Replacement of an ageing, single-table, horizontal-spindle machining centre with a new, German-built Burkhardt + Weber (BW) twin-pallet model supplied by UK agent, Kingsbury, has revolutionised the machining of industrial gearbox casings at Rochdale-based Renold Gears. The gearbox casings are produced mainly from iron castings and fabrications, but also from steel and aluminium.

The resulting savings in floor-to-floor times of between one-half and two-thirds are due to increased metal removal rates during cutter engagement, significantly reduced non-cutting times through faster axis movements, fewer operations due to better fixturing methods and faster component changeover through offline set-up on the second pallet.
Furthermore, with the twin-pallet configuration, if there is an issue during the machining of a component it can be brought out of the working area for inspection, allowing production of the next part to commence. Such troubleshooting would have resulted in a lot of unproductive time on the previous machine.
Renold’s gearboxes are large prismatic components that can measure more than 2 m in height and weigh up to 3 tonne. Around 20% of the products manufactured are standard, with the remainder being customer-specific designs that are produced in quantities of between one-off and 30-off per month. Fast, flexible machine tools are needed to produce such relatively low batch sizes in a cost-effective manner and allow the manufacturer to compete in world markets.
When the company’s CEO was appointed in 2013, he instigated modernisation initiatives that started with the factory infrastructure. A programme followed of drive and control retrofits and mechanical upgrades to what are fairly specialised machine tools, such as worm screw and wheel production centres.

Three years later, the company’s production workers were asked which machine on the shop floor they would most like to replace, and the large horizontal machining centre was almost unanimously chosen. By then, this machine’s unreliability was resulting in sometimes having to outsource machining to meet production deadlines. After several twin-pallet HMC options had been considered, the decision was taken to purchase a BW MCX 1400 with a 3200 by 2200 by 2000 mm working volume and B-axis NC table.
A senior manufacturing engineer at Renold Gears says: “During trials, the BW machine proved capable of more than halving the cycle times on the old HMC, and was also more productive than the other four-axis machines with pallet changers that we considered. We gave two test parts to each potential supplier: a gearbox casing for a heat exchanger and another for an escalator drive. On average, they were machined around 15% quicker on the MCX1400.”
Key elements of the machine specification that deliver this high productivity are acceleration of up to 5 m/s² to rapid traverse speeds of 60 m/min, and a 60 kW/3500 Nm/5000 rpm spindle with HSK-A100 interface.
The engineer at Renold Gears adds that other factors favouring the chosen machine were its availability on short delivery, as well as its ergonomic design, which promotes safety when personnel approach to access the working area or carry out servicing while it is running. Additionally, the 180-pocket tool magazine (extendable to 330) is helpful, as a large number of cutters are needed to cope with Renold’s wide range of gearbox casing sizes and materials. A majority of these tools can be permanently resident in the magazine.
Drawing tolerances are tight for such large components, down to 20 µm in total for certain machined features like gear centres and shaft bores, some of which are produced by interpolation milling. The reliability and repeatability with which this level of accuracy is achieved on the MCX 1400 means that downstream benefits are experienced in the metrology department. CNC inspection is faster, as it requires less comprehensive routines and fewer components need to be checked.

Kingsbury prides itself on providing a production solution rather than a machine tool. While the BW installation at Rochdale was not what the supplier would class as a full turnkey project with tooling and fixtures, which Renold provided itself, it nevertheless entailed significant early support.
Initial test programs were converted directly into cycles for production parts covering two families of casing, while further programming support was provided along with on-site operator training. Service is carried out by Kingsbury’s own engineers via the company’s divisional LPM (Large Prismatic Machines) offices in Warwick.
The engineer at Renold Gears concludes: “We’ve also been migrating the machining of our custom gearboxes and some standard product across to the BW machine to take advantage of its high productivity. It already does the work of the old horizontal machining centre and another machine, and we’re looking to consolidate jobs on the BW that we currently put on a third machine. Once a process is in place on the MCX 1400, it eats the work.”
For further information www.kingsburyuk.com

A name established from the Japanese term for craftsman or artisan, ‘Takumi’ Precision Engineering has been delivering both craft and artisanship to the shores of Ireland for over 20 years.

