Adding further capacity, coupled with the benefits of CNC precision and programming flexibility, has resulted in Huddersfield-based HB Bearings acquiring a further Kellenberger Vista universal grinding machine supplied by Jones & Shipman Hardinge.

One of the UK’s foremost bearing designers and manufacturers, HB Bearings is a specialist manufacturer concentrating on high-precision, low-volume production, but in highly targeted end-user industries.
Back in 1972, company chairman Norman Hirst had the initiative to manufacture and modify bearings in low volume. The timing was perfect as major manufacturers continued to reduce and amalgamate their product ranges, and sadly some went out of business altogether. It became difficult to obtain many types of bearing. There is still today a lot of specialised machinery in use which requires a source for these types of bearings. HB Bearings stocks many types of ‘difficult to source’ metric and imperial bearings of its own manufacture. The company’s principal manufacturing categories are specials, new designs, obsolete designs and motorsport bearings.
Today, the company has a global customer base and an archive of bearing design specifications, drawings and data that it says is probably unsurpassed in Europe.
“A highly skilled workforce and a commitment to quality are obviously vital, but we have always been prepared to invest in state-of-the-art machine tools and this latest Kellenberger investment – our 4th CNC grinder – is testimony to that,” explains HB’s managing director Graham Hirst.
And, as Hirst adds, more investment is imminent.

“HB has recently acquired Gamet Bearings, which is a renowned manufacturer of super precision taper roller bearings,” he explains. “We have relocated the Gamet operations from Colchester to our Huddersfield site and further investment in high-precision grinding capacity will be necessary. As we are working to 1.5 µm running accuracy tolerances on Gamet products, we will be looking to invest in additional Vista CNC machines, such is our confidence in them.”
The production of Gamet bearings has now recommenced, with additional staff employed to assist in the smooth running of this new addition to HB Bearings. The first Gamet Bearings manufactured by HB in the UK have now shipped, with many more to follow soon.
At its Huddersfield production facility, HB has three Vista UR 75/1000 CNC machines now joined by the latest Vista SE –
all of which have been supplied by Jones & Shipman Hardinge Ltd, the UK subsidiary of Hardinge Inc.
Built on the footprint of the UR/75 but with enhancements to guarding and the control package, the Vista SE machine features a UR wheel head for external, internal and face grinding. The swivelling wheel head features pre-stressed, high-precision spindle bearings to ensure the quality of surface finish and long operational life. A further example of the machine’s progressive design is its suitability for both grinding between dead centres and for chucked work. HB has also specified a HF-dresser on the upper (X axis) table.
Designed to be a cost-effective CNC alternative to hydraulically controlled cylindrical grinders, Vista machines have simplified the programming sequence thanks to the Kellenberger Kel-Easy and Kel-Iso menu-based system delivered via a Fanuc 0i control. Key features include the ability to micro-adjust the tailstock in the range of ±60 µm, linear guides on the X axis, a classical slide arrangement in the Z axis and the ability to accommodate a workpiece up to 100 kg in weight. As the designation implies, the distance between centres on the machines supplied to HB is 1000 mm, as is the grinding length.
The compact design features a coolant tray which is separated from the machine base, an integrated transport system and swivelling upper table. In addition, the thermally-optimised bearings are said to guarantee the highest roundness and dimensional accuracy.

“We purchased the Vista SE to accommodate increased work load and, given our previous positive operating experience with Vista machines, it made for an easy choice,” explains Hirst. “They are highly durable machines, but importantly offer the sustained accuracy essential in our business. Around 5 µm is the normal tolerance we work to, but we can meet demands down to 2 µm if needed. Moreover, as with all Vista machines, having the capability to grind highly complex, high-precision profiles, while maintaining tolerances and very high concentricity levels, is vital.”
Bearing types manufactured include precision radial, deep groove ball, cylindrical roller, angular contact, duplex and many other types. Special bearings are manufactured to customer specifications or, the company’s in-house design department can work with customers to develop unique bearing designs. The type of bearing design could incorporate special features which might reduce component cost and assembly time. Maximum manufacturing capacity at HB Bearings is 1.5 m outside diameter.
Materials are usually based on SAE 52100. However, certain motorsport applications may require more specialised bearing steel, such as AMS6444 (52100 VIM-VAR), which is a super clean steel. Occasionally, a material such as Cronidur is used, which has a value that exceeds 52100 by a factor of between 8 and 10.
“The common denominator is that they are all difficult to machine,” says Hirst. “However, with the micron tolerances we have to achieve with exact repeatability, the Kellenberger machines are more than up to the challenge. They have been an excellent investment.”
For further information www.hardinge.com

“The accuracy of programming is essential for us; if our CNC programs aren’t accurate, it would be catastrophic.” Those are the words of Stéphane Haoui, machining manager at Loiretech, a company specialising in large, complex tools for the commercial aerospace, automotive, defence and energy industries.

