Subcon returns on 4-6 June 2019 and is once again set to take place at the NEC, Birmingham. Now in its 43rd year, the show remains the UK’s only dedicated event that enables subcontract manufacturing buyers to source suppliers, benchmark capabilities, and form new manufacturing partnerships.

Against a backdrop of profound uncertainty and change within the engineering and manufacturing industries, Subcon 2019 will show how the industry continues to innovate and deliver maximum value, with three events in one venue.
For 2019, Subcon has unveiled a new opportunity to support engineering entrepreneurs. The Launchpad and Launchpad Awards will showcase cutting-edge innovations from across the industry with dedicated space at the event for specially selected start-ups.
According to the organisers, the Launchpad aims to propel manufacturing and engineering-based start-ups by giving entrepreneurs an opportunity to share their innovations with thousands of professionals who have the power to guide them to success. The showcase and awards will deliver a platform for eight engineering start-ups, with a £10,000 prize package to the winner.
As with every previous year, Subcon will deliver the contacts, connections and content that engineering and manufacturing businesses in the UK need to succeed. Visitors will be able to harness new innovations from over 300 suppliers that can help increase capacity, optimise productivity and improve flexibility, while driving down costs to stay competitive in a global market.
Ahead of the event this year, the Subcon team hit the road and spoke to exhibitors across metal fabrication, 3D printing, measurement and other sectors. As this diversity of exhibitors shows, there will be opportunities to forge strategic partnerships and improve existing processes.

Among those returning to the event this year is Goodman Metal Works, a Nottingham-based, full-service metal fabrication company. Director Richard Goodman explains what keeps the firm coming back: “It is a compact event, spread out over three days, so it is a very easy way to meet important contacts.”
The story is similar for 3D printer reseller Laser Lines, based in Banbury. This year at Subcon the company is debuting not only new machinery but new materials. Mark Tyrtania, sales director, explains that for Laser Lines “Subcon is the right mix of visitors from varied industries. My top tip is to arrive early and leave late.”
Based in Smethwick, Metpro has grown to become a leading supplier to the mechanical and electrical market in the UK. Marketing manager Jacob Rudge outlines that the value of Subcon is the quality of people who attend: “The majority of our conversations have been with key decision makers; some of the most successful outcomes we’ve had throughout the years have been from just striking up these conversations.”
To maximise the value of the event, Subcon is once again co-locating with The Engineer Expo and Advanced Manufacturing Show. The Engineer Expo is designed to deliver the innovation, inspiration and insight businesses need to optimise future engineering and manufacturing strategies. From an exhibition of next-generation design and technology solutions presented by UK ground-breaking suppliers, to a conference programme featuring industry leaders responsible for some of the country’s most inspiring engineering and manufacturing projects, The Engineer Expo will keep visitors abreast of the biggest issues around, from Brexit and Industry 4.0, to the challenges of diversity and skills.
The Advanced Manufacturing Show will showcase live demos and the latest efficiency-boosting innovations from hundreds of suppliers. This event is an opportunity to review outsourcing and procurement decisions, and bring tools and technology up to speed, to reduce costs, cut lead times and increase productivity.