The Limerick-based company has invested heavily in recent years with a new factory expansion that has taken floor space to 50,000 sq ft, and over €5m invested in new machine tools and CAM software to further extend its market position on the Emerald Isle.
Takumi Precision is a prominent figure in the medical device, pharmaceutical, aerospace and precision engineering sectors in Ireland. The company manufactures orthopaedic implants and instruments, cardiovascular assembly aids, medical grade rasps, balloon moulds, and delivery system components, as well as aluminium wing and fuselage components for the aero industry, and electrical, electronic, mechanical and optical engineering parts for the precision machining sector.
Down the years, Takumi has invested in turning centres from Tornos, Doosan and Miyano with three- and five-axis machining centres from Doosan, Spinner and, most recently, Matsuura adding to the plant list. One of the company’s core investments has been hyperMILL CAM software from Open Mind Technologies, which was driven by the onset of barrel tool technology, an influx of five-axis machines and challenges with previous CAM systems.
Commenting on the changes at Takumi, managing director Gerry Reynolds says: “Only five years ago, 90% of our work was in the medical industry, with the remaining work being across a number of sectors, including the aerospace market. We had an opportunity to enter the aerospace segment in a more positive way, increasing volumes from 1 to 3-offs, to continuous batches of 10-15-off, on the Airbus A220, previously known as the Bombardier C-Series. We had to invest in five-axis technology to accommodate the ramping-up of this complex aerospace work, so we bought 13 five-axis machines in the past five years.”

The investment has paid dividends, with aerospace work increasing from 5% of turnover to almost 60% in less than five years. However, this success is not to the detriment of the medical business, as Reynolds continues: “Our business has doubled in size over the past three years due to the increased aerospace work, but the medical sector remains crucial to Takumi. Medical components are now 40% of our business; the volume of work has not reduced, it just hasn’t grown at the level of the aerospace work. We now have 87 staff and are targeting a monthly turnover of €1m.
“Around 10 years ago, I didn’t understand CAM and would have argued against it,” he adds. “However, there was a necessity for CAM to run our machines and at the time I called it ‘finger CAM‘, as we were programming at the machine. We progressed to a more comprehensive CAM system and eventually installed eight seats. However, a visit to the AMRC in Sheffield introduced us to Ceratizit’s barrel tools and Open Mind’s hyperMILL CAM system, which changed the game.”
After investing heavily in CAM software, Reynolds was naturally apprehensive at the prospect of changing software again.
“Over the past 5-6 years, we’d spent a lot on CAM packages and what we had, worked relatively well, but there were a few issues with processing speed, occasional crashes and some feature limitations,” he says. “It was the barrel-tool machining features within the hyperMILL MAXX High Performance Strategy that appealed to me, but I wanted my team to take the lead, as they would be the ones using the software.
“The team did their due diligence, taking in hyperMILL demos and then asking our existing CAM vendor if the barrel-tool feature and the mirroring package were available,” adds Reynolds. “Our CAM supplier and other vendors all said ‘it’s on its way’ or ‘it’s in development’ regarding more than just these two features in hyperMILL. That told us all we needed to know about the various vendors in the market, but it told us a lot more about hyperMILL. They are clearly streets ahead of the other CAM developers. We have rapidly moved to hyperMILL; we bought our first seat 18 months ago and now have six seats. Our previous CAM system is currently being phased out.”
Primarily, the reason Takumi Precision invested in hyperMILL was the potential of barrel tools to significantly improve productivity.
Commenting on this capability, Reynolds says: “The hyperMILL MAXX Machining High Performance Package and the respective barrel tools with their innovative geometry allow us to step-down 5 to 10 mm, as opposed to 0.4 to 0.8 mm, when finishing pockets, walls or profiling features. This has instantly reduced finishing cycles by at least 70%, giving us a minimum overall cycle time improvement of 30% on every component.”
However, the benefit is not just the cycle time improvement.

