Half a century of Edwards

Edwards Engineering, a multi-disciplinary engineering firm based in Perth, is celebrating its first 50 years by setting out an ambitious growth strategy for its second half-century.

The 60-employee firm has expanded sales at an annualised 20% since being bought from its founding family in August 2016. Edwards Engineering expects to boost turnover from the current £7.5m, to £20m within the next three years, largely by focusing on its existing customers and expanding delivery capacity, while aggressively seeking new skills and capacity via strategic acquisitions.
For further information https://edwardsengineering.co.uk/

Sawing nickel alloys three times faster

A specialist stockholder serving the oil and gas industry, Howat Group, perhaps better known by its trading names AMS, ESS and Ancon, has installed a 14th Kasto bandsaw – a KASTOwin pro AC 5.6 – at its new centre in Barnsley, which opened at the end of 2018. The facility represents an investment of more than £2m by owner Malcolm Howat, and has been timed to coincide with the oil and gas sector’s nascent emergence from a downturn that started in 2014.

Half of the sum went on acquiring a freehold, 60,000 sq m property on Cortonwood Drive in the Dearne Valley area of Barnsley. The remainder was spent on infrastructure, materials handling equipment, two further Kasto bandsaws and refurbishment of all the older models, some of which have been in service since the 1990s and still cut accurately.
The German-built KASTOwin pro, supplied ex-stock from the manufacturer’s UK subsidiary in Milton Keynes, is a competitively priced machine designed for cutting tough nickel, titanium and stainless steel alloys up to 560 mm in diameter using a tungsten carbide-tipped (TCT) blade. However, the machine also allows economical cutting of low-alloy steels when the blade is swapped for a high speed steel (HSS) bi-metal type.
Howat’s operations director Emma Parkinson says: “We have four dedicated carbide cutting bandsaws on site which include KASTOtec AC5s and now the KASTOwin pro, which is even more capable. They are ideal for cutting our Inconel 625, 718, 725, 825, 925 and K500 stock. Our latest investment was to increase our overall cutting capacity but also to improve efficiencies around nickel alloy cutting specifically. The remainder of our sawing machines with capacities up to 800 mm diameter are intended for bi-metal cutting, but can also use TCT blades with offset teeth.”
She adds: “The advantage of the latest KASTOwin pro saw, apart from its ability to use either type of blade economically, is its high productivity, which is down to fast cutting speeds and quick set-up using the new touchscreen control.”

Programming is fast with the Kasto EasyControl, as cutting parameters for any given material, size and cross section are determined automatically by a built-in database, so all that is needed is to enter the cut length and number of pieces required, and press start.
The productivity benefit is most pronounced when cutting nickel alloys. Formerly, the company was sawing Inconel 718 with a TCT blade at 3 to 4 cm2 per minute, but on the KASTOwin pro that has risen to an average of 12 cm2 per minute. So, for example, a 200 mm diameter bar that would previously have taken up to 90 minutes to cut can now be processed in less than half an hour.
Parkinson explains that she was familiar with the benefits of the latest German-built bandsaws compared with the performance of the legacy machines, having worked with this make of saw when previously employed at another stockholding company.

So when Howat Group, one of the largest stockholders in the UK, needed more capacity to cope with an increasing number of high volume orders for nickel alloy billet and low-alloy steels, the KASTOwin pro was a logical choice. The large batch sizes frequently ordered make it economical to spend time changing from an expensive TCT blade to bi-metal, to extend the life of the TCT teeth.
A feature of the automatic KASTOwin pro is its electro-mechanical down-feed via two ballscrews, each with a servo drive for precise, infinitely variable control. The positive motion allows smaller tolerances to be set, typically -0 / +0.5 mm for most stock, minimising material wastage. There is a retraction unit for separating the blade from the material to protect the cut surface when the saw head moves back, which also helps to minimise tool wear.
The band is driven by an 11 kW motor, delivering infinitely adjustable cutting speeds from 12 to 150 m/min, and providing plenty of capacity for TCT sawing. Helping to dampen vibration and lower noise during operation are ‘Trum’ guides mounted at the return side of the blade, inside the top of the saw head guarding. These guides suppress vibration on the side opposite from the cutting action, prolonging blade life and promoting high squareness accuracy and good surface finish.
Partly due to larger orders being received, and because of the high value of nickel-based metals, Howat Group’s monthly turnover trebled within a few months of the stockholder opening its new facility. Key to maintaining growth is providing customers with a high quality service in terms of prompt delivery of material that is within tolerance.