Following the success of the conference programme in 2018, Subcon will also feature presentations from industry pioneers such as Siemens and Rolls-Royce, as well as thought leadership from organisations including Make UK, the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) and WMG (formerly the Warwick Manufacturing Group). A total of 34 sessions will be announced in the run up to the event.
The conference programme will deliver insight on industry issues, with presentations from industry leaders responsible for some of the UK’s most inspiring and ground-breaking engineering and manufacturing projects. Speakers confirmed this year include: Brian Holliday, managing director, Siemens Digital Industries, delivering a keynote address covering the latest developments and momentum around Industry 4.0; Mark Ireland, chief engineer, MTC, speaking on the MTC Sit Ski project and the role of collaboration; Stephen Phipson, CEO, Make UK, covering the impact of Brexit and the changes felt throughout the manufacturing supply chain; Riona Armesmith, chief project engineer, Hybrid Electric Propulsion, Rolls-Royce, talking about the development of electric/hybrid aircraft and the E-Fan X project; Lina Huertas, head of technology strategy, digital manufacturing, MTC, covering the technologies set to transform manufacturing; Jeremy Pullen, Sartorious, on what is next for additive manufacturing; Steve Banton, channel manger, ABB Robotics, on the development of cobotics and where it will make its impact felt; Rachel Edes, WMG, on the challenge and opportunity of creating a domestic supply chain for electric vehicles; Nick Hawker, CEO and co-founder, First Light Fusion, on the commercial application of nuclear fusion; and Martin Little, commercial director, Rail Alliance, on the overlooked opportunities within rail.
Gordon Kirk, event director for Subcon, points out that this wide range of opportunities and the chance to see so many diverse companies is no accident: “We are even more aware than ever of the pressures on UK engineering and manufacturing businesses, so we have crammed as much value into the event as we can. From the 34 sessions of The Engineer Conference to the showcase of new start-ups and co-locating with Advanced Manufacturing Show and The Engineer Expo, Subcon 2019 will deliver value to visitors throughout the three days. We are incredibly excited to include so much new material and look forward to opening the doors at the NEC.”
For further information www.subconshow.co.uk

A mould maker producing tools for thermoplastic materials and die castings is relying on the specialist VISI Analysis module to discover critical areas at an early stage of the design process, which greatly simplifies its work.

Mecca TP serves a variety of industry sectors, including medical, automotive, household appliances, furniture and eyewear. Co-owner Antonio Tognon says that the company’s moulds have to be produced swiftly and accurately, first time every time, without the need for changing them unless requested by the customer.
“And in those cases, the amendments have to be carried out quickly,” he states. “Using VISI to design and machine our mould tools means we can guarantee they’ll give a high mechanical performance with precision movements, along with a high aesthetic quality of the moulded products, for long production periods.”
Tognon says the company is also playing an increasingly proactive role in working with customers to co-design the finished, moulded products. “In addition, we support our customers with precision machining, mechanical equipment construction, reverse engineering and reconstruction of damaged mechanical parts, or those without design documentation, as well as dimensional checks.”

Founded in 1985, the company is now run jointly by Tognon and Renato Prosdocimo, based in a 2000 sq m production unit in Bigolino di Valdobbiadene, Treviso, Italy, with an annual turnover of around €1.5m.
“Over the years we’ve developed our production process in order to minimise manual intervention on the moulds, controlling the machining operations,” says Tognon. The company has always adopted advanced technologies, from two- and four-axis wire EDM, to high-speed three- and five-axis milling, along with Mecca TP’s CADCAM VISI software. VISI is proving to be a vital aspect in ensuring that the moulds are consistently manufactured to the precision required, from the design process through to the mould tools being cut.
Mecca TP produces between 40 and 80 moulds a year, ranging in size from 200 x 200 x 200 mm to 600 x 800 x 700 mm, using a variety of metals. VISI Mould is used to carry out the design, while electrodes are modelled and machined with VISI Machining 3D, which is also used for cutting plates and moulding parts, along with Machining Strategist and VISI Wire.
“Our in-house team follows the mould design, adopting various solutions for mould movements, conditioning circuits, and injection and extraction systems,” says Tognon. “In order to optimise the final product and the moulding activity, we pay precise attention to the analysis, proposing possible improvements.”
Tognon says VISI is used in the preliminary stage, before the design process begins, to analyse details such as drafts, undercuts and thicknesses, and draw up possible dimensions of the finished moulds.
“We import customer STEP, IGES or Parasolid files and analyse the geometry in depth, to define the quality of the mathematical model, while correcting incomplete or inaccurate geometries.”