“We’ve historically had a number of staff undertaking finish-polishing of parts to ensure our surface finishes exceed customer expectations,” he says. “Despite the increased speed and step-over rate with hyperMILL MAXX High Performance Machining, the surface finishes are much better than before. This is because the barrel tool has a higher engagement rate that keeps the tool in constant contact with the workpiece.”
Another feature that persuaded Takumi Precision to invest in Open Mind CAM software was the mirroring function, as Reynolds explains: “In the aerospace industry, almost everything is manufactured with a left- and right-hand component. The mirroring feature in hyperMILL is remarkably comprehensive and, with the touch of a button, we’re reducing our programming times on most components by 50%. We have eight programming staff and the mirroring feature in hyperMILL is effectively doubling the productivity of this team.”
Although hyperMILL has reduced cycle times on the shop floor by over 20% and reduced programming times by upwards of 50% in the office, the benefits reach much further.
“Open Mind’s hyperMILL is much faster than previous CAM systems and it handles ‘big data’ much better than we’ve previously witnessed,” states Reynolds. “This has eliminated unforeseen PC crashes and massively improved the reliability, processing and delivery of our data to the
shop floor. Furthermore, Open Mind’s hyperCAD, which is integrated into hyperMILL, is an excellent platform that has eliminated our reliance on CAD packages such as Inventor. We can now expedite jobs through hyperCAD to hyperMILL with ease.”
For further information www.openmind-tech.com

For those finding themselves driving behind a gritter or salt spreader in the UK this winter, there is an 80% chance it was bought or hired from Econ Engineering by the local council or highways contractor. The company is the largest British manufacturer of such vehicles, producing 360 units per year at its 88,000 sq ft factory, which opened in 1980 in Ripon. Additionally, Econ operates a growing hire fleet of currently more than 800 units, which has boosted annual turnover to over £34m, making the firm a major contributor to the local economy.

In fact, in its 50th year, Econ is experiencing an unprecedented order book, partly fuelled by recent harsher winters, but also due to the multi-body products that allow customers to utilise one chassis for multiple tasks, such as road repair and winter maintenance, making the investment usable throughout the year.
The 220-employee company’s dominance in the market is down to the premium quality of its products, with all design and manufacture carried out in-house, including the painting of components. For nearly one-third of its 50-year existence, Bystronic has been helping Econ to maintain the high level of component accuracy that underpins its reputation for quality.
Initial credit for this success story goes to the late Bill Lupton, who single-handedly started a business towards the end of the 1950s in a barn on his family’s farm to make flail mowers and hedge trimmers. Exceptionally cold and freezing weather during the winter of 1962/63 brought England to a standstill, with many being cut off for weeks. This turn of events inspired Lupton to develop the first salt-spreading vehicle that would keep the country moving and the wheels of industry turning.
To manufacture the salt spreaders, he started Econ Engineering in the autumn of 1969 on an old brewery site in Ripon. By then, the M1 motorway had opened, as well as sections of the M2, M4 and M6, and local councils, notably Lancashire and Westmorland, were expressing considerable interest in winter maintenance operations such as salt spreading and gritting.

