To upgrade its plant and instigate 24-hour production later this year, High Wycombe-based subcontract machining firm EV Engineering has bought four Japanese-built Okuma turn-mill centres from sole UK agent NCMT. Founded in 2001 by David White, the subcontractor specialises in producing complex prismatic components in exotic materials for the oil, gas and energy sector, which accounts for around three-quarters of the firm’s turnover.

It was at EMO 2005 – where Okuma launched its first Multus turn-mill machine with a B-axis spindle – that EV Engineering became interested in the Okuma range of machinery. The five-axis Multus features collision avoidance in real-time, both in-cycle and in-manual mode, preventing collisions and minimising unscheduled downtime. It was the latest version of this Multus machine, with a sub-spindle and steady rest, which arrived on the shop floor in 2018.

“It’s an extremely rigid, slant-bed lathe on which we carry out a lot of machining, including deep-hole drilling in titanium and Inconel,” says White. “We don’t consider it feasible to leave it producing high-value parts unattended, so we don’t intend to add automation on this machine. The same currently goes for the Okuma Genos L3000 that we bought the same year, as it’s a two-axis lathe with live tooling dedicated to producing smaller parts in lower volumes.”

He adds: “It is our intention, however, to retrofit a robot to the Multus U3000-2SW multi-tasking B-axis lathe with automatic tool changer, lower turret and sub-spindle that we installed in December 2019, to give us the benefit of lights-out running.”

An Okuma Space Turn LB3000-MY lathe with live Y-axis turret is currently on order and will be fitted with a Belgian-manufactured RoboJob Turn-Assist.

For further information
www.ncmt.co.uk

Global sales of e-bikes are set to reach about 40 million units by 2023, and Tornos Swiss-type sliding headstock lathes, services and software are already helping e-bike component suppliers keep pace with that growing demand.

Today, there are 200 million e-bikes registered in China, according to the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, with 30 million more e-bikes being added each year.

Moreover, china has more than 700 e-bike manufacturers, accounting for 80% of global turnover.
One of the market’s most popular e-bike drive units relies on a crankshaft featuring a splined chromium steel (16MnCrS5) axle, and these parts are commonly machined on Tornos EvoDeco machines.
Available in four diameter ranges (10, 16, 20 and 32 mm), the EvoDeco series offers high levels of flexibility. Tornos says that no other machine can engage as many tools at the same time. The machines are equipped with the latest-generation technology and boast a powered spindle with asynchronous motor. Users profit from acceleration rates and stopping times that are four times faster than alternate machines on the market, reports Tornos.

As electrification drives innovation in mobility, the EvoDeco helps manufacturers keep pace with the evolving e-mobility landscape. For example, EvoDeco models feature four completely independent tool systems, 10 linear axes and two C axes, while continuous thermo-stabilisation ensures precision. Accessibility and simple programming are further hallmarks of the EvoDeco range.

Thanks to its experience in sectors such as electronics and automotive, Tornos says it has the know-how and solutions to produce the connectors needed for e-bike batteries, sensors and displays, as well as connectors for e-bike charging stations.

For further information
www.tornos.com

The cost-effective Vulcan series of machines from the Engineering Technology Group (ETG) now includes the new TC250 turning centre, one of the most compact models in the range.

Available in four variants, the TC250 base model is the entry-level cost-efficient option with a single spindle and turret. This machine has a maximum turning diameter of 316 mm, a swing-over-bed of 600 mm and a working length of 435 mm. Working within this area is a spindle with a speed range from 25 to 3500 rpm and a bore of 77 mm diameter.

TC250 models feature a 45° slant-bed construction to ensure maximum stability, while ensuring the effective removal of swarf from the work area.

Adding to the TC250 base variant is the TC250M for manufacturers seeking a reduction in secondary operations through the application of live tooling stations on the turret. The TC250M utilises a servo turret to instigate live tooling with speeds from 25 to 4000 rpm.

Complementing the TC250 and TC250M is the TC250L – a long-bed version that extends Z-axis travel from the standard 490 mm, to 1340 mm. A TC250ML model incorporates both live tooling and an extended bed.

All four machines in the TC250 series are equipped with direct-drive servo motors for smooth and rapid traverse movements of 30 m/min in the X and Z axes, with a cutting feed rate from 0.001 to 500 mm/rev. The standard offering from ETG includes a 3-bar coolant pump, 190-litre capacity coolant tank, programmable tailstock, eight-position hydraulic tooling turret, three-colour beacon light, toolkit, work light, heat exchanger for electrical cabinet, chip conveyor, automatic lubrication system, automatic tool probing and automatic part catcher.

For further information
www.engtechgroup.com

Since 2015 KAMPF Schneid- und Wickeltechnik GmbH & Co KG has been rapidly accelerating its integral digitisation. While the company initially focused its efforts in this direction on products and services, it is now equipping its production plants for the era of Industry 4.0 through its close innovation partnership with DMG Mori.

The KAMPF production site in Dohr clearly demonstrates the status of the digital innovation process. Here, DMG Mori ‘Planning Solutions’ has been in use for several months. “This has made us more efficient and flexible and, with a 30% reduction in throughput times, we can respond faster,” says Dr Stephan Witt, head of engineering & material management.

KAMPF has now initiated entry into its next evolutionary stage of digitisation with the installation of a CTV 250 vertical turning centre from DMG Mori.

“The result is greater integration and interaction between the office and shop floor, or rather between planning, machine tools and our employees,” explains Marc Jobelius, plant manager.

Thanks to the ‘Job Import’ function, the operator can import job orders directly from ‘Production Planning’ into the CELOS system and start processing immediately. Also, PDA information can now feed directly from the CELOS application connector.

In another joint KAMPF/DMG Mori pilot project, ‘real’ data from the shop floor is now being recorded in ‘Production Feedback’ and written into a central database via an integration layer. This will ultimately result in an extensive data pool from which realistic projected figures for previously unknown work steps will be calculated using algorithmic pattern-matching before transfer to new planning processes.

For further information
www.dmgmori.com

Based in Eastwood, near Nottingham, Trust Precision has become a leading Midlands provider of sliding-head turn-milled components. In 2011, managing director Nick Street acquired his first Citizen sliding-head machine, a Cincom M32-VIII model, which was fitted with a pneumatic guide bush that improves the machine’s ability to accept bar stock of variable quality and extends bar capacity from 32 to 35 mm diameter.

“With B-axis movement of one of the tool carriers and a total of nine cutters facing the sub-spindle, the machine was at the time more advanced than most other lathes on the market,” he says.

The machine proved ideal and there are now six similarly equipped models operating around the clock at the Eastwood facility, lights-out overnight. All are fitted with 130 bar high-pressure coolant and a 3.6-m bar magazine. The latest M32 addition, plus a 20 mm bar capacity Citizen L20-XII with programmable B axis and low-frequency vibration (LFV) chip-breaking software, arrived in January 2020.

Until the pandemic took hold in early 2020, aerospace contracts accounted for up to 60% of turnover, but the proportion is more like one-third of that now. New business from the medical industry offsets the current shortfall in commercial aerospace work due to Covid-19.
Fortuitously, the presence on the shop floor of the L20-XIILFV meant that its superior chip-breaking ability could provide more efficient turning of medical parts from stainless steel bar.
Street says: “LFV is a must if you are buying a Citizen lathe that offers this option. It’s a major technological advance, more so because it can be activated by the part program.”

For further information
www.citizenmachinery.co.uk