The company moves on to create the mould basement and define details, before sending the component parts to the different CAM stations for milling, wire cutting, and electrode modelling and construction.
Tognon cites an example of a stainless steel mould that Mecca TP has developed to replace an existing mould used by a medical sector client: “The mould was needed to produce a small circular component with a diameter of approximately 40 mm; the part had to be moulded in a white chamber on eight impressions, within a complete discharge cycle of less than 20 seconds.
The product is described as being complex, with irregular surfaces and a different front and back finish, and a shiny, mirrored surface on one side.
“We created a completely new movement, very different from the mould originally being used by the customer,” says Tognon. “Our proposal optimised the intrinsic characteristics of the impressions, and the operational flexibility, ensuring the highest level of productivity. Each imprint has a completely interchangeable matrix and punch, which are fixed to the mould by screws. This means we can replace them when they are worn out, without changing the entire mould, even if the mould is inside the machine. It also means we can produce different products using the same mould.”
Tognon says the main challenge was to find a way to free undercuts, and to create the movements necessary to obtain a high-quality piece – moulded from soft adhesive PVC – in the correct way, avoiding possible wastage. The team used VISI Analysis to import, prepare and validate what was required.
“Being able to identify complex mathematics in advance let us discover critical areas at an early stage of the project, and greatly simplified our work,” he says. “It also led to a significant reduction in both design and production times.”

Pointing out that VISI Mould handles the entire design process, Tognon says it provides the company with specific automation that guides the operator throughout the project’s development: “It’s a simple procedure, with the help of numerous catalogues of main suppliers’ components, which facilitates everything we need.”
VISI gives Mecca TP the capability of managing and graphically displaying mould creation and any required changes in real time.
“This means we can check the results immediately and effectively, giving us maximum design freedom to combat the complexity we have to face in order to satisfy our customers’ ever-changing needs.”
In conclusion, Tognon says VISI optimises the company’s entire process from design to delivery, and means the company can comply with increasingly tight delivery times: “We see very complex moulds every day. Calling them ‘moulds’ is almost reductive. I’d rather define them as ‘advanced equipment’.”
For further information www.visicadcam.com

A direct-drive spindle motor and linear guideways on a milling centre enable high-speed metal cutting, but that configuration does not lend itself to the efficient machining of highly alloyed nickels like Inconel, or Duplex and Super Duplex stainless steels. For these materials, a gearbox drive and box ways are more appropriate, but they are difficult to find on smaller, C-frame, vertical machining centres.

However, LB Bentley, based at the Kingfisher Business Park in Stroud, part of the Severn Glocon Group, has identified a suitable platform for producing its subsea valves, and also its filter and dryer equipment, from tough materials: the AA1165 VMC with 1100 x 650 x 600 mm working envelope built by Toyoda joint co-operation company Wele. One such machine was installed at the start of January 2019 and a second is due for delivery shortly. The sales and service agent in the UK and Ireland for the Taiwanese machine manufacturer is Whitehouse Machine Tools.
Although LB Bentley’s existing production equipment has served it well, the company wanted initially to replace two VMCs with new machines capable of meeting the tight positional tolerances and surface finish required when producing components from a range of difficult materials, including 625, 718, 725, 825 and 925 nickel alloys and Duplex/Super Duplex stainless steels.
One of the difficulties with the ageing VMCs was the inability to mill by circular interpolation a sealing surface without four quadrants being visible and lines apparent at each change of axis direction, with the attendant risk of parts being rejected. Quality is paramount, with ±1.5 µm dimensional accuracy and 0.4 mm Ra surface finish required.

