As a member of Made in the Midlands, work-holding specialist Hyfore regularly attends the annual Expo, with 2019 being no exception. Operating the stand this year were Oli Riley and Rob Wait.

“The Expo gives us the opportunity to meet new people and network with people we already know,” says Wait. “It helps get our name out there a little bit more, and gives us the opportunity for more business.”
Hyfore remains proudly Coventry-based and supplies to a number of industry-leading firms throughout the Midlands.
“It’s a good opportunity for us to hone in on the fact that we’re from Coventry,” says Riley. “Coventry’s quite prestigious when it comes to the automotive industry and a lot of engineering and manufacturing, so it’s quite good to stick with our roots. Especially with the fact that the Expo’s actually in Coventry at that Ricoh arena, it’s perfect.
“I think manufacturing is definitely on the up again,” he continues. “We’re seeing a lot of projects in the Midlands and around the country that are starting to pick up more. Being out on the road and seeing different customers and speaking to them more often we find that actually, they’re benefiting from new projects coming about, and hopefully, it continues.”
Adds Hyfore’s sales manager Graham Cherry: “We’re always expanding and diversifying, constantly looking to grow our client portfolio and further our reach. We’ve got three new sales staff starting within the next 6-12 months, which will help us enhance our work-holding offer. We’re definitely seeing an increase in business and are looking to reinforce our already strong position in the market.”
For further information https://hyfore.com/

Maprox AIR chucks and the ER range of pneumatic collet holders for automation are now available in the UK from exclusive agent, Leader Chuck International.

Maprox has a long history of providing fixture solutions for complex components, thin-walled parts, delicate geometries and other challenging products such as gears, shafts and bearings for the automotive, watchmaking and medical industries.
The Maprox AIR is fully automation compatible. A rotary pneumatic feed supports flexible mounting options and adjustable clamping force. With 8 mm of jaw travel, the chuck opens pneumatically against spring force. The spring on the top cover can be pre-tensioned to match application requirements. Repeatable inner or outer clamping can be achieved
with changeover times of less than 1 minute.
Measuring 160 mm diameter and with an ultra-low chuck body height of just 60 mm, the chuck occupies minimal space within any automation or robot-loading system. Maprox AIR has a flexible clamping range with the top jaw or pin jaw to suit the application. Interface compatibility is supported with shanks, intermediate plates or adapters. Further sizes will be available in the near future
“Jaws for this new chuck can be made of steel, coated or plain aluminium, plastic and so on, to match the component being held,” states Leader Chuck International’s managing director Mark Jones.
Designed to keep weight to a minimum, the ER collet holders are manufactured from ALTEF-coated aluminium and weigh less than 1 kg. In application, the user can choose to pneumatically control the ER collet holder laterally or from below. The central rotary feed-through on the bottom supports full rotation of, for example, turntables or indexing units.
For further information www.leaderchuck.com

Henley-based Rousant Sherwood selected Roemheld UK as the supplier of various hydraulic items to fulfil a project to automate a Topper VMC.

The items included: an MC100Z concentric vice and a block cylinder that acts as a tailstock to secure the component between centres for Op 1; a pair of swing clamps to hold the component for Op 2; rotary unions for both pre-existing, pneumatically-operated indexing heads to feed the hydraulics to the fixtures without tangling the hoses; and a hydraulic power pack.
When production commences, the robot opens the VMC’s doors, picks up a stainless steel billet from a table at the front of the machine, and places it in a horizontal orientation in the hydraulic Roemheld vice, which executes a soft close. The tailstock advances so that its centre pushes the billet to an end stop at the back of the jaw, whereupon full clamping pressure is applied.
Op 1 consists of milling two diametrically opposed flats along the length of the billet, drilling and chamfering three holes through the flats, and drilling and grooving two blind holes on either side. The component is then indexed through 90° for a small pocket to be milled.
Once the doors have been opened, the robot picks up the part-machined component and transfers it to the Op 2 fixture, where the workpiece is secured by Roemheld swing clamps. A fresh billet is loaded into the vice so that its Op 1 cycle can be completed with Op 2 on the previous part while the doors are closed.
Op 2 comprises drilling and tapping a blind hole in one end face of the billet and drilling two holes at an angle through the small pocket on the side so that they intersect internally. The entire cycle takes just over one hour to complete.
For further information www.roemheld.co.uk

An XYZ 1000 LR vertical machining centre from XYZ Machine Tools has been installed at Eclipse Magnetics, a manufacturer of magnetic chucks and lifting equipment, as well as magnetic filtration and separation systems.

A recent review of the company’s in-house machining capacity identified the need to replace an ageing vertical machining centre that had 25 years of service and was seen to be on “borrowed time”. Due to the nature of the work, with a mix of standard catalogue and bespoke systems, any new machine had to be versatile, easy to set-up and program, as well as provide the Y-axis travel needed to accommodate taller parts in the product range.
“In addition to the size of machine, the price/performance ratio was a major driver in our decision making when it came to the new machining centre,” says John Parker, design engineer at Eclipse Magnetics. “We looked at lots of options, but after discussions with one of our subcontractors, Impact Toolroom Services, who use XYZ machines, we settled on the XYZ 1000 LR vertical machining centre.”
The type of machining undertaken includes light milling, drilling and tapping in materials from stainless steel to aluminium, so the use of linear rail technology in the XYZ machining centre range provided the cost-effective solution Eclipse Magnetics sought. Choosing the XYZ 1000 LR also delivered the table size and Y-axis travel required, as well as the overall performance in terms of traverse rates and spindle speed, these being 20 m/min in all axes and 8000 rpm, respectively.
For further information www.xyzmachinetools.com

At the Leeds facility of the LoneStar Group, investment has been made in work-holding equipment that reduces job changeover times and increases production efficiencies.

LoneStar Leeds specialises in the manufacture of products such as valve gates, stems, seats and metallic seals for the oil and gas, petrochemical, power generation, and renewable energy markets. The facility houses 13 machining centres, consisting of vertical, horizontal and twin-pallet machines with capacities up to 2,300 by 800 mm.
The managing director at LoneStar Leeds, Jon Collinge, says: “Having invited Thame Workholding to visit our site and assess a series of soon-to-be-manufactured thin walled parts with challenging specifications, the InoTop jaw system was recommended. The system proved to be ideal for securely holding the parts without causing deformation or compromising roundness. In addition, the use of InoTop accelerated production in this potentially problematic area. Given the elimination of scrap and the significant time savings we now achieve, our InoTop jaw system is ahead of schedule on its projected ROI.”
Operating on the principle of centring the workpiece on its outside diameter without the application of pressure, then clamping from the inside diameter, InoTop prevents unwanted polygon formations in the clamping process.
“The great success of the InoTop jaw system means that we have since invited Thame to look at several of our other machine tool applications,” says Collinge. “Their recommendations and our subsequent purchases of additional Thame Workholding products have enabled us to achieve further efficiencies and helped us to uphold our demanding quality standards.”
For further information www.thameworkholding.com