Prismatic machining on BT30 and BT40 machining centres accounts for the majority of throughput at the Mildenhall factory of subcontractor CTPE, which produces complex, high-precision components for the medical, marine, scientific, defence and electronics sectors. However, productivity on the turning side of the businessreceived a significant boost recently when an ageing, two-axis, fixed-head bar auto was replaced by a Miyano twin-spindle turning centre with twin Y-axis turrets and live tooling, fed by an LNS Alpha SL65 S short-bar magazine.

Supplied by Citizen Machinery UK, the 10-axis ANX-42SYY lathe is fitted with the latest FANUC 31i 15-inch touchscreen control incorporating a new HMI. The machine also features the company’s superimposed machining, whereby three tools can be in cut at the same time thanks to X-axis movement of the sub spindle. Three-axis simultaneous interpolation and double Y-axis cutting are also enabled.

The sub-spindle offset has the additional advantage of allowing reverse-end machining of long parts with extended tools, while simultaneous machining of the front end of the next component is in progress at the main spindle. Otherwise that would have to wait due to interference caused by back-end operations, lowering production output.

Advantage is taken of the machine’s other stand-out feature, LFV (low-frequency vibration) chip-breaking software in the control’s operating system. In practice, at Mildenhall LFV is on for 10 to 15% of a typical cycle.

CTPE’s operations director Alex Taylor says: “We saw LFV demonstrated on the Citizen stand at MACH 2022. This function is extremely useful when machining aluminium, which constitutes most of our work, and is even more effective on plastics, which accounts for about 25% of our throughput.”
For further information www.citizenmachinery.co.uk

Based just outside Dundee, Quest Precision Engineering has been on a trajectory of continuous growth. The Scottish manufacturer acquired two Nakamura-Tome turning centres through the pandemic and has recently added two more to the plant list.

Now with four Nakamura-Tome WT150II turning centres from Engineering Technology Group’s (ETG) Scottish distribution partner RAM Engineering & Tooling, the facility is filling fast. Quest Precision is well versed in machining everything from simple to the most complex of components. It is this requirement for one-hit machining of complex parts from challenging materials that led to the installation of the first Nakamura-Tome turning centre in December 2019, a twin-spindle, twin-turret WT150II. The impact of the Nakamura-Tome WT150II resulted in the installation of a second machine four months later, followed by two more in 2022.

Before Quest installed its first Nakamura-Tome WT150II, it was machining valves for the oil and gas industry in five operations on four machine tools. The production of the complex 2-inch diameter Inconel 718 valves that control the flow of oil from wells was time-consuming and not cost-effective enough to compete with an existing Chinese supplier. To increase productivity and reduce costs, Quest invested in its first Nakamura-Tome WT150II.

Managing director Gordon Deuchars says: “There are 25-30 different valves in the family of parts and, for us to win more business, we had to increase throughput and reduce costs to be cost-competitive with China. RAM Engineering discussed the merits of a Nakamura turnkey solution for the valves and our decision was made. It has been such a success; the first two machines made a huge impact and brought us significantly more business. To support subsequent growth and undertake more R&D work, we bought the next two machines.”
For further information www.engtechgroup.com

Four members of the Toyne family, managing director Chris, his wife and company secretary Christine and two other directors – their son Jason and his wife Julie – runsubcontracting firm Mintdale Engineering of Chesterfield. The company specialises in the CNC turning of bar, tube and billet, as well as CNC milling on five VMCs.

Take, for example, an aluminium gas regulator base produced on the company’s latest turning centre, an Italian-built Biglia B465 T2 Y2 twin-spindle, twin Y-axis turret model supplied by sales and service agent Whitehouse Machine Tools. The 1.25 inch high cuboid part is machined from 2 inch square bar fed by an LNS Quick Load Servo 80 S2 short bar magazine.

This component, which Mintdale Engineering has been producing for 22 years, was latterly machined 20 at a time on a twin-pallet-change VMC. Op 1 involved machining three sides, milling a circular pocket, drilling various holes and then tapping them, while Op 2 after pallet change completed similar features. The floor-to-floor time per base was two minutes.

On the Biglia, Mintdale produces the part in one hit and requires only a small amount of face turning and parting off, the remainder of the cycle being prismatic machining. Both live turrets are deployed at the main spindle for some of the time, followed by simultaneous machining at both spindles using the two tool carriers. Although the cycle time is three minutes, 50% longer per part than before, the big advantage (and saving) is that production is unattended, unlike on the VMC. The finish-machined components pass through the counter spindle onto a conveyor feeding a Hydrafeed Rota-Rack parts accumulator.
For further information www.wmtcnc.com