Fast-forward 34 years and 2003 saw the second generation of Luptons – Jonathan and Andrew – take over the company. They were instrumental in developing contract hire for gritters and snowploughs at a time when public spending cuts were making new equipment purchase difficult. Underlining their commitment to building up this side of the business, in 2005 the brothers increased the fleet size through the acquisition of a major competitor, Municipal Hire Services.
It was in the early 2000s that the first Bystronic laser machine replaced a turret punch press and a plasma cutter for processing the majority of components made from mild steel plates. In addition to being used in the manufacture of gritting and salt-spreading equipment, the components also find their way into snowploughs, as well as bodies for highway maintenance and road patching that Econ mounts to lorry chassis, often Mercedes and DAF.
The laser machine, a ByStar 4020 with a 4 kW CO2 power source supplied by Bystronic UK, greatly increased production efficiency and component accuracy. Sheet metal up to 4 x 2 m could be processed on the machine, but its 4.4 kW and then 6 kW successors were able to accept sheet up to 6.5 x 2 m (nominally – in practice 1.83 m wide). Larger body panels can be produced without welding and the productivity of smaller components is boosted by the ability to nest and cut more parts in one sheet, at the same time reducing the amount of wasted material in the skeleton.
Installed in 2014, the current laser machine works 24/7, processing up to 35 tonne of steel a week into any of 87,000 different components produced in batch sizes ranging from 5 to 30, and to an accuracy in some cases down to ±0.5 mm. With such a large variety of part numbers, extensive use is made of modern MRP software, as well as colour coding of components on the shop floor according to their material, thickness and product type.
Bystronic’s own BySoft offline programming software automatically nests the components for maximum sheet utilisation. The software then produces the cutting plans, in this case up to 14 days in advance of scheduled production to assist ordering of material, and monitors the manufacturing processes in real time. The effectiveness of these procedures is evidenced by an above-average OEE of 63%, representing the proportion of time the laser is actually cutting metal.
More than 70% of the output from the laser machine is folded. The press operators create folding programs for the three Bystronic press brakes directly at the machine controls. Two of the machines, installed around a decade ago and rated at 320 tonne/4.1 m and 150 tonne/3.1 m, are positioned side by side. These machines are used either independently or in tandem for bending very large components. Also in use is an Xpert 40 tonne/1 m capacity press brake, which arrived in 2018 for bending smaller parts more efficiently and hence cost effectively. The Xpert 40 can easily be relocated within the factory to where it is most needed.
Other machines in use from the Swiss manufacturer are a VR 10×4000 jobbing guillotine and, for deburring components, a belt grinder from German firm Weber, for which Bystronic acts as UK sales agent. The latter is used for removing sharp edges from laser-cut components and to descale them ready for shot blasting and painting. Every item of production equipment in the metal preparation area, except for the sawing machines, has been supplied by Bystronic.
Colin Trewhitt, who has worked for Econ for over 30 years and is currently factory manager, says: “When we bought the first Bystronic laser cutter back in 2003, we spent a lot of time reviewing alternatives on the market. We drew up a check sheet detailing everything from cost of ownership to production output and service support. Of the three potential suppliers on our shortlist, Bystronic came out on top and we’ve stayed with them ever since.”

Jonathan Lupton, joint managing director adds: “We’ve always tried to innovate and strive for excellence, and nowhere is that more apparent than in our use of the laser to cut steel in our body shop. Despite the machine representing a considerable expense at the outset, it was another example of how we always lead the way in our industry. The investment has more than paid off in terms of higher production output, while improved accuracy has almost eliminated fit-up during assembly and cuts costs further.
“We’ve gone from strength-to-strength by focusing not only on quality but also on the needs of our customers,” he continues. “That is why we have a UK-wide network of depots for servicing and recalibrating our equipment in the field, including a new one that opened recently in Alloa, and another due to open in Cardiff in spring 2020.”
Innovation is the watchword at Econ. The company was the first in 1989 to invent the quick change body (QCB) system that allows a single chassis to have multiple applications, for example by the addition of an asphalt hot box for road repairs or for use as a tipper, crane or gulley emptier. This innovation reduces capital investment by a council, which no longer needs multiple vehicles to satisfy the same range of year-round tasks.
A recent Econ invention was a ‘Spargo’ system that controls grit or salt spray and width patterns from the cab, automatically optimising the amount of product used and hence saving cost as well as protecting the road surface. The system also provides one-touch control for lowering the snow plough, turning on the gritter’s beacon bar and performing other functions, making the driver’s tasks easier and less tiring. For greater efficiency, the Spargo system is connected to the vehicle’s GPS to help plot the most effective route. New technology in the company’s sights include driverless vehicles and liquid de-icers, intended to be less harmful to a road surface.
For further information www.bystronic.co.uk

So, how can the production of a fully functional air intake prototype be reduced from two weeks to just a few hours using a Stratasys F900 3D printer? Well, for the answer, just ask Briggs Automotive Company (BAC), the British manufacturer of the recently launched Mono R, which has revealed the impact that additive manufacturing is having on the design and production of the latest edition to the BAC elite supercar offering.
When faced with detrimental delays to the design process of an essential airbox, the team at BAC turned to Stratasys FDM additive manufacturing to produce fully functional prototypes in record time and improve final, on-road performance.

