Established in 2003 as a subcontractor, Drury Precision Engineering started two years later to manufacture its own range of mainly aluminium motorcycle accessories for road and racing bikes, and now no longer takes on external machining work. The company sells its aftermarket bike components globally under the Evotech Performance brand. The past eight years have seen exceptional year-on-year growth in turnover that necessitated careful planning of production capacity on the shop floor to keep pace with demand.

A user since 2015 of 16,000 rpm, high-efficiency machining centres from Brother, supplied through sole UK and Ireland agent Whitehouse Machine Tools (WMT CNC), Drury has over the years used various manually operated, twin automatic pallet change (2APC) models of the three-axis, 30-taper, machines, of which only two remain. That is because, to raise throughput, the company decided in 2015 to transition to automated Brother production cells with the purchase of two five-axis Speedio M140X2s.

One featured a Brother 4 m Feedio vision-based, robotic component handling system, while the other was connected to a System 3R WorkPartner Plus storage and handling system accommodating 180 pallets.

Now the company has gone a step further along the automation route with the installation of a larger capacity Brother Speedio U500Xd1 five-axis machining centre offering pneumatically-operated zero-point pallet location, again served by a WorkPartner Plus storage and handling system, but this time for 60 heavy-duty pallets.

It proved so successful that a second, almost identical cell has been ordered for delivery in October 2024, complete with its own WorkPartner Plus, as sharing one storage system between the two machines would reduce unmanned running hours to below the required 14 hours per machine.

More information www.wmtcnc.com

Factory 33 was established in 2016 at Carterton, Oxfordshire, as a subcontract manufacturer of medium-to-large batches of components to fine tolerances in short leadtimes. The company processes an extensive variety of materials principally on machining centres and a CNC lathe from Hurco Europe.

Factory 33 invested initially in a Hurco VMX30Ti three-axis vertical machining centre with a 4^th-axis rotary table and a Hurco TM8i lathe, since when additional three- and five-axis VMCs have arrived on the shop floor.The most recent purchase is a Hurco VMX30UDi five-axis machining centre supplied with linear scales and through-spindle coolant as standard, as well as a 40-station magazine with swing-arm toolchanger. The direct-drive SK40, 15,000 rpm spindle can deliver 15 kW of power and travels are 763 x 508 x 520 mm. Control is via the proprietary WinMax 5 twin-screen CNC system.

Managing director Martin Krzywina says: “We love the Hurco control and especially its graphics. You can show not only solid models but also the toolpaths. It gives so much confidence when running five-axis programs.You can follow the actual cutting cycle in real time on the screen, so you always know where a tool is in the machining area, even if you cannot see it through the coolant.”

He is impressed by the coolant delivery system, which he says is one of the best he has ever seen, particularly as there is no loss in pressure irrespective of the coolant level in the tank. He also sings the praises of the direct-drive spindle on the five-axis machine, which produces surface finishes that he describes as “impeccable”.

More information www.hurco.co.uk

Mills CNC has supplied Barrs Court Engineering, a precision machining and fabrication subcontract specialist based in Herefordshire, with a new DN Solutions DNM 6700 with Siemens control.

In 2001, Barrs Court Engineering invested in its first Doosan lathe (a Puma 300) and, in addition to purchasing a number of other brand machines over the years, also acquired a sub-spindle, Y-axis turning centre from Mills CNC to strengthen its in-house turning capacity and capabilities.The DNM 6700 is, however, the first milling machine the company has acquired from Mills in its 41-year history.

Toby Kinnaird, managing director, says: “To increase our high-mix, low-volume machining capabilities we made the decision to invest in a new high-performance machining centre to replace two of our older machines that had limited capacity.We were particularly looking for a machine with a larger Xaxis to handle bigger parts which, until then, had been out of our reach.”

The DNM 6700 has a large working envelope and, with its 1300 x 670 x 625mm X/Y/Z-axis travel,is suitable for machining large components and/or multiple smaller parts in a single set-up.

Barrs Court Engineering compiled a ‘must have’ technical checklist for its future machining centre investment and visited the MACH 2024 exhibition in Birmingham earlier this year to identify a suitable machine.

“We visited Mills CNC’s stand on the first day of the show and they provided details on a DNM 6700 that was in stock at their Leamington facility,” says Kinnaird.” After a short while negotiating the deal, we placed the order for the machine later that week.”

More information www.millscnc.co.uk

Machining contracts for the civil aviation, defence and space sectors make up about 60% of turnover at Ingenieur Ltd, Chandlers Ford, with oil and gas accounting for much of the remainder. Turned parts production is only 30% of throughput, the rest being prismatic machining on seven VMCs, the latest two of which are German-built Hermle machines. Supplied by sole UK sales agent Kingsbury, they are the subcontractor’s first five-axis models.

To alleviate a bottleneck in production, a refurbished Hermle C 40 U arrived at short notice on loan from Kingsbury’s showroom in Gosport. The machine was subsequently purchased. A new Hermle C 400 arrived soon after, linked to one of the machine manufacturer’s own HS Flex systems for exchanging 24 pallets automatically, allowing long periods of unattended running. The machining centre features an 18,000 rpm spindle, through-spindle coolant, an extended magazine to accommodate 90 tools, Blum tool measurement and breakage control, and a Renishaw touch probe.

Ingenieur’s general manager Chris Barton says: “Before the Hermle machinesarrived we were quoting and winning a lot of new business in a number of sectors. In a short space of time we gained four additional contracts, so extra milling capacity was needed really quickly, which thankfully Kingsbury was able to supply.”

Ingenieur selected the trunnion-type Hermle fives-axis VMCs due to their high-quality build and the proximity of Kingsbury for providing service and aftersales support. In addition, the machines were available with a Heidenhain 640 control to enable programs from the company’s other VMCs, all of which are fitted with the same make of CNC, to run with very little editing.

More information www.kingsburyuk.com