Accujet, a small engineering company that specialises in profiling and fabrication, is becoming the go-to business for artists, sculptors and designers. Based in Upton, near Poole, Accujet has created art installations and sculptures that are on prominent display around the country. Well-known artists, including Luke Jerram, Tom Hiscocks and Stuart Semple, take their concepts to the team at Accujet, which turns them into reality.

The company was set up 10 years ago by Ken Battrick, who had no idea that within a decade, a third of his growing business would be in the art and design sector. “I sold my house and bought a waterjet cutting machine; it was 2009 and the country was in recession,” he says. “I envisaged working as a subcontractor for other engineering firms and that’s how we started.”
The first art commission for Accujet then arrived from Dorset-based maze maker Adrian Fisher, and from then onwards the company’s reputation grew and it started to take on other art-related work – often at very short notice.
“I bought a second waterjet machine and hired another engineer who has experience in graphic design and 3D modelling,” says Battrick. “Later, we invested in our own laser-cutting machine and fabrication department.”
The company is now a team of seven and has taken over three units on the Upton Industrial Estate.
“Our art side of things is something we want to develop further,” says Battrick. “In engineering, you never really see the end product, but with art I can go and see a piece of work that we have made for an artist and be proud of it. Artists choose to work with us because we are able to understand their concepts and designs, and show enthusiasm for their work.”
For further information www.accujet.co.uk

A specialist in prototyping and low-volume production for a host of high-end automotive OEM and tier-one manufacturers has invested in a new TruLaser 1030 Fiber from Trumpf, the first machine of its type to be installed in the UK.

The TruLaser 1030 Fiber has enabled Essex-based ASE Design & Development Ltd to bring in-house its previously outsourced requirements for 2D aluminium and stainless steel components, which it was not able to cut cost effectively on its ageing CO2 laser cutter from another supplier.
“Our previous CO2 laser was getting older, more inefficient and slower,” states director Andrew Easter. “Such was its performance that we were sending our 2D aluminium and stainless steel parts to third-party subcontractors.”
Frustrated with the situation, the company decided to research the market for a suitable alternative. As ASE already had a TruLaser Cell 3000 3D laser cutter, which had been successful at producing a host of five-axis components since its installation in 2017, Trumpf proved the supplier of preference.
“We did look at a new flat-bed laser from our previous supplier, but the TruLaser 1030 fiber was clearly the better machine,” says Easter.
Work at ASE typically falls within the 0.5 to 4 mm thickness range, usually from aluminium, stainless steel and mild steel. Grilles, bracketry and pressings are among the common types of components produced, typically in low-volume production quantities.
“Since installing the TruLaser 1030 fiber we have stopped putting our laser cutting out to subcontractors, which is a significant saving,” explains Easter. “What’s more, we are making major savings against our previous machine in terms of running costs, as we operate with compressed air as the assist gas where possible, particularly when cutting aluminium.”
For further information www.uk.trumpf.com

A bespoke Noblegen nitrogen generation system has been supplied by MBA Engineering to Anord Mardix, saving the manufacturer in excess of £1000 per month. After acquiring a new CO2 fibre laser cutting system, Anord Mardix quickly noticed how expensive it was to purchase nitrogen for the machine. With this in mind, the team identified the need to invest so it could bring its nitrogen production in-house.

Due to the shortage of factory floor space at Anord Mardix, MBA Engineering provided a bespoke machine to fit into a specific area of 2 x 2.5 m. The MBA Engineering team split the system’s skid, while items on the machinery’s plinth were separated, meaning the equipment could be flexibly fit in and around the factory floor.
“The fact that we now have our own equipment for generating the nitrogen we need to operate our CO2 fibre laser has not only resulted in significant cost savings, we’re also saving on factory floor space since we no longer need to store nitrogen canisters,” says Darren Gollogly at Anord Mardix.
MBA Engineering exclusively partnered with Noblegen in 2018 to save manufacturers up to £1000 per month on the gas costs relating to operating certain machinery, including eliminating the expenses and CO2 emissions associated with regular canister deliveries.
“While the Anord Mardix team wasn’t sure it had the space to install its own nitrogen generation system, we were able to provide a bespoke solution that fitted into the manufacturer’s available area,” says Bradley McBain, managing director of MBA Engineering. “This proves that we have the capability to provide nitrogen generation systems to manufacturers, no matter what the specification.”
For further information https://mba-eng.co.uk/

The latest Laser Line Ultra machining centre from Walter Ewag is designed for the laser ‘fabrication’ of cutting tools, including spiral tools from 0.4 to 3 mm diameter, and made from hard/ultra-hard materials such as WC, PCD, CVD-D and CBN.

Walter Ewag’s Laser Line Ultra can be applied to cutting edge preparation, post-sharpening, chip breakers and cylindrical margin fabrication, as well as to the laser modification of ground cutting tools. Complex micro-geometries can be lasered thanks to the machine’s eight-axis kinematic concept and the use of an industrial laser source that emits pulses in pico-seconds.
By way of example, a four-flute PCD end mill can be produced from a cylindrical blank with its primary and secondary clearance faces machined at both the tip and circumference. The corners at the edges are protected by a chamfer and, as with all lasered spiral tools, the result is a smooth and uninterrupted interface between PCD and WC.
Laser processing removes material in line with thermal-based mechanisms, and because the Laser Line Ultra uses ultra-short laser pulses and appropriate laser machining parameters, the resulting pulse is so short that there is insufficient time for a significant amount of heat to conduct into the cutting tool, meaning there is negligible heat-affected zone. Indeed, carbide drill bits that are laser-fabricated by the machine can subsequently be coated (by the PVD process) with a single layer of TiAlN or AlTiN alloy, and the coating processing method is the same as that applied to ground cutting tools.
The company has worked closely with two of Switzerland’s foremost surface technology companies to ensure successful coating, and together they have used a number of inspection methods to validate the process.
For further information www.walter-machines.com

Technology company ANT AG now offers a novel solution for a continuous suspension cutting processes using the ConSus abrasive mixing unit. With this technology, water abrasive suspension (WAS) can now also be used in the manufacturing industry. The suspension jet enables a more efficient cutting performance and a lower user load compared with conventional water abrasive injection systems (WAIS), reports the company.

In contrast to three-phase WAIS with water, abrasive and air, WAS systems work with a two-phase blasting tool. The cutting jet consists only of water and abrasive with a precisely adjustable flow rate. This suspension is created by the interaction of a main stream and a bypass stream.
Before the WAS arrives at the remotely handled cutting nozzle, it is put under high pressure. The high energy creates a cutting jet in the nozzle which exits at nearly twice the speed of sound. This efficiency is considerably higher than in the injection process, where turbulent mixing losses occur due to the contained air. In addition, due to the smaller nozzle diameter, the jet is more focused and cuts even the hardest materials precisely.
ANT’s ConSus (Continuous Suspension) system is operated at working pressures between 500 and 1500 bar. Compared with conventional waterjet cutting processes, the ANT suspension jet operates at less than half the pressure and, depending on the desired cutting performance, twice to three times the feed rate. The user receives thin kerfs without hardening or material deformation.
For further information https://ant-ag.com