The Mono R is the company’s most complex car to date, comprising years of thought and thousands of hours of research. Mono R weighs just 555 kg and is the first production car in the world to incorporate the use of graphene-enhanced carbon fibre in every body panel. In order to meet the necessary criteria, the design had to be lighter, more efficient and slicker than any preceding supercar. The team faced a significant challenge, one which could not afford any hiccups.
One such challenge was the design and testing of the Mono R’s innovative air intake. Essential for the car’s cooling and on-road performance, the airbox features extremely complex and unique geometry, with the final part needing to be produced entirely in carbon fibre. Such rigorous demands meant that the production of a prototype using traditional methods presented a huge hurdle for the team. Naturally, the aim was to avoid lead times and costs from potentially spiralling, while ensuring no compromise to the performance and functionality of the prototype itself.
The final design of the airbox required expensive tooling, while the carbon-fibre production process proved labour intensive. It quickly became apparent to the design team that creating a prototype using traditional machining was simply unfeasible.

Ian Briggs, BAC design director, explains. “The lead time to produce one prototype of the airbox using traditional machining methods surpassed two weeks. If there were any problems with the prototype produced, then any design iterations would add double that amount of time. This was a delay we just couldn’t afford.”
The team at BAC turned to additive manufacturing as the solution, and sought the help of Stratasys and its UK platinum partner, Tri Tech 3D. Using the Stratasys F900 production 3D printer, the team produced the airbox in just a few hours, which was then fitted to the car and put through its paces to assess the part’s design and performance.
“Access to quick, efficient, industrial-grade additive manufacturing was a game-changer for this development process,” states Briggs. “Within hours we were able to produce an accurate 3D-printed prototype of the airbox and install it on the car for testing. This enabled us to reduce our design-to-manufacture time significantly.”
However, it was not just turnaround times that the team had to consider. The Mono R can reach top speeds of 170 mph, with its power surpassing 340 bhp and its power-to-weight ratio reaching 612 bhp-per-tonne. As such, every aspect of the design was crucial to the success of the car. With temperatures expected to surpass 100°C degrees, any prototype produced needed to withstand intense conditions during test drives.
Thanks to the engineering-grade materials accessible on the Stratasys F900, the team was able to produce the prototype in Stratasys’ Nylon 12CF material. A carbon-fibre reinforced thermoplastic that
can endure temperatures of over 140°C, Nylon 12CF offered the design team the chance to test the prototype in as close a material as possible to the real thing.
“Access to the carbon-fibre reinforced Nylon 12CF was integral for this development process,” explains Briggs. “The prototype was as close performance-wise as if we had produced the prototype in carbon-fibre reinforced plastic made from a mould. It also withstood the tests on the track with ease.”
The overall appearance of the Mono R is 20 mm lower and 25 mm longer than its predecessor, meaning that every single millimetre matters. In order to effectively test the airbox, it needed to be accurately fitted to the car, with no room for error. However, the geometry of the airbox was complex – and incredibly large.
“The freedom of design offered by Stratasys’ industrial 3D printers was essential for the airbox,” says Briggs. “We were able to tweak the design and not worry that the final 3D-printed version wouldn’t match the exact size or geometry we needed. Today, our team at BAC has shifted its mindset to design with additive manufacturing in mind.

“The development of the Mono R needed ultimate precision, something to which additive manufacturing lends itself perfectly,” he adds. “We saw this first-hand with the use of Stratasys’ industrial system in the production of the airbox, and for the first time its effects were felt throughout the car. This is just the beginning for BAC in discovering what additive manufacturing can offer us as a design team, and how we can continue to push the boundaries of our industry.”
For further information www.stratasys.com

When Pinstructure opened its doors for business in 1982, the business was little more than an ‘industrial shack’ producing clevis pins and dowels. However, investment in sliding-head turning centres from Tornos has helped the company to enter new market segments, manufacture new product lines and fulfil the potential of its current 28,000 sq ft factory.

