METAV to open doors in March

The METAV exhibition, which was originally postponed from March 2020, is set to take place on 23-26 March 2021 in Halls 5, 6 and 7a of Messe Düsseldorf.

“The halls are fully booked because ‘METAV 2020 reloaded’ represents the first major machining trade fair in Germany for over a year,” says Dr Wilfried Schäfer, executive director of METAV organiser, the VDW. More than 400 METAV 2020 exhibitors from 25 countries have remained loyal to the event and already decided to attend in 2021. In the run-up to the exhibition, the VDW will be holding monthly ‘theme days’ in the form of the METAV Web Sessions.

For further information www.metav.com

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