Norfolk-based Eastern Attachments manufactures construction and agricultural attachments, supplying companies such as Persimmon Homes, Taylor Wimpey and JCB. The company says it has not only survived in a competitive market but excelled to become a leader in its fields of operation, a fact that has only been possible using technologically advanced and efficient production at the firm’s factory.
Equipment in use includes a Bystronic 10 kW fibre laser cutting machine with automation to profile components out of mild steel sheet and seven Fanuc robotic welding cells powered by the latest Fronius pulse weld sets to fabricate the products.

Eastern Attachments director Daniel Leslie, one of four brothers who started the firm in 1996, says: “The UK is known for its strength in high added-value engineering, such as aerospace for example, but there is a perception that we cannot compete with low-wage countries in Eastern Europe and the Far East when it comes to manufacturing relatively low value, simple items.
“In 2007, most handling buckets for construction and agricultural equipment in the UK came from overseas, but today imports are becoming a rarity. Within six months of entering these sectors we had taken half the market for products we manufacture – buckets, handling grabs, forklift attachments and tipping skips – and now produce the vast majority of units sold in the UK.”
His co-director Philip Leslie sheds light on how the manufacturer has been able to succeed so dramatically: “It comes down to constant innovation. We are relentless in our pursuit of improvement, adopting a ‘what box?’ attitude to engineering challenges.
“A key part of this process was the early adoption of high-strength steels from SSAB (Swedish Steel) back in 2002,” he adds. “SSAB continue to invest in the development of new materials, which will soon see even better steels with a strength-to-weight equivalent to that of titanium and higher than aircraft aluminium.”
Attachments can be made considerably lighter using these materials, so a construction firm or farmer can lift more material to achieve higher productivity, or downsize the machine to reduce capital expenditure. A spin-off advantage of these high-strength steels is fewer impurities such as silicon, which is beneficial for achieving better edge quality when laser cutting, especially 12 mm and under (when using nitrogen rather than oxygen as the cutting gas).

Such comprehensive penetration of the attachments sector has resulted in the company growing by an average of 15% annually for the past 10 years, but 2017 has been a bumper year with an increase in turnover of over 30%. It is an enviable position but presented the Leslie brothers with the problem of how to keep pace with such a sharp upturn in demand. The situation was particularly acute in the sheet preparation department, where two high-definition CNC plasma cutters were struggling to meet the required output.
The directors had foreseen the situation and recognised three years ago that laser profiling was the way to go. They were waiting for fibre laser cutting to mature, having dismissed CO2 lasers as yesterday’s technology. When Bystronic launched the first-ever high-power 10 kW fibre laser machine at the end of 2016, which is capable of cutting up to 25 mm mild steel, they decided it was time to act.
Three other potential fibre laser machine suppliers were considered before the ByStar Fiber 3015 was purchased. The Swiss-built Bystronic machine was deemed to be preferable, due not only to what at the time was its uniquely high power, but also to its quality build and complimentary comments from other users.
A further advantage was the 30-plus service engineers employed by Bystronic UK. Eastern Attachments was already aware of the effectiveness of the supplier’s service department, having used the company’s shearing and press braking machines for several years. Prompt service to maintain high uptime of the ByStar Fiber 3015 is crucial, as it produces nearly all attachment components in the Norfolk facility, with the one remaining plasma machine cutting a small amount of material up to 40 mm thick.
The 3 x 1.5 m capacity fibre laser cutter, equipped with a ByTrans Cross for sheet storage and automated material handling to and from the machine, was installed at the beginning of summer 2017, just in time to prevent the need for a second shift on the two manually-loaded plasma cutters. The scale of the difficulty Eastern Attachments was facing can be gauged from the fact that its current factory was built to manufacture 900 units per month, yet in September this year more than 2000 units were produced.