The AA1165 machine, fitted with a high-pressure (70 bar) coolant system, has proved itself easily capable of achieving the drawing tolerances when machining nickel and steel alloys. Features of the Wele that secure a combination of heavy cutting performance and precision finishing include: two-speed, auto-change gearbox drive to the 18.5/15 kW BIG Plus 8000 rpm spindle, which delivers up to 469 Nm of torque; hand-scraped square-section guideways; rigid construction; up to 10 m/min cutting feed rate; and 36 m/min rapids in X and Y, and 20 m/min in Z.
The machine’s Fanuc 0i-MF CNC is already prepared for controlling a fourth axis, which is an optional extra offered by Whitehouse on the AA1165, whose 1300 x 650 mm table has plenty of room at one end to accommodate it.
LB Bentley’s operations manager Andrew Kethro says: “We have been extremely pleased with the performance of our new machine. It is very rigid and the load monitor highlights that the machine can easily cope with the materials and depths of cut specified. So these machines should be well set to take us into the future, regardless of what the industry throws our way. Our machinists have commented on how quiet the machine is when cutting at high torques and low speeds, 1500 rpm being a maximum here when milling our difficult alloys.
“With limited factory space, the small footprint of the Wele is supporting our 5S initiative and the continuing improvements we are making on our shop floor,” he adds. “LB Bentley looks forward to receiving a second, identical machine shortly.”

Machine shop supervisor Tracey Harnden was part of the team tasked with sourcing the new capacity. He says: “We shortlisted two alternatives to the Wele and asked both potential suppliers to run a trial using one of our existing programs for cutting an Inconel part. The spindle stalled on one machine, while the other company was unable to point us to a single user installation where their equipment cuts our type of alloys. Other CNC mills we looked at were light, high-speed models that were obviously unsuitable, and the original supplier of the VMCs that are being replaced did not even call us back.”
Harnden explains that Whitehouse carried out the cutting trial on LB Bentley’s material using the program and tooling from Stroud for the designated part, which initially needs rigorous fly cutting across the top of the billet. He witnessed the demonstration at the supplier’s technical centre in Kenilworth and noted the quietness of the process due to the machine’s rigidity and low levels of vibration. The latter attribute contributed also to the required accuracy of machining and surface finish being achieved.
A further point in Wele’s favour was the low spindle load when cutting the part. Operators in the Stroud factory extensively monitor the load meter on all machining centres so that they can see when it rises, indicating that a tool is wearing and starting to compromise accuracy.
Kethro says: “The service provided by Whitehouse has been excellent. They recognised and understood the requirements of the machine needed by LB Bentley and were able to prove its suitability during the trial. Details of other users worldwide were provided. They have also been supportive in making minor changes to the software in the Fanuc control to allow us to run our existing programs on the new machine. The second machine will be similarly modified.”
Harnden adds: “When it arrives and the two mills they are replacing have gone, there will only be Fanuc CNCs on the shop floor, making it easier for operators to move between VMCs and giving us a greater degree of flexibility to allocate jobs to the available resource.

The four-axis Wele centres will work around the clock five days a week and at weekends, alongside seven other machining centres and a similar number
of lathes.”
For further information www.wmtcnc.com

A company specialising in industrial rubber injection moulds and cold runner blocks for the automotive sector uses WorkNC CAM software to create 3+2 axis tool-path programs across a range of eight CNC machine tools, and WorkPLAN ERP software to consolidate various data sets from sales orders to invoices.

Dixence is an SME operating with around 30 staff out of a 1500 sq m workshop and 500 sq m engineering department in Erbray, France. The company’s main business is designing and manufacturing tooling equipment, and manufacturing moulds for all-rubber bonded inserts, as well as plastic, metal and rubber parts. Managing director Gérard Beloeil says these can be injection, compression, regulated-transfer or cold-plate moulds produced in different grades of steel; pre-treated, hardened, and with a special coating.
“The finished parts are used to support gearboxes, engines, exhaust pipes, suspension systems, engine sealings and soundproofing,” he says.
Working for major suppliers of rubber parts around the world, including France, Germany, Spain, USA, UK, Russia, Turkey and Portugal, around 80% of output is for automotive contracts, with the rest going to customers in the energy, cosmetics and railway industries. The company has recently made a REP V710 L 50 rubber injection press available for validating moulds produced for the international market. At the request of customers, moulds are tested directly on-site at Dixence, avoiding any costly part returns.
About 75% of the total production goes through WorkNC, which milling sector manager Fabrice Provost says is fundamental to ensuring that the moulds coming off the machine tools are of the high precision required: “The software’s 3D functions are particularly important as we use 3+2 axis machining, but can’t program 3D manually. And since new enhancements have been made for 2D operations such as manual and semi-automatic drilling, we use all 2D tool paths as they’re now more flexible.”
WorkNC programs three Huron and two Mazak vertical milling centres, and two Mazak horizontal palletised milling centres to produce the moulds and blocks, along with one HSM milling centre for machining electrodes.