Loiretech’s design, manufacturing and production control processes face many issues – which are resolved by seamlessly merging three products – WorkNC, WorkPlan and WorkXplore from Hexagon’s production software portfolio – to create one integrated solution that connects all of its business silos together.
Based at Bouguenais in France, Loiretech Ingénierie produces a range of composite and metal tools for forming, thermoforming, moulding and part inspection. The company designs and manufactures, among other things, moulds for the production of reactors, fuselages and structural parts. In addition, the space market is well catered for, in particular through the production of tools for satellite reflectors and rocket fuselage reflectors. Loiretech supplies the automotive industry with control and automation tools for cutting out entire dashboards.
As well as tooling production, the company directly manufactures blades and propellers for the naval industry. Nine machine tools, which include Zayer, FPT, Forest Liné and Rambaudi, are programmed by Hexagon’s WorkNC CAM software, which Haoui says is vital to its operation: “The shop floor couldn’t function without WorkNC as it’s fully integrated into all stages of manufacturing: analysis, comparison, simulation, verification and machining.”
He says that Loiretech uses materials which can deform on the CNC machines, and their tools must generally be accurate to six or seven hundredths per metre; sometimes even to five hundredths.
“However, WorkNC’s reliability gives us the power and accuracy we need to ensure those tolerances are met every time,” says Haoui. “We begin by creating the WorkNC range, and prepare for manufacturing by extending the surfaces to accommodate the volume and define the part layout.”

After that, the company defines the raw material, the machine to be used, and the work holding. Then, the tool paths are programmed using WorkNC’s roughing, re-roughing, semi-finishing, finishing and cornering functions. The software automatically displays the stock in real time as the workpiece moves forward through the machining process, ensuring high accuracy.
“In order to secure the whole process before starting manufacturing, we simulate the tool paths to check there are no collisions between the machine, the part, the cutting tool and the tool holder,” says Haoui. “And to finalise the part we use WorkNC’s five-axis capability to mark it for routing and drilling. It used to take two days to program a part with 300 holes, but now it takes less than two hours.”
Loiretech Ingénierie also has a research and innovation department working on European aerospace and energy projects which can run over several years, in collaboration with universities and research centres.
WorkPlan keeps track of all the company’s business. As an example, the research and innovations department uses the ERP functionality to have a precise follow-up of costs and correlate them with the budgets allocated by the various financing.
The company installed the software in 2016, and has kept up to date with each new release. Most departments now use it. New functionalities requested, and now available, have been integrated into the company’s workflow, and allow the optimisation of work capacities. This capability means the CMMS module is responsible for managing requests and the follow-up of maintenance interventions within the company. The workshop is also equipped with WorkPlan and has numerous touchscreens for employee management, such as staff input/output, business clocking in/out or incident reporting via CMMS.
IT manager Sébastien Fraquet says: “WorkPlan is the backbone that allows us to structure our services. It can be found at every level of the company. We manage everything with it, from quotation to final invoicing, including purchasing management, non-conformity management and personnel management.”

By using all the modules, different departments can know the costs being generated and react quickly to preserve and increase the company’s profitability.
“Thanks to the real-time stock availability and the calculation of net requirements, the orders placed are extremely accurate,” says Fraquet. “Another important feature, the ‘Order Status’ module, is essential for determining that the production work in progress is sent quarterly to administrative and financial management. We need to know how much we’re getting back for everything we have on the shop floor, both in terms of hours spent on the job, and volume of purchases. This allows us to know the value of the company.”
The software permits Loiretech to issue constant balance sheets and develop new business using existing information in its database.
“We can use old estimates as a knowledge base, and adapt them to make similar projects profitable, time after time,” says Fraquet.
The third Hexagon solution contributing to Loiretech Ingénierie’s Industry 4.0 philosophy, is the high-speed CAD viewer, WorkXplore, which allows the company to open all types and sizes of CAD files in use, and import and analyse them at high speed.
“The sales and projects departments open CATIA and other CAD files with WorkXplore in order to analyse and cost projects. In addition, the workshop uses it for assembly and measurements. Some vital information isn’t visible on 2D plans, but thanks to the workshop having the full 3D file, we avoid additional costs caused by assembly non-conformities. The subcontracting department also uses WorkXplore as some parts of their tooling are machined elsewhere – they send 3D files by email, add annotations to the files and make quick dimensional drawings to ensure the subcontractor has all the necessary information.”
Loiretech’s use of three Hexagon products to integrate its former individual business silos is a good example of how the Industry 4.0 philosophy creates data-driven smart factories, giving a new level of insight and solutions which improve efficiency and quality, while reducing costs.
For further information www.worknc.com