Achieving more than double the originally planned output was only possible due to automation of the fibre laser cutter. Leslie estimates that the cell, which runs around the clock with eight hours of operator attendance, can typically produce as much in 24 hours as a manually loaded plasma machine produces in five 8-hour day shifts.
When processing mild steel 5 mm thick or less, the productivity improvement is much higher. The sheer speed of fibre laser cutting means that what would take eight hours on a plasma cutter can be achieved in one hour by the fibre laser cell. Even on thicker gauges, where laser cutting speed is broadly similar to that of a plasma machine, the Bystronic saves time through faster rapid traverse from pierce to pierce and automated loading and unloading of sheet in under one minute, compared with 20 minutes manual load/unload on a non-automated machine.
“The Bystronic has allowed us to increase cut part production dramatically in a small footprint, at the same time raising dimensional accuracy and edge quality,” says Leslie. “Fabrication is easier, the end products are improved and rework is eliminated.
“We are about to build a new factory nearby that will be four times the size of our existing facility and we’ll be moving within two years,” he continues. “It will allow us to expand even faster into new markets, grow our exports and prevent us from turning away work through lack of production capacity.”
In addition to product manufacturing, the company offers a skilled fabrication service. From a single specialist item to fully automated production runs, Eastern Attachments offers assistance with design work and technically challenging problems. Furthermore, the company can help reduce costs and improve specifications by utilising high-strength steels and advanced production techniques.
Over the years, projects have included TV and stage work, sculptures and showcase stairways, materials handling equipment, structural steelwork, stadium seating, precision automated jigs, robotic manipulators, fabrication of offshore equipment and a multitude of work for local authorities.
For further information www.bystronic.co.uk

Using Edgecam’s Waveform roughing strategy, a UK gear technology specialist has saved what it describes as an “astonishing 45 hours” – an entire week of milling production time – on a batch of 30 gears manufactured in hardened tool steel
Gibbs Gears, based at Stoke Mandeville in Buckinghamshire, predominantly works on low-to-medium volume runs of loose gears, gearboxes and assemblies, along with bespoke transmissions, and drive trains.

Managing director Reece Garrod says that the company typically manufactures orders of up to 200 gears for aerospace, motorsport, medical, subsea and commercial products: “Aerospace applications are largely for actuation, as part of the drive train mechanism to control flaps on wings. We produce cam and timing gears for motorsport, along with sequential gearbox and straight-cut crash gearbox assemblies for off-highway vehicles such as JCB and Caterpillar.”
Gibbs Gears also produces batches of up to 5000 fine-pitch gears between 0.3 and 1.25 module.
The company first tried Edgecam’s Waveform roughing strategy on a production run of 30 gears made from H13 tool steel, which had a Rockwell hardness value of between 53 and 58. Here, each standard milling operation on every gear would have taken two hours.
Technical manager Dominic Prinsloo explains that Waveform reduced those two hours down to just 29 minutes. He opted for a standard carbide cutter with an 8% step-over, a spindle speed of 6800 rpm and a feed rate of 2.8 m/min. “It meant that overall we saved an astonishing 45 hours of run time.”
Furthermore, Prinsloo says that the entire batch was completed using just one 16 mm diameter roughing end mill, which led to considerable savings on cutting tool costs. He feels the company could have pushed the CNC four-axis Matsuura VX1000 machining centre even harder, but chose to optimise it there, as it could run without supervision. “The operator was free to run a second machine, so again, that improved our overall efficiency.”