Nowadays, the Redditch-based company manufactures and distributes keys, pins, clamps, fixings, springs, circlips, dowels and washers of all types in a huge variety of sizes and material types. With the increasing advent of bespoke customer requirements and increasingly complex product lines, the company invested in a second-hand sliding-head turning centre in the late 1990s. With the machine approaching the end of its service life almost 10 years ago, the company investigated the available options and opted for the Delta 20/4 turning centre from Tornos UK.
Commenting upon the purchase of the Tornos machine, Pinstructure’s technical director Mathew Tracey says: “We investigated numerous sliding-head suppliers, but Tornos stood head and shoulders above the rest. The quality, capability and value for money were the perfect match for what we needed. We got our guys trained on the Tornos and were instantly flying. The machine was initially used for machining dowels and taper pins in quantities from 100-off up to 10,000. We then started to produce clevis pins of all sizes and the machine afforded us the facility to offer our own range of product lines.”

Running alongside an existing and ageing sliding-head machine from a Japanese machine-tool manufacturer, the Worcestershire manufacturer realised the long-standing workhorse was coming to the end of its service life. This led Pinstructure to once again turn to Tornos for a viable solution.
Tracey recalls: “When we were looking for a second sliding-head turning centre, we went straight to Tornos. We wanted something that offered a quick and easy platform for programming and setting, like the Tornos Delta 20/4 with interchangeable tooling and collet configurations. Above all, the Tornos Delta 20/4 had been an extremely reliable and productive machine with great back up from the Tornos UK office for both service and applications; we didn’t see the need to look anywhere else.”
Pinstructure decided to invest in a Tornos CT20 turning centre.
“Our business was growing and the Delta machine was running around the clock,” says Tracey. “Unfortunately, our old machine wasn’t reliable and we knew its time was up. Some weeks, the Delta would be running 24/7 producing pins and relying on an old machine with reliability issues wasn’t feasible for a growing business. The arrival of the Tornos CT20 in 2018 gave us the absolute flexibility to make very small batch sizes, while also giving us the option to select the most suitable Tornos machine for each individual job.”

With upward of 1400 product lines, the 30-employee business manufactures vast ranges of fasteners, fixings and pins for the automotive and aerospace industries, mostly from materials such as stainless, hardened steels and exotic alloys.
“Although the Delta 20/4 machine initially gave us the reliability and productivity to move parts from an ageing machine, the new CT20 has not only provided added capacity, it has given us the flexibility to move small batch work from our manual machining section. This has really boosted productivity, precision, consistency and reduced our manual workload.
“As a business, we have grown by an average of 10% year-on-year for the past 5-6 years and the Tornos Delta has played a considerable role in this growth and diversification,” continues Tracey. “What the CT20 has done is protected our company from losing business, while also winning new orders from Europe, India and Asia. This influx of new work is the result of us being able to offer more competitive prices at significantly reduced lead times when compared to overseas competitors.”
From a programming perspective, the family-run business is utilising the Tornos TISIS programming platform extremely effectively.
“We have an apprentice learning the ropes with the TISIS package and his work is being confirmed by our skilled programmer,” says Tracey. “The TISIS system is very easy to use and we are continually building a portfolio of component programmes. Using the TISIS library feature where we can save repetitive and complex operations to use in new or existing programs helps to speed up the programming times of both simple and more complex parts. Ultimately, once we have a comprehensive library it will be a case of just downloading programs to the machines ‘as and when’ repeat orders arrive. As our business moves forward, we’ll be investigating the many avenues of opportunity that lie within the Tornos TISIS suite.

“Looking to the future, Pinstructure has enthusiastic employees that are supported by a young and forward-thinking management structure,” he concludes. “With an energetic and innovative team from shop floor to top floor, we have ambitious expansion plans in place with opportunities for significant growth. Who knows, we may not stop at two
Tornos machines.”
For further information www.tornos.com