“It’s this software/machine tandem that allows us to achieve a high level of precision,” says Provost. “The two go hand in hand.”
Initially, the CAD files for the mould are sent to the engineering department to check the project’s feasibility and determine the different steps required to produce the tool. Each part of the mould is identified and listed, and a bill of materials is inserted into WorkPLAN. Based on this information, a set of documents
is generated, containing full details of the mould, which will be used by the purchasing department and shop floor, allowing work to start on tooling elements. Machining information about the mould’s individual components means the milling and turning team can assign them to specific machines, and the files are opened in WorkNC for the tool paths to be programmed.
“Our programmers often use standard WorkNC tool paths such as ‘3-axis Finishing’ and ‘Contour Remachining’, which we find perfect for producing a high-quality finish on curved surfaces where there are no right angles,” explains Provost. “And the ‘Global Roughing’ functions are extremely efficient, producing exactly the results we need.”
Even though some parts are similar, all moulds manufactured by Dixence are different. Generally, the company makes two mould tools each week. Dixence also produces one cold-runner block, which is positioned on the mould, meaning the company can multiply the number of injection points for rubber-based components.

Provost says: “An important feature of our process is that we design a cold-runner block for each project, so it is specific to each mould. This offers a means of reducing material costs for our customers, especially as rubber can’t be recycled.”
He adds that using WorkNC has improved productivity and reduced errors on finished parts: “The workshop functions round the clock, unsupervised during the night. With the full range of WorkNC tool paths, all our machines will soon be able to run during the night, increasing productivity even further over a 24-hour period.”
Dixence also uses WorkNC’s sister brand, WorkPLAN as its production control system. Beloeil says the company previously worked with an Access database and paper-based invoicing, “but with ever-increasing production levels we needed to avoid duplicating data processing”.
With WorkPLAN, Dixence consolidates all information, such as sales orders, purchase orders, time management, delivery notes and invoices, which is relative to each project.
“We’ve also got full traceability on purchasing, raw materials – including quantity and cost – and purchasing material for individual mould components, which means we can make quick and accurate decisions,” says Beloeil
A number of modules are particularly important to the company, including ‘Job Management’, which manages sales-related tasks and administration, from order confirmation through to delivery, allowing easy access to all project-related documents. In addition, the ‘Purchasing’ module includes the company’s forecast purchase budget based on the bills of material directly imported into WorkPLAN, along with supplier quotations.
The ‘Time Management’ function allows real-time monitoring of machine utilisation, the status of outsourced tasks, and the remaining time required to finish a task. “We often have similar tools to produce, so we can simply look for a previous project, copy it, and make the necessary modifications,” says Beloeil. And thanks to the ‘Sales Activity’ module, order forms and invoices are generated with just a few clicks, as all the necessary information has already been fed into the system. “This avoids duplicated data entry errors, and means we can monitor invoices daily, and chase payment to maintain a reasonable cash flow.”

Concluding, Beloeil says: “With all data about material quantities, costs, and time spent on tasks, recorded in WorkPLAN, we can quickly calculate the cost budget of our moulds, and progressively improve our profitability.”
For further information www.worknc.com

Subcontractor Alitech Precision, which specialises in supplying motorsport and automotive customers from its Silverstone facility, installed its first five-axis vertical machining centre in March 2017. This machine was the company’s fifth VMC, and was joined in December last year by another five-axis machine from a different source, the German manufacturer Hermle, which supplied a C400 through sole sales and service agent, Kingsbury.