Gibbs Gears first became interested in Edgecam at the 2015 Southern Manufacturing exhibition in Farnborough. At that time, the company’s programming was all done at the machine, punching in G- and M-code. Edgecam now forms part of a three-pronged programming system. A small number of simple programs are still entered at the machine and programmed offline in ISO code, but Edgecam is used on around 60% of parts, driving a number of Doosan and Mazak turning centres, and four-axis Matsuura and Haas milling machines.
As well as reducing programming, set up and machining times, the software also comes into its own on controlling feeds and speeds, as Garrod explains: “We manufacture from a variety of metals including aviation grade stainless steels, carbon steels, case hardened and toughened tool steels, along with exotics such as Inconel and titanium, so Edgecam’s capability to let us ramp up feeds and speeds is proving invaluable.”
He also says that other shop floor operatives are keen to work with Edgecam: “We’ve recently started to use Edgecam on our AgieCharmilles EDM machine for wire erosion. That was at the request of the shop floor. They saw the benefits that Edgecam brings to other parts of the operation, and wanted to try it where we need a quick turnaround. Wire erosion accounts for around 10% of our business. We use it mainly on tooling, rapid tooling, jigs, fixtures and gauging, along with gear forms – especially for motorsport. But it’s growing in terms of gear technology, and where it’s allowable in the process we’ll erode gears, keyways and splines.”
Describing how Gibbs Gears uses the software, Prinsloo says that once he receives the customer’s STEP file – normally to finished size – he imports it into Part Modeler, Edgecam’s 3D modelling tool for quick and simple construction or modification of solid models, thus simulating a profile. “Then we’ll edit it to our tolerances for grinding, and revolve the profile again to make a finishing product which we can use for turning. We’ll load the stock model at this stage, and look at feature recognition.”
Edgecam is also used right at the start of an initial enquiry. “It’s now an important part of our quoting process,” says Garrod. “When customers provide us with a STEP file of the gears they want us to make, Edgecam gives us an accurate cycle time.”
Gibbs Gears is also working towards bringing in the PCI template on the planning board, which Garrod says will be particularly useful on two counts: firstly, to store common toolpath events in a ‘toolpath process library’ for re-use on other parts; and secondly to copy specific machining instructions from one part, and paste them into another. “This will accurately generate the feeds and speeds for whatever material we’re using.”

In conclusion, Garrod says: “We originally looked at Edgecam to help us progress with our ‘lean’ journey. KPIs showed that our biggest inefficiencies were coming in programming time, both for milling and turning, along with set-up and cycle times, and offline programming looked like the best way to overcome that. The fruit that’s been borne from investing in Edgecam is that those time losses have been eradicated.”
Gibbs Gears has comprehensive gear manufacturing capabilities, which includes the production of the following types of precision gears: spur and helical, spline shafts, gear racks, pinions, worms and wheels, spiral and straight bevels gears, gearboxes and gearbox assemblies, miniature and small gears, and bespoke gears to specification. The company works closely with companies, from concept to product realisation, and from technical support to full gear prototype and development.
For further information www.edgecam.com

Describing itself as a one-stop-shop providing logistics, design, machining and part finishing for a high profile list of customers in the aerospace sector, Nasmyth Arden is focussed on attention to detail and driven to reducing process times through improved machine efficiency. This has seen the company invest in new machining capacity as well as seeing benefits from environmental improvements.

Specialising in the machining of billet material, on its 30, three-, four- and five-axis machining centres where up to 90% of the original material may be removed poses its own problems, in terms of airborne oil mist and other particulates. As a result, Nasmyth Arden is currently retrofitting every machine in its factory with oil mist extractor units from Matchmaker CNC.
“Any new machine we buy will be equipped with the Matchmaker extractor system and we have started to add them to our existing machines, starting with the five-axis machining centres,” says Nasmyth Arden’s production manager Alan Lucas. “The high-speed nature of these machines generates heat and, as a result, oil mist. When a cycle has finished the operator used to have to wait until this settled within the machine before opening the doors; this wait is eliminated with the addition of the extractor units.
“Matchmaker CNC have been working with us for many years providing service and breakdown cover on a wide range of machines, and when they introduced their range of extractors we could see the benefits they would bring and also that they provided a very cost-effective solution, allowing to quickly adapt them to all of our machines.”
Key to the success of the Matchmaker oil mist extractor is its patented conical filter. This requires much less maintenance than existing systems with the added benefit of a filter life of up to five years, depending on the application. The system is also highly efficient at particulate capture, removing up to 99.97% of particulates measuring 0. 3 µm. This efficiency is particularly beneficial in applications where dry smoke is created, such as when using neat oil metalworking fluids.

