Editor’s Pick

Chick work holding offers productivity and accuracy

Shipley-based TecnAir designs and manufactures an extensive variety of pneumatic cylinders, valve assemblies, linear drives, handling equipment, controls and other products.

What characterises this manufacturing activity above all else is the large amount of machining involved to produce the high-accuracy components. To this end, since the early 2000s the manufacturer has entrusted component clamping on its machining centres to Chick work-holding products, supplied through sole UK agent 1st Machine Tool Accessories.

Steve Watson, CNC operations manager at TecnAir, says: “Fixturing is crucial, as we cannot tolerate any movement or vibration. Chick products underpin the required level of accuracy in our factory. Not only do we get rigid work holding, which incidentally also prolongs tool life, but a high level of interchangeability of the various Chick clamping units also helps to minimise investment in the equipment.”

Supporting prismatic machining operations on the shop floor are 15 Chick QwikLOK units, which find employment on five vertical machining centres: three from Haas and two from Mazak. Six of the units are dedicated to pendulum machining of relatively short pneumatic cylinder bodies from aluminium extrusion in three operations – rear end cap machining, front end cap machining, and inlet and outlet port machining – on a Mazak VTC-530. The resulting high-density work holding has the effect of maximising the use of the available machining area and reducing the overall number of tool changes required.

In addition, there are 11 MultiLOK towers deployed across three twin-pallet, four-axis, horizontal machining centres: a stand-alone Doosan HC400 and two Mazak HCN-4000s linked by a Palletech automated storage and retrieval system for 16 machine pallets. Materials processed are mainly aluminium and stainless steel, plus some brass, with castings accounting for 30% of throughput. The company produces the remainder from either billet or extrusion.

For further information www.1mta.com

XYZ Machine Tools helps to keep vans safe

Exeter-based Van Guard Accessories has invested in a new XYZ 750 TMC vertical machining centre with ProtoTRAK RMX control and 20-station carousel tool changer. The machine enabled this progressive manufacturing business to bring in-house the manufacture of prismatic parts for its ULTI Lock hook-lock, which is the first ‘Sold Secure’Gold level hook-lock for vans.

The first part on the new machine was the lock’s face plate. Fixturing was designed so that 22 face plates could fit on onepallet. Previously, countersinking of the face plates to three different depths took place manually, requiring 15 minutes per part. To subcontract this operation cost £1.10 per component, so in-house machining was easy to justify with a cycle time of 30 seconds per plate and a payback on the machine of less than three years.

Director of operationsLeigh Andrewssays: “The ULTI Lock has been a raging success; we’re making between 4000 and 6000 per month. Typically, each van will have two or three hook-locks, one on the rear door and two on the side door. We’re preparing more fixtures so that we can introduce the machining of other parts in-house. Currently we’re only using 50% of the XYZ 750 TMC’s capacity, so we have plenty of machining time available for different parts. Furthermore, with the machine’s swarf conveyor, we’re able to recover more money from recycling the swarf while at the same time maintaining a clean machine and clean coolant.”

Van Guard chose the XYZ 750 TMC as Leigh Andrews had experience of the machines at a previous company.

“Although we’re new to CNC machining, the graphics and ease of use of ProtoTRAK made the crossover from manual to CNC machining easy,” he concludes.

For further information www.xyzmachinetools.com

ETG expands its offering

CNC machine tool supplier, the Engineering Technology Group (ETG), has formed a new business division for fabrication. Always intent on meeting market challenges, the new ‘Fabrication Division’ will provide turnkey solutions for the fabrication industry with the VLB Group as one of its partners.

As with all solutions and services from ETG, the company has no interest in ‘shifting boxes’, so the new Fabrication Division will be headed up by Andrew Smith Hughes who joins the ETG family with more than a decade of expertise in delivering turnkey solutions to the marketplace. The new Fabrication Division will incorporate a range of technologies that include tube bending, flat-bed laser cutting and cold roll forming to list but a few, with ancillary fabrication product lines also available to support manufacturers.

For further information www.engtechgroup.com 

Mazak takes its largest ever UK order

Yamazaki Mazak UK has recorded a successful year for machine sales in 2023, a year that included its largest-ever machine order.The success was driven by a strong pipeline of high-value project wins based around the company’s experience and competence in project management, engineering support and turnkey solutions. In addition, a particularly strong December open house attracted more than 700 visitors over the four days.

During the year, Mazak also sold its largest-ever machine into the UK market and achieved strong sales for five-axis machines, multi-tasking machines (2023 marked the 35th anniversary of the introduction of Mazak’s flagship Integrex machine series) and the QT turning centre range.Results were also helped by the strong performance of key sectors, including aerospace, defence and medical, along with the recovery in the energy sector and subcontracting.

For further information www.mazakeu.co.uk

World-first welding technology

Engineers from across Europe met in Flimby, Cumbria last month to demonstrate welding technology that will transform the way repairs take place in the shipping industry.Forth Engineeringinvited 12 partners from across Europe to showcase RESURGAM (Robotic Survey, Repair and Agile Manufacturing), a project that combines in-water friction stir welding technology with artificial intelligence and robotics.

The new technology will ultimately allow ship owners to repair vessels in the water, eliminating the need for a dry dock, thusimproving safety, cutting costs and saving time. Forth will share outcomes of the demonstration with the consortium and continue to work towards a solution that will be ready for roll-out across Europe and beyond.

For further information www.forth.uk.com