Most subcontractors progressing from three/four-axis machining to fully interpolative five-axis cycles gain significant benefits from adopting the technology. Apart from raising the complexity of freeform surfaces that can be profiled, key advantages are higher component accuracy and reduced cost of manufacture. They are achieved by reducing the number of set-ups needed, as a part can be positioned automatically with the two rotary CNC axes before being milled and drilled using the three linear axes.
The original five-axis machine, an entry-level model, delivered these advantages for owner and managing director Darren Cudd, who started Alitech in September 2014. He was delighted with the economical process routes he was able to establish, but there were two snags.
One was a shortage of capacity, despite operating 24/5 and at weekends, as Alitech had been doubling turnover every year since its formation. Additionally, the company had progressed from producing mainly prototypes and limited batches of components to larger runs of typically 20-off complex parts, such as race car uprights, which meant that work was queueing for up to one month – an unacceptably long lead-time in this sector.

The other difficulty was that Formula One teams were asking for the subcontractor to supply an increasing number of aluminium moulds for making carbon fibre components. The first five-axis machine struggled to hold a tolerance better than ±50 µm, so as much as five hours of manual finishing and polishing were needed on every mould to remove witness marks left by milling cutter step-overs.
Cudd says: “Hand finishing has been reduced to about one hour per mould since the Hermle C400 took over production, as the temperature-compensated machine is able to hold ±4 µm. It saves a lot of manufacturing cost. Dimensional tolerance is fairly open at ±0.1 mm, which is easy to hold. However, with our other five-axis machine, the variation introduced by five hours of manual blending of steps between the final milling cutter passes risked using up the accuracy held during machining, sending the mould out of tolerance. On the Hermle the problem does not occur, as the step-overs are barely discernible, so there is little to polish out before achieving the surface finish that our customers require.”
After the race season, the Hermle will be deployed on the five-axis machining of precision components within its 850 x 700 x 500 mm working volume. One such part already produced is an inlet manifold for a track car that was machined in two operations on the C400 rather than the eight previously needed on a three-axis VMC, which took far longer and required expensive fixtures for setting the component at different angles.

Another complex part cost-effectively manufactured on the latest five-axis machine was a billet dry sump that was designed and programmed in-house in SolidWorks and hyperMILL CAM software by head of CNC, Charlie Watts.
“The inherent accuracy of the Hermle allows us to easily hold much tighter tolerances than on the other five-axis machine,” says Watts. “For example, we recently interpolated 125 mm diameter bores to within ±6 µm, whereas previously we would not have been able to get close to this tolerance, and the accuracy achieved in the afternoon would have been different from that in the morning.”
He and Cudd had been researching the company’s next five-axis purchase for about a year before placing the order. They were looking for a large capacity and trunnion-type design, as they prefer the rigidity these machines offer over those employing a swivelling spindle head. Of the four options shortlisted, one was rejected due to its high price and insufficient X-axis travel, while another supplier provided questionable service. A third potential supplier, although offering an interesting horizontal-spindle solution, did not have a sufficiently large working envelope.
The fact that another member of Alitech’s staff had used a Hermle machine while employed by a Formula One team, and praised its performance, coupled with a visit to the manufacturer’s open house in Germany last April, clinched the decision to buy the C400.

The C400 forms part of the new ‘Performance Line’ range, which has the same fundamental attributes as Hermle’s high-end models, such as a mineral cast bed and stainless steel cladding throughout the working area. A 50-position magazine was included to increase the HSK-A63 tool capacity to 88, along with an 18,000 rpm spindle to maximise aluminium machining efficiency, as this material is almost exclusive processed in the Silverstone factory.
For further information www.kingsburyuk.com