Founded in 1984 and having moved repeatedly to larger premises to cope with almost continuous growth in turnover, subcontractor Norjon Precision Engineering expanded yet again at the end of 2018 with the acquisition of an adjacent unit on the Quay West Business Centre in Gosport, which enlarged the factory to 17,500 sq ft. Alongside this increase in shop-floor space, the firm has invested substantial sums year-on-year, with £2m spent during 2018 and 2019, and £1.2m of capital plant for 2020, some of which has already been delivered.

A pivotal moment in the accelerating rate of Norjon’s development was the decision in 2016 by owner and managing director Kevin Fox to automate a large proportion of production. The latest machine acquisition is a Hermle C400 five-axis milling centre fitted with the manufacturer’s HS Flex automated storage and retrieval system for eight 500 x 400 mm pallets. This turnkey cell, with touchscreen control for smart order management and connectivity for remote monitoring, was supplied by UK, Ireland and Middle East agent, Kingsbury.
The new cell has joined two automated Hermle five-axis cells delivered in 2018, a C22U and a C12U, both equipped with Erowa storage systems for exchanging smaller pallets. A further Hermle C12U was delivered in February 2020 equipped with a Dutch-made Halter robotic system for automated component loading and unloading around the clock, initially of vehicle engine parts. In total, taking into account three Hermle machines bought in 2017 and 2018, and legacy models from 2007 and 2012, plus a mill-turn C42U previously used by the AMRC and a larger C52MT mill-turn with a 1 m table that arrived in March 2020, Norjon operates nine of these German-built five-axis machines.

Says Fox: “In 2016 we often made batches of six-off prismatic parts of fairly high complexity. Even though we are a long-time user of five-axis equipment, which helps to make components in one hit and mitigate some of the time and cost of manufacture, it was easy to lose money on those jobs with all the programming and setting that was needed. So we took the decision three years ago to go after contracts for much larger batches of components, more like 50- or 60-off, but still complex in nature requiring substantial machining time.
“Then, one of our established customers in the medical industry ordered larger volumes of parts that we were already making,” he continues. “It was the trigger for us to move towards automation with the purchase of the first Hermle five-axis cell.”
Fox adds that Norjon operates four automated prismatic machining centres, including one from another supplier, and now has a fifth with the arrival of the Hermle/Halter cell. They allow virtually continuous production with minimal operator supervision throughout the night and at weekends, as well as during the day. He says the factory “really sings” now when he goes on to the shop floor, whereas before some machines might not be running as they would be waiting for fixtures or programs. Fox describes the difference as “amazing”.
The automated cell comprising the C400 and HS Flex has been installed in the factory extension together with the existing C20 and a spark eroder. Featuring storage for eight pallets on four levels and extended tool capacity totalling 81 positions, the Hermle was purchased to fulfil a contract requiring the delivery of 10 assemblies per week for a customer in the automotive industry. The two parts, towards the larger end of components produced at the factory, require 10 hours’ and 5 hours’ machining respectively from solid aluminium, and were initially milled and drilled on an unautomated C400. Considerable extra capacity has been gained due to the HS Flex running unattended for long periods.

Norjon now concentrates on working for four large corporations in the medical, food, automotive and marine propulsion industries. In the case of the latter sector, the company has recently become a preferred supplier to BAe Systems Maritime, which was the reason for installing the first Hermle mill-turn centre, as it allows turning of parts up to 800 mm in diameter and prismatic machining within an 800 x 800 x 550 mm working envelope. The new C52MT extends mill-turn capacity to nominally 1 cubic metre.
Fox concludes: “We started buying five-axis Hermle machining centres back in 2007, as we could achieve an almost polished finish when manufacturing aluminium and brass thermoforming moulds for the production of plastic food packaging. For our latest round of investment, we have returned to the same manufacturer due to our good experience with their machines over the years, its strong offering in automation involving its own and third-party solutions, and the excellent back-up provided by the sales agent Kingsbury.”
For further information www.kingsburyuk.com

Rugby-based Raysun has developed its business from a designer and manufacturer of bespoke jigs and fixtures with a well-equipped tool-room facility, to one of the UK’s leading ‘fast-make’ specialists for turbine components. Today, the company places particular emphasis on the development of smaller hot gas parts such as nozzle guide vanes, seal segments, seal carriers and turbine blades for aerospace and land-based applications.