Designed to meet all European standards and surpassing the Euro F8 and F9 limits, the oil mist filters make use of a pre-filtering system using the principle of wind shear to separate oil, smoke, haze and toxic aerosols. The oil is then separated for recycling. Filter performance is monitored by a pressure gauge and carbon filtration module (active carbon module available as an option), which the company says can be replaced quickly and easily when required.
Machine utilisation is also important to Nasmyth Arden and here it was recognised that expensive machine time, particularly on its five-axis machines, was being used simply for roughing operations. Addressing this, Lucas turned again to Matchmaker CNC for a solution.
“We needed a machine with power and capacity to rough-out these billets of material; it needed to be capable and cost-effective, and Matchmaker’s solution of a Tongtai TMV1500A vertical machining centre fitted the bill. With its 10,000 rpm, BT40 spindle and 1525 mm X-axis, we could machine everything we needed to on it, using it for all of our pre-op work prior to transfer for finishing on the five-axis machines.”
The time savings being achieved by Nasmyth Arden are significant. For example, a typical aluminium chassis takes 23 hours to produce on the five-axis machine. This is now broken down to three hours roughing on the TongTai three-axis vertical machining centre, then finish machining taking 13 hours on the five-axis machining centre. Seven hours per component are saved, or roughly a day of production.
“The addition of the TongTai TMV1500A has given us higher metal removal capability, improved process times across the factory and greater overall flexibility as we can manage throughput much better by not tying up our high-value five-axis spindles,” says Lucas.
In addition to its 10,000 rpm, 11 kw spindle (8000 rpm standard), the Tongtai TMV1500A features rapid traverse of 18 m/min, feed rates of 10 m/min in all axes, a 24-position cam-type toolchanger, and door openings that allow ease of access for craning larger components on
to the 1600 by 762 mm table.
Casting components on the machine are made of high-quality cast iron. Equipped with huge boxways, the Tongtai TMV1500A is suitable for heavy-duty cutting, while the use of Finite Element Analysis (FEA) ensures static and dynamic rigidity. Chips are easy disposed by two chip augers and a flushing system.
While the benefits of health and safety in regard to oil mist extraction have been recognised for some time, the time savings that Nasmyth Arden are experiencing as a consequence of fitting these units to the company’s machines is also a major consideration in their application. Matchmaker CNC envisages a time when all machines will be fitted with systems such as this and, with the technology involved with the system, along with its price/performance ratio, the cost of retrofitting is no longer a real barrier to gaining these benefits.
For further information www.matchmakercnc.co.uk

Part of one of the largest business services companies in the world, Rentokil Initial PLC, Dudley Industries Ltd is a specialist in the manufacture of stainless steel washroom equipment. The company produces a wide range of products for both its parent group and for other businesses as a subcontract manufacturer.

The Lytham-based company boasts high levels of expertise in all aspects of stainless steel fabrication and operates a well-equipped manufacturing facility. The plant list at Dudley Industries includes heavy-duty and hydraulic presses that cut and form sheet metal, advanced welding facilities, and laser punch and etching machines that use templates and designs networked directly from CAD. Components are further processed with the use of a variety of welding and fabrication finishing equipment.
The quality of Dudley Industries’ fabrication finishing and weld dressing processes have a huge effect on the aesthetics and functionality of the company’s products, therefore particular attention is paid to these critical procedures.
When exceptional levels of demand for a recently introduced product began to place a considerable strain on the company’s existing fabrication finishing and weld dressing resources, a search was made for a solution to the company’s bottlenecks. The answer was found in a fabrication finishing and weld dressing robotic cell, designed and manufactured by Autopulit and installed by Ellesco.

