Sheffield Forgemasters has installed the UK’s largest five-axis vertical turning lathe (VTL) – manufactured by Spanish company BOST – as part of a £6m upgrade to its machining facilities that will improve capacity and throughput for complex machining requirements.

Commissioning of the VTL was attended by delegates from Sheffield City Region Local Enterprise Partnership, which helped to fund the VTL installation, alongside senior supply chain partners and officials from BOST and its UK supplier, McDowell Machine Tools.
David Bond, CEO, says: “The improvement to our machining facilities is of particular interest to customers in the defence industry as the VTL has superior accuracy and will significantly reduce lead times on delivery for crucial components, both for the UK and US submarine programmes. Our new VTL will also have significant implications for the machining of domed or cylindrical components, such as those required in the civil nuclear power market and pressure vessel sector.”
Weighing almost 250 tonnes, the BOST VTL required the removal of 6000 tonnes of earth and 3400 tonnes of concrete to create a foundation. The machine has a maximum machining height of 4 m, maximum swing diameter of 8.5 m, table weight capacity of 100 tonnes and embraces the Industry 4.0 strategies of process control, adaptive control and real-time interactive maintenance protocols.
Stuart McDowell, managing director at McDowell Machine Tools, says: “BOST hydrosphere machines offer the key benefits of being extremely heavy, rigid and powerful, yet are still capable of the highest levels of accuracy. This technology is a significant investment for Forgemasters and gives the company capability unrivalled in the UK and matched by only a handful of companies throughout the world.”
For further information www.sheffieldforgemasters.com

A Christchurch-based subcontract machinist has invested in the latest CNC technology to help it meet a 20% growth in orders.

Peter Day Precision Engineers, which is part of the Venture Precision Engineering Group (VPEG), has installed a Nakamura WY150 from the Engineering Technology Group (ETG).
The twin-spindle, twin-turret configuration gives the company the ability to remove a lot of secondary operations, making the overall turning process quicker for customers.
“Our work is very much around manufacturing complex machined components that have to perform in demanding environments, whether that is for aerospace, oil and gas, or the medical sector,” explains general manager Pete Makosa. “Over the past 12 months we have witnessed a 20% increase in orders, which will see the wider VPEG group break through £10m turnover this year. This, combined with a strong pipeline of future orders, means we needed additional CNC turning capabilities, so we asked long-term supplier ETG to come up with a solution.
“Our first Nakamura, a super NTJ, was installed in 2010, so we know how reliable they are and the fact they offer fast metal removal rates while still holding tight limits,” he adds. “The WY150 is a very impressive machine and has the added benefits of being twin spindle and twin turret; that was a very big plus for us.”
Peter Day, which supplies components for blue-chip customers including Curtiss Wright, Planer, Armfield and Eaton, installed the new Nakamura in June and it is already having the desired impact of releasing capacity and meeting increased volumes generated by a clutch of contract wins.
For further information www.engtechgroup.com

The workshops of the Llangollen Railway provide maintenance for the firm’s own rolling stock, as well as supporting other heritage railways around the UK and building brand new steam locomotives to order.

Like many such organisations, Llangollen Railway relies on donations, not only of cash and time, but also machine tools. However, when one particular project came up, the decision was taken to invest in new machinery in the form of an XYZ SLX 425 ProTurn lathe.
Llangollen Railway was tasked with the restoration of the iconic streamlined A4-class locomotive, Sir Nigel Gresley. In its life, the locomotive has had many overhauls, and the latest is taking place in full public view at the National Railway Museum in York by the Sir Nigel Gresley Locomotive Company Volunteers, except for its boiler, which has been stripped of its streamlining and transferred to Llangollen for refurbishment and re-certification. Part of the work involves replacing the boiler stays. As the boiler requires 296 of these stays of various lengths, with Whitworth threads at either end, an upgrade from manual turning was deemed wise.
The railway therefore took the decision to invest in an XYZ SLX 425 ProTurn lathe with 1.25 m between centres; a selection that is paying dividends as each boiler stay can now be machined complete in half the time that they previously took on a manual lathe.
“The ProtoTrak control makes life very easy as it guides you through everything; the ‘Traking’ feature is very handy and the ‘Do-One’ canned cycle feature in the control is extremely useful for machining features such as radii and chamfers,” says machinist Michael O’Toole.
For further information www.xyzmachinetools.com

The ability to change its recently installed Citizen Cincom A20-VII sliding-head turn-mill centre into a non-guide bush variant for applications on plastic components and shorter length parts, while retaining the guide bush assembly for longer parts, has enabled Colpa Precision Engineering to cut weeks from its lead time with significantly reduced material costs.

Says general manager Martin Branch: “The removable guide bush feature on the Cincom A20 has increased our competitiveness in a tight market as we no longer have to order pre-ground bar for plastic components, which has not only reduced material cost but saved four weeks on our lead time to customers and enabled us to pick-up new business.”
Branch also confirms that by replacing an ageing Citizen Cincom C16 with the new A20, Colpa is slightly reducing cycle times, but more important to customers, improving productivity, consistency, uptime and machining accuracy, which is again helping to lower lead times.
Recent investment has been consistent at Colpa with some £560,000 spent over the past three years. In addition to machining centres and fixed-head lathes, six Citizen sliding-head machines are installed at the Watford site. The recent Cincom A20-VII installation is now mainly used for plastic parts and some aluminium, to which Branch says: “We ran our first production batch with the guide bush installed and then removed it in less than 45 minutes. So
far we have never used it again due to the advantages that we gained without it on smaller parts.”
For further information www.citizenmachinery.co.uk