This involvement with the turbine industry came from Raysun’s early collaboration on the Rolls-Royce Viper Grinding project, where both Tyrolit and Raysun engineers were heavily involved in invention, development and exploitation of Viper technology. Through this work, Raysun had a need to update its tool-room capacity and, the addition of Heidenhain controls to XYZ Machine Tools’ HD vertical machining centre range brought the two companies together for the first time.
Raysun’s involvement in the Viper Grinding project also opened up opportunities to further diversify the business, which saw the introduction of its ‘fast-make’ concept that provides rapid product development of small hot gas turbine components.

“Typically, it could take an OEM 12-18 months to take these parts from concept to production-ready parts,” says company director Charles Ray. “However, with our systems and flexibility, we can achieve this in under six months. Typically, we spend 4-6 weeks on each stage of the project, these being design, jigs and fixture production, and final product development, with machining work spread across our tool room and separate production facility. The result of this fast-make concept has been rapid growth over the past three years, and we have several active projects in-hand for major customers that have placed additional pressure on the ageing machinery within our tool room.”
A legacy of the Viper Grinding work meant that virtually every machine at Raysun featured a Heidenhain control, and this would be the first tick box in selecting any replacement machine. The recently added option of the Heidenhain TNC 620 control to its HD range of vertical machining centres brought XYZ Machine Tools to the attention of Raysun.
“Without the choice of the Heidenhain control, which we are very familiar with, we probably wouldn’t have even considered XYZ as an option, but when we saw it was available, the other aspects of machine choice fell into place,” says Ray. “The tool room works on a wide range of parts, some with small, high-precision features and other much larger items, such as assembly jigs for building cars. To cover the range of requirements, a machining centre with a reasonable size table was required, and the XYZ 800 HD was ideal. The combination of the XYZ 800 HD machining centre and the Heidenhain control has definitely impressed us, and it fitted our requirements well with the added benefit of being a price-competitive package that was available in the timeframe we had.”

Raysun now has two XYZ 800 HD VMCs in place. With their 800 x 500 x 510 mm axis travels, 920 x 480 mm table size and 900 kg load capacity, the machines are being fully employed in a variety of tool-room applications. Constructed around a 4400 kg solid cast base and column, with traditional box slide ways on all three axes, the XYZ 800 HD provides a suitable machining platform for a wide range of components, with a mix of rigidity and agility supported by a 24-position tool changer and 25 kW/10,000 rpm spindle.
“The Heidenhain TNC620 control and optimised servos is proving to be a popular standard option among customers specialising in the aerospace and tool-room environments, where Heidenhain is traditionally strong,” says Nigel Atherton, managing director of XYZ Machine Tools. “The compact touchscreen user-interface of the Heidenhain control makes it attractive to a wider customer base and, by offering it on our HD range of vertical machining centres, we can now provide the optimum machine/control combination to suit a customer’s requirements.”
Raysun also needed to add to its turning capabilities and here it compromised on its desire for Heidenhain CNC and took delivery of an XYZ SLX355 ProTurn lathe featuring the SLX ProtoTRAK control. With milling, grinding and EDM being the key areas within tool-room, turning is an aspect of the business that has a lesser, yet vital role to play, and one where versatility is key.

“The ProtoTRAK control is ideal for what we needed as it allows anyone to step up to the lathe and commence operations thanks to its ease of use,” says Ray. “As with the XYZ 800 HD, the size and capability met our requirements and it is a no-nonsense machine that does an excellent job day-to-day for us.”
With these three machines from XYZ Machine Tools in place, the Raysun tool room is better placed to deliver to the expectations of the ‘fast-make’ side of the business, as well as individual customers for its general tool-room services.
For further information www.xyzmachinetools.com

Gloucester-based subcontractor Stratos Precision Engineering, a majority of whose business comes from machining plastics, has strengthened and diversified its turning department with the addition of its first sliding-head lathe, a Citizen Cincom L32-VIIILFV. The twin-spindle, 35mm capacity, bar-fed turn-milling centre has joined a plant list of five fixed-head, single-spindle chucking lathes for turning parts up to 650 mm in diameter.