“Reflecting our enduring quality culture, Dudley was one of the first companies in the UK to achieve ISO 9001:2008 accreditation and the quality of our products remains the company’s number one priority,” states managing director at Dudley Industries, Gordon Higham. “As our finishing routines provide the superior product appearance we insist upon, and reflect the quality of our products, we are keen to excel in this area.
“In addition to growing demand for many of our other products, the introduction and success of a new product meant that our manual weld dressing and fabrication finishing functions became a major production pinch-point,” he continues. “Given our urgent need for an advanced, all-embracing finishing system that could handle our significantly increased production volumes, and be able to deliver the demanding levels of quality we require, I contacted Ellesco. Having previously dealt with Ellesco I was aware, not only of the company’s wide range of ‘off the shelf’ finishing machines and its great expertise in the field, but of the company’s ability to design and supply bespoke, automated finishing solutions.
“My staff and I were able to explain our proposed new finishing system ‘wish-list’ to both Ellesco and to one of Ellesco’s suppliers, Autopulit, the manufacturer of automatic and CNC finishing machines.”

The discussions resulted in an ingenious design consisting of a fully automated robotic finishing cell with two long-belt grinding heads, a double-ended Scotch-Brite buffing unit, an 850 mm wide Scotch-Brite buffing unit and an 850 mm wide polishing unit with automatic polishing compound application via spray guns.
“Now installed and fully operational, the Autopulit finishing and weld dressing robot cell has removed all current finishing bottlenecks,” reveals Higham. “The robot cell’s speed and efficiency means that it will remain futureproof and be able to handle all anticipated increases in production.”
Rather than Dudley Industries’ products being finished manually, each product is now precisely loaded on to its own dedicated fixture and held securely by means of a vacuum. After the relevant program is selected, the fixture holding the part is picked-up by the automated system’s robot arm and taken to each of the cell’s individual abrasive belt machines relevant to the product’s finishing requirements. The robot then manipulates the product according to its program and applies it to each rotating abrasive belt under a predetermined pressure.
As each facet of every product is finished in such a thorough, repeatable and reproducible way, not only are exceptional fabrication finishing and weld dressing standards achieved, the Autopulit system has reduced previous finishing and weld-dressing cycle times, and significantly cut company rework and scrap levels.
Ellesco’s managing director Vincent Simonis adds. “When designing Dudley Industries’ system and choosing the correct abrasive grades, given the company’s exacting standards related to safety, hygiene and the visual appearance of products, we understood that extremely high standards of stainless steel component finishing and weld dressing were of paramount importance. Not only was it essential to achieve the required superior surface finish, it was vital that the resulting finish was uniform across the entire surface of each part, and that each mating component displayed exactly the same surface finish characteristics. It was also important that when weld dressing, the system would grind back excessive welds and result in the same finish and the same grain direction as the welds’ surrounding areas.”
Ellesco offers a variety of machines to carry out the many different weld dressing processes, including: preparation and removal, blending and shaping of seam welds, and smoothing spot and puddle welds.
“Although these kind of finishing techniques are normally carried out by skilled personnel, just as with fabrication finishing and polishing procedures, the staff of both Ellesco and Autopulit have considerable experience in the design and installation of automated weld dressing processes to suit the vast majority of applications,” says Simonis.
For further information www.ellesco.co.uk

Some 1.5 million parts are despatched every year from Worthing-based precision subcontract machinist Roscomac, a company that is achieving record on-time deliveries of 98%. The 85-employee company is driven by a philosophy of constant development and lean manufacturing techniques, supported by investment often exceeding £1m per annum.

Says managing director Joe Martello: “We invest in automation and the latest production technologies, which helps to overcome the shortage of skills we require. However, it is so important that we still need to grow our own engineers through constant support and training, in order to maximise our ROI and improve how we support and what we deliver to customers.”
In the first six months of 2017, some £750,000 had already been allocated or spent, which included the installation of the latest Miyano BNE-51MSY multi-axis turn-mill centre. Two further CNC sliding head turn-mill centre machines have also been ordered and are soon to be delivered; again, like the Miyano, each is from Citizen Machinery UK. The two machines, a Citizen L20-VIII LFV (LFV featuring low frequency vibration cutting technology) and a top-of-the-range M16-V will bring the total Citizen installations to 14 machines as two earlier Citizen models are being sold.
“The levels of operational flexibility in the Miyano BNE has enabled us to significantly reduce machining times and, most importantly, improve overall productivity,” says cell leader Sean Keet. He explains that the new machine has replaced existing three-axis machines and outlines how a family of 10 aluminium parts has seen four previous turning and a separate milling operation reduced to just one turn-milling cycle. A bonus is that average total cycle times per part have been cut from 13 to just 2.5 minutes. Indeed, a further complex stainless steel component, which had three operations taking 11 minutes, is now reduced to a single 4-minute cycle.
The flexibility of the BNE-51MSY is key to what cell supervisor Warren Harris, responsible for the machine, is achieving. Specified with high-pressure coolant, Kid 80 bar feed, hybrid chuck and latest Wizard programming aid, the machine is capable of single-cycle cutting with three tools simultaneously overlapped at both ends of a workpiece.

