SUBCONTRACTING NEWS

Bridging the commercial ‘valley of death’

Manufacturing, business and academia have come together to bridge the UK’s £bn+ commercial ‘valley of death’. PP Plus, which is led by PP Control & Automation, is delivering access to expertise that will help companies develop and scale green technologies. More than 20 organisations are involved, including Brandauer, the Centre for Advanced Low Carbon Propulsion Systems, Cleveland Scott York, Product Approvals, Protolabs, Silverstone Technology Cluster and WMG. Together, they can take innovators from development and prototyping to protecting their IP, contract manufacturing and driving sales through PR.For further information www.pp-plus.org

£1m press investment at BPL Engineering

A UK sheet metalwork specialist has extended its long-term partnership with Worcester Presses with a new £1m investment. BPL Engineering Group, which employs 40 people at its state-of-the-art facility in Kings Norton, has installed a 500 tonne straight-sided, twin-crank Ching Fong to support its move into medium and high-volume work. The press comes with a large bed, works high up the stroke, and features a 1 m, 3-in-1 Tomac coil line, giving it the capacity to take on large parts destined for cars, trucks and aircraft.

“This latest Chin Fong is our biggest mechanical press to date and gives us additional capacity to take on complex progression tools in medium to high volumes,” explains Matt Adams, operations director at BPL Engineering Group. “There’s a lot of opportunity to service contracts with automotive clients and this machine will hopefully help us engage in new sectors requiring complex metal stamping where we can offer bespoke tooling solutions.”

Installation, including a new isolated pit to cut vibrations, is now complete and BPL is looking to start running products off in the next few weeks. The company is training four operators, including apprentices.

“We know what we’re getting with the Chin Fong: great reliability, superb accuracy and strong performance,” says Adams. “However, the relationship we have with Worcester

Presses is the real reason we keep turning to this press manufacturer. Russell Hartill and his team understand our business and the market opportunity and then put together tailored turnkey packages that not only meet, but surpass our performance expectations. The service and maintenance offers are also top class.”

For further information www.worcesterpresses.co.uk

All-inclusive package for end machining

Regional roots; international success. This applies to the three companies GABO Stahl, Mössner and Mapal equally. It is only logical that a co-operation benefits everyone: for the end machining of round steel, GABO Stahl now relies on an automated solution from Mössner, which in turn works with Mapal tools.

Sawn round steel bars with lengths of 9 mm are just as much a part of GABO Stahl’s portfolio as round steel bars with a length of 6000 mm. The company has a large customer base and its products find use in a wide range of applications – from electrical and hydraulic parts production to large bolts for wind turbines.

GABO Stahl is not only a steel trader, but also a steel processor, with products manufactured typically in small series. As a result, the company’s manufacturing equipment must be flexible, which is why it relies on machine builder Mössner.

“Tooling specialist Mapal is our go-to partner,” says Markus Fuchs, purchasing manager at Mössner. “We work closely together and receive quick, straightforward support.”

Mapal and Mössner partnered together for around eight weeks on the system that is now in-situ at GABO Stahl. Marc Wagner, technical consultant at Mapal, recalls: “The tool for facing, chamfering and centre drilling different types of steel and diameters was a major challenge.”

Adds Fuchs: “We got everyone round the table. Once the right tool had been defined and designed, we built the machine around it.”

The team found the optimum solution with a milling tool accompanied by cartridges and a centre drill. It is possible to machine the many different materials and workpieces with the same coated indexable insert. The cartridges quickly and easily set different diameters for the workpiece chamfer.

For further information www.mapal.com

ITC provides solution for composite expert

Melton Mowbray based KS Composites has continually evolved over the past 40 years to become a global expert in composite and GRP development and manufacturing for sectors that include motorsport, marine, energy, rail, aviation and defence. Here, the company relies on cutting tool experts at Industrial Tooling Corporation (ITC) to deliver results.

Operating out of a 48,000 sq ft manufacturing facility that accommodates more than 100 employees, KS Composites has a long-standing relationship with ITC, as business development manager Dan Johnston explains: “We use ITC cutting tools due to the great working relationship we have with the team and the excellent service we receive. Whether discussing new advancements in tooling technology or looking at building a package of tools to support a project, ITC always give great advice. Even better is the on-site support in running trials to confirm that tooling works as stated.”

KS Composites uses ITC face mills, end mills, ball-nose cutters, drills and taps among other niche tooling, which help the company to machine patterns, moulds, jigs, components, inserts, props and models. In addition, the business has an on-site vending solution from ITC with a comprehensive stock level that ITC keeps fully serviced.

Looking at the cost savings derived from the ITC range of cutting tools, Johnston says: “When we conducted a full cost analysis of our tooling and the total material removed, it’s clear that the ITC tooling is great value for money. We’ve managed to control costs over the years and ITC has helped to improve efficiencies while enabling our business to embrace the very latest tooling technology for composite machining.”

For further information www.itc-ltd.co.uk

Guhring builds relationship based on results

LMS Precision Engineering has trusted its tooling supplier for over 35 years. Scott Street, a partner at Droitwich-based LMS, says: “We’re a family-run business with main sectors of interest that include aerospace and general subcontract machining. We’ve always had a great relationship with Guhring.”

Chris Bush from Guhring takes up the narrative: “LMS uses the whole spectrum of our cutting tools, whether that’s milling cutters, drills, taps or thread mills – in fact, everything through to the TM [Tool Management] vending machine. LMS was one of the first customers to see the advantages of a TM vending machine, which allows them to put their resources in providing components rather than manually ordering tools, looking for tools and managing tool stocks.”

Guhring can build TM vending solutions to a customer’s specific requirements. The system will control and monitor tool consumption and spending, with reporting for complete visibility. The main benefits of the Guhring TM vending solutions include 24/7 controlled tool availability and the prevention of production stoppages due to tool availability. It will also eliminate loss and theft, create employee awareness of tooling costs and the system can communicate with customer IT systems.

Recalling specific product lines, Street says: “We had a lot of joy with the Guhring VA series drill and now there’s the new InoxPro drill, which is bringing us faster run times than ever before. We use Guhring for everything, including end mills such as high-speed rippers, through-coolant drills, high-speed steel drills, stub drills – absolutely everything.”

Alluding to the application of the latest-generation tools, he adds: “The latest tools have given us the confidence to run lights-out, reducing the number of tools we need to stock and providing us with full visibility of all tool usage and tool performance.”

For further information www.guhring.co.uk