Tom Pearce started his own business, CIRC Manufacturing in Westbury, Wiltshire in 2016. Current CNC capacity at the company includes a vertical machining centre and two fixed-head lathes, all pre-owned, and three Citizen Cincom sliding-head lathes also purchased second-hand due to financial constraints during the start-up phase. His stated aim is to gravitate towards using more of the latter machines to produce complex, small to medium diameter, high added value components.

In 2019 Pearce bought a 1995-built Cincom L20-VII slider with a 3 m bar magazine sight-unseen for £4000 from a website and used his engineering skills to refurbish it himself. He did not feel sufficiently confident to commission it, so asked Citizen Machinery UK to align the bar feeder, bolt down the machine and check the axis movements. The company was very receptive and promptly sent in an engineer to complete the work.

A year later, Pearce again approached Citizen Machinery UK directly for a machine with C-axis spindles and higher speed driven tooling. The supplier offered a K16E-VII built in 2011, a 16 mm capacity slider that ticked the right boxes and is one of the fastest lathes that Citizen has ever manufactured.

A copper contact pin, a development part that was previously produced on the L20-VII, saw the cycle time fall threefold from 60 to 20 seconds using the K16E-VII. The contract has since expanded and the subcontractor is now producing a family of pins in long runs for a customer in the electrical industry.

In January 2022 Pearce bought a two-year-old Citizen Cincom L20-VIIILFV, again on the open market, and achieved another step change in productivity. The first job put on the machine was the production of 20,000 stainless steel gland nuts of 22.22 mm diameter for an electrical equipment manufacturer.
For further information www.citizenmachinery.co.uk

Amorphology, a NASA spin-off company, specialises in the application of advanced materials and manufacturing technologies for the improvement of non-lubricated micro-gears for robotics and other industrial applications. These materials have advanced features over steel, titanium and aluminium, for example.

Amorphous metals are a non-crystalline class of alloy that cut and chip differently than other materials and, in the company’s quest to source a machine that could produce the micro-gears, it conducted machining tests with several machine suppliers – including Starrag – to assess the precision, cycle times and overall capabilities of the machines as they cut a relatively unknown alloy.

“We were focused on finding the best machine to meet our rapid prototyping, mould insert cutting and post-processing needs,” says Amorphology’s COO Jason Riley. “The Starrag Bumotec s191H turn-mill centre outperformed all contenders.”

After receiving CAD files of the prototype micro-gears and undertaking tests using a Starrag-developed cutting tool at the machine tool builder’s sites in Switzerland and the USA, several batches of samples were produced. Amorphology was impressed with the results and, in discussions with Starrag about how both companies could co-operate to grow their respective businesses, it was agreed that Amorphology would showcase the Bumotec in its Pasadena (California) site for the customers of both companies to view.

Amorphology is set to make a wide variety of parts on the machine, from mould inserts to prototype gears, as well as other production bulk metallic glasses and traditional metal parts.

“We are targeting high-precision parts with tolerances of often around ±5 µm on certain dimensions,” says Riley. “Most of our work is focused on rapid prototyping and batch production quantities in the region of hundreds of parts per month.”
For further information www.starrag.com

At MACH 2022 last month, the Okuma Spaceturn LB3000 EX II turn-milling centre made its first appearance in the UK equipped with the Japanese manufacturer’s Armroid robotic arm, the first in the world to be integrated inside a CNC machine tool. All Okuma machines are sold and serviced exclusively in the UK and Ireland by NCMT.

Three different end-of-arm effector options are available for the robot, capable of performing different tasks. One is for blasting the cutting zone with a mixture of air and coolant to improve chip management. Another provides additional support during the cutting process to prevent chatter. In combination with a workpiece stocker, the third effector is a two-finger gripper for holding shaft-type workpieces weighing up to 5 kg and then automatically loading and unloading them. All three end-of-arm effectors are stored within the machine and are changed automatically by the robot.

While most conventional robotic systems require complex integration and special training for staff, Armroid needs neither. As the robot is part of the machine tool, separate system integration is unnecessary. Using Okuma’s own OSP-P300A control, an operator enters the co-ordinates for the start and finish points before the robot moves through its motions, the cycle generating automatically to avoid collisions. Roid Navi software simplifies programming using images and on-screen guides.

There exists a longer, more powerful Armroid that can be integrated into larger Okuma multi-tasking lathes. The robot arm handles workpieces up to 10 kg and possesses a fourth type of end effector with a three-jaw gripper for holding billets around their end faces. Armroid systems are suitable for high mix, small batch work. The extended periods of unattended running free the operator to carry out duties in other parts of the factory.

For further information
www.ncmt.co.uk

As a precision component manufacturer to the oil and gas, nuclear, defence, hydraulic, off-highway, automotive, and aerospace industries, Mollart Cox has invested in its first robotic machining cell to enhance flexibility and productivity. Turning to the Engineering Technology Group (ETG) and its Nakamura-Tome range of turning centres, the flexibility of the manufacturer has flourished since installing the automated cell.

Referring to why the Chesterfield-based company invested in the cell from ETG, Christopher Cox, managing director of Mollart Cox, says: “We needed an automated cell like this because we have various set-ups. Many of the parts are similar in shape but different to produce. So, the set-up was key to us, as was the ability to use a machine with or without the robot.

“We selected the Nakamura-Tome WT-150II because of the build quality,” he continues. “Additionally, ETG has a very good back-up and support service. The speed and low-noise levels are impressive, while our tooling packages work very well with the machine.”

Steve Brown, sales director at ETG, adds: “We have a fully operational automated cell that incorporates the Nakamura WT-150II turning centre and the Robojob turn assist. So, what we’re doing here is loading billets and unloading finished parts. The Robojob stores the raw material, and it has a pallet system where the finished parts collect. The beauty of the cell is that it’s a completely flexible unit, so you can produce anything from a very small component up to a larger billet, light-out. This enables anybody with a nucleus or a range of parts to move into full production.”

The Nakamura WT-150II is a twin-spindle, twin-turret machine with a Y axis on the upper turret and a 65 mm through-bore capacity.

For further information
www.engtechgroup.com