“The configuration of the three- and two-axis turrets gives us the flexibility to develop an application and room to add toolholders to overcome problems such as selective and controlled in-cycle deburring, for instance,” says Harris. “This saves us additional manual or further operational deburring tasks.”
He describes how the training given by Citizen Machinery helped in developing different approaches to setting the operational cycles: “We had an initial induction at our works and two of us were sent for programming at Citizen’s headquarters in Watford. Then, after two months, and adding to our own in-house experiences, further in-depth training was given.”
He maintains this helped to build a working relationship: “Even now, if we have a question or problem, we text or email the application team and they quickly come back to discuss the issue.”
The family-owned business of Roscomac was set up in 1976 on an industrial estate of 21 units owned by Martello’s father Fernando, who is still involved with the company. However, the company grew so fast that by 1999, subcontract production filled 20 of the 21 units.
The site was then sold and the current 43,000 sq ft factory was constructed on a 2-acre site in Worthing. Indeed, with planning permission granted, in 2018 a 3800 sq ft extension will be added and a complete new roof installed over the facility. As part of the drive to maintain quality (AS9100 approved) and improve the working environment, climate control has recently been installed across the factory which maintains a constant 22°C.
Today, some 50 CNC machine tools are installed, including 13 Citizen CNC sliding-head turn-mill centres and a large 104 pallet FMS. There are also 17 machining centres in the plant involved in supplying the medical (20% of £6.5 million turnover) aerospace (12%) vacuum technology, oil and gas, motion and hydraulics, and nuclear sectors. A number of different materials are machined, ranging from plastics through to alloy steels such as Inconel. Parts are also exported to France, Germany and the Czech Republic.
Martello adopts the same working relationships with machine tool and equipment suppliers as most of his long-term customers maintain with him and his team. This means his key equipment is only bought from a small group of ‘partnership’ suppliers in which Citizen Machinery UK (formerly NC Engineering) has participated since 1990. In that time the company has installed 16 sliding-head and two Miyano fixed-head turn-mill centres, plus the two Citizen machines now on order.

“Our relationship with customers is built on support, quality and on-time supply,” says Martello. “Suppliers such as Citizen are in the same category, with the added capability to be consistent in providing us with leading technology developments that will keep us competitive and enable us to properly service our customer base. The coming installation of the Citizen L20-VIIILFV is a classic case in providing a level of technology which will take us into another sphere of manufacturing that few competitors will be able to match for some time to come.”
Current batch sizes at Roscomac range from 30-off to thousands of parts, while a prototype and process development/design support service is also offered. In addition, the company maintains stock for key customers, which provides a major benefit when tailoring batch work to economic quantity levels and helps achieve a 98% on-time delivery target. As a result, this statistic has been improved over the last four years from levels of around 60%. Indeed, with productivity targets now running at 200% of man-hours available, this has been aided by setting up five overlapping shifts during the week in order to maximise machine utilisation and spindle uptime.
To help maintain momentum of production with the workforce, every 3 months employees are taken aside to a conference room for presentations made by Martello and key staff members for a business update which encourages open communication. These sessions are backed-up with live screens around the factory area showing current workloads and status of workflow, and target and actual delivery dates achieved.
“This keeps everyone aware and involved,” he concludes. “It also draws comment and constructive suggestions for improvement.”
For further information www.citizenmachinery.co.uk