to clean cutting edges, deburring is also a thing of the past. This capability not only results in reduced labour costs, but reduced cost per component thanks to elevated throughput speeds.

The machine is available in two performance levels, 2 or 3 kW. Due to its shorter wavelength compared with CO2 laser technology, the fibre-based ByTube 130 has no problems with highly reflective non-ferrous metals, such as copper and brass.

With the new ByVision Tube user interface, Bystronic combines all the functions relating to the laser cutting of tubes on a single touchscreen. Even entry-level users without extensive experience can immediately start producing with the ByTube 130, says the company. The intuitive software supports new users with the import and creation of cutting plans, which ensures the straightforward handling of cutting sequences.

For further information
www.bystronic.co.uk

QFS installs five-axis laser cutter

QFS Technologies, a specialist supplier of body-in-white (BIW) parts to the automotive industry has invested in a new Trumpf TruLaser Cell 5030 five-axis (3D) laser cutter. Although the company has an older Trumpf five-axis machine that has given many years of reliable service, QFS knew that investing in the higher performance and richer feature set of the TruLaser Cell 5030 would provide a number of competitive advantages, particularly in relation to new project work for a major customer.

“Once the investment decision had been made, it was always going to be a Trumpf machine,” states managing director Neil Holloway. “I’ve worked with other laser cutters in the past, but Trumpf machines are a lot more reliable. When you think about the curvature and complex shapes of a car panel, it’s easy to imagine the essential role of a 3D laser cutter at QFS. We cannot afford to run an unreliable machine.”

With its low machine-hour rate, the TruLaser Cell 5030 is suited to small and medium batch sizes, and for applications where components are frequently changed. Furthermore, TruTops Cell Basic software enables users to make quick adjustments to programs directly at the machine.

BIW parts produced on the new TruLaser Cell 5030 at QFS are mostly cut from aluminium, although some are made from high-strength steel, typically 1-3 mm thick.

“Our guys became accustomed with the machine really quickly,” says Holloway. “The controls on the TruLaser Cell are easier to use than on our older five-axis model. In addition, we were already familiar with the TruTops offline programming software, so our learning curve has been pretty shallow. We’re now in the process of migrating programs over to the new machine.”

For further information
www.trumpf.com

Record start to year at XYZ

XYZ Machine Tools says it is breaking sales records with its start to 2021. The company reported its highest order intake for 18 months in February, only for March to exceed that figure. In the last week of March alone, the deliveries of over 30 machines took place. XYZ says that the first quarter of 2021 has proved to be very encouraging and, with the benefit of the Government’s ‘super deduction’ incentive for capital equipment, the company is hopeful that this positive trend will continue.

“February and March have been extremely encouraging, and are confirmation of the positive conversations we’ve been having with customers since the end of 2020,” says Nigel Atherton, managing director of XYZ Machine Tools. “The increase in business has meant we’ve reinstated overtime in the factory and employed additional staff for machine assembly, with further recruitment in the pipeline.”

For further information
www.xyzmachinetools.com

Medical specialist prefers Tornos

The Switzerland-based Azurea Group specialises in the production of components and sub-assemblies for the medical equipment industry. In 2009, Azurea Holding SA acquired the Bévilard Company with the primary aim of strengthening and evolving its medical device offer.

According to Samuel Geiser, Azurea’s Bévilard site manager: “It’s now about providing a service – assembly. We have decided to stand out as a supplier of finished products. This is undeniably a pledge of added value that makes us real specialists, not only in the field of assembly, but in terms of specific functions. We can develop innovative solutions from materials that are sometimes very exotic.”

On the subject of exotic materials, Geiser is first and foremost is thinking of specific stainless steels and different grades of titanium. Thanks to its vast inventory of Tornos machines that comprises 13 Deco 10 and two Deco 13 machines, some of them equipped with gear-cutting function, Azurea can also machine materials such as PEEK, a thermostable plastic material. There is no material and no challenge that frightens Azurea, and the company prides itself on versatility and a pioneering and visionary spirit.

“We recently opened a grey room for assembly where we put the finishing touches to our products,” Geiser says. “This investment is intended to limit potential process contamination by users. We make the experience and expertise of our technicians available to customers in the medical, dental and micro-technology sectors, for them to achieve impeccable quality.”

For further information
www.tornos.com