Purchase of the seven-axis CNC Swiss-type lathe was part of an investment of more than £1m since the fourth quarter of 2018, which has also seen the arrival of a new big bore lathe and a 3 x 2 m automatic tool change CNC router, as well as refurbishment of the company’s 8000 sq ft premises in Gloucester. During the same period, the number of staff has doubled to 16, while in the last financial year, turnover increased by nearly 50% over the previous 12 months.
Stratos’ managing director Jonathan Caple says: “For some years we had been looking at buying a bar-fed lathe to increase our competitiveness, win new business and enter new industries by machining larger quantities of parts with tighter tolerances. We favoured the sliding-head type over fixed-head lathes, as the short axis movements lead to higher productivity. In addition, the twin-spindle configuration and extensive driven tooling on the machine means one-hit production often supersedes two or three operations on different machines.”
He adds: “To reap the full benefits of the investment, we need to be able to leave the machine running 24/7 either unattended or with reduced labour overnight to maximise production output. This was previously impossible due to the stringy swarf that is produced when machining plastic, which needs to be manually cleared by an operator on a regular basis.”
The situation continued until 2016, when Citizen invented and patented its LFV (low frequency vibration) software. Part of the operating system in the Mitsubishi control of Cincom machines, and switchable on and off if required during the program, LFV vibrates the servo axis in the cutting direction so that the tool tip leaves the surface of the material being machined for regular, ultra-brief periods.

The effect is to break the long strands of swarf normally generated when turning plastics into short lengths of just a few millimetres, preventing it from ‘birds-nesting’ in the machining area and melting back on to the workpiece, which normally means scrapping the part.
A recent trend in the subcontractor’s business has been a shift to machining more metals, notably aluminium for a large packaging machinery contract, but also ferrous metals such as stainless steel. This material also results in stringy swarf forming around the tool and workpiece, and therefore benefits greatly from using Citizen’s chip-breaking software.
Caple and Stratos’ co-owner, operations director Mark Vine, recognised how beneficial LFV technology would be for the business when turning plastics. Unlike metals, whose finish can be adjusted by fettling after machining, this is not practical with plastic as it needs to come off any machine tool in a finished condition.
The importance of improving turn-milling efficiency to increase competitiveness was reinforced when Stratos was required to produce 2000 parts over a short period and the existing machinery would only achieve 400 per day. However, with the new sliding-head machine and LFV technology, Stratos is now able to produce the 2000 parts in 48 hours.
It was a series of demonstrations at Citizen’s technical centre and showroom in Brierley Hill that decided the directors in favour of LFV over other chip-breaking methodologies which involve macros in the program. Additionally, as Caple points out, Cincom machines are built from the ground up to withstand the high-frequency, low-amplitude vibration caused by the intermittent, chip-generating cutting action.

The transition on the shop floor at Stratos to the new turning technology, as well as to the first Mitsubishi control on site, has been seamless. One of the sliding-head lathe operators, who normally runs five machining centres at the facility, quickly picked up programming of the L32 using Citizen’s Alkart CNC Wizard offline software. He and others received two days’ instruction at Brierley Hill, followed by a week of on-site operator training. In the period from machine installation in September 2019 to the end of January 2020, more than 30 jobs had been produced on the new lathe, which included some around-the-clock running.
A major benefit of a twin-spindle lathe is the ability to produce components machined at both ends in a single cycle that would otherwise require two separate operations. This capability is assisted by the availability of a multitude of tools, including driven cutters, which enable the inclusion of extra operations such as deburring, eliminating further subsequent processes.
Speed of production is consequently much higher on the bar-fed Citizen compared with the fixed-head chuckers. For example, a 400-off contract that used to take a full day is now finished in a couple of hours on the slider. Furthermore, Stratos can now manufacture in bulk, as the bar does not need to be changed as frequently as for multiple jobs. With this capability, Stratos can now run, say 1000-off, deliver 400 to the customer and stock the remainder on consignment. The customer benefits through more flexible supply and the certainty of prompt deliveries, while Stratos gains through more economical cost-per-part manufacture, which is passed on to the customer through improved rates and prices.

Another recent example of accelerated production was the machining of 5000 steel pins for a chain conveyor, which was completed in five days working a single shift. Previously, the job would have needed two operations on a pair of chuckers requiring two operators. Either the contract would not have been economical or the margin would have been unacceptably small.
Vine says: “The accuracy and surface finish we are achieving on the slider are fantastic. We recently ran the machine unattended around-the-clock with LFV, with coolant running to keep the temperature stable, and produced 3000 Ultem polyetherimide thermoplastic parts for a customer in the flow control sector. All of them were within the required -0/+0.05 mm tolerance band, which is impressive and can be difficult to achieve in this material without having to make adjustments to the machine.
“Overall, our new machinery has enabled us to be a more competitive subcontractor for plastic and metal machining, and is contributing towards the impressive growth of our business,” he concludes.
For further information www.citizenmachinery.co.uk