Parkinson concludes: “It is for this reason that we have more or less standardised on Kasto sawing equipment and see the supplier as a partner to our business. We regard the manufacturer as a premium brand whose rigid and technologically advanced bandsaws maximise blade life and cut accurately for decades, despite heavy use.”
For further information www.kasto.com

AFRC takes part in £1.2m tool and die project

The Advanced Forming Research Centre (AFRC) at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, has joined forces with a consortium of six other companies to pave the way for low-cost remanufacture within the tool and die industry.

DigiTool, as the two-year project is known, is part-funded by Innovate UK and worth £1.2m – one of the biggest investments of its kind within the sector for over
40 years. The project partners aim to provide organisations of all sizes with the capability to remanufacture worn or damaged dies by helping
them embrace additive manufacturing, adaptive machining and industry 4.0.
For further information https://is.gd/ezuhan

Tooling firm has ally in Haimer

Located in Poole, Allied Tooling is a business that has completely evolved its cutting-tool services over almost 40 years of existence.

The company offers a comprehensive range of services, from the supply and sharpening of TCT saw blades, to bespoke CNC and PCD tooling for the woodworking and metal-cutting industries. Allied has recently spent almost £1.2m on new equipment, including Vollmer and Anca grinding machines, and three machines from Haimer.
The company acquired a Haimer Tool Dynamic TD Comfort balancing machine, a UNO 20/70 Microset pre-setter and a Power Clamp Economic Plus NG heat-shrink machine.
As to why the company opted for the Haimer UNO 20/70 Microset pre-setter, Allied Tooling’s Rod Knight says: “It is simple to use, the software is very user friendly and we even selected a version with the extra travel height of 700 mm for our particularly long tools.”
Looking at the heat-shrink system, Knight states: “With the Haimer Power Clamp Economic Plus NG, we can now offer a service where we heat-shrink customer tools into holders for them. What we do is re-lap or re-grind tools in the holders, which are perfectly concentric. This is a service that has taken our business into an area that we didn’t have before. We can provide a complete refurbishment service on the tools.”
Moving on to the arrival of the Haimer tool balancing system, Knight says: “Everything we do on our Vollmer machines has to be balanced to within 2.5G. It’s essential, especially as some of the machines using these tools are now running upward of 24,000 rpm. If you have a tool that isn’t balanced when working at those speeds, it won’t be long before you have a spindle that is out of sync.”
For further information www.haimer.biz

ITC combats milling challenges with Widia

The VSM890-12 face and shoulder milling series from Widia is now available in the UK from Industrial Tooling Corporation (ITC).

VSM890-12 cutters are said to be among of the very few eight-edged, double-sided tools with genuine 90° milling capability.
Widia’s VSM890-12 cutter is able to conduct operations that include face milling, shoulder milling, Z-axis and contour plunging, and 100% radial engagement slotting. This operational diversity is credit to the availability of a course, medium or fine-pitch insert density that corresponds with a newly developed pocket seat design which enhances stability and rigidity during roughing applications.
VSM890 is available with a 32 mm diameter Weldon end-mill configuration, while the shell mill tool bodies come in diameters from 40 to 250 mm, with a cartridge face mill providing a 315 mm diameter. Each tool diameter is offered in the aforementioned course, medium and fine-pitch variants, whereby the course-pitch tool bodies are the optimal choice for low spindle power machines that may have an unstable set-up. For machine shops that have reasonably robust set-ups and spindle power, the medium-pitch tool body is first choice, while operators using heavy-duty machine tools with high spindle power will find the fine-pitch variant to be the optimal solution.
Perhaps the most impressive feature of the WSM890 tool is its true 90° cutting for wall and step milling. With an integrated wiper facet and positive rake design on the inserts, the VSM890 cutter generates high levels of surface finish and an efficient and smooth cutting action for low-power machines. Furthermore, with eight-edged inserts, ITC can offer a cost-effective milling solution.
During the remainder of 2019, Widia will be extending the range with the introduction of 7, 9 and 15 mm insert dimensions.
For further information www.itc-ltd.co.uk