SUBCONTRACTING NEWS

Positive year for subcontract market

The UK subcontract manufacturing market had a positive year in 2025, up 47% on 2024, according to the latest Contract Manufacturing Index (CMI) figures. The automotive industry was the largest customer and accounted for nearly a third of the market. It proved a strong contributor to the health of the subcontract sector despite the effects of the JLR cyber-attack.

Qimtek owner Karl Wigart says: “It’s quite clear that 2025 was a better year overall than 2024. Activity by buyers has been steady and we broke the record for the number of parts quoted – just under 20 million components for the year. However, we feel suppliers remain cautious. They were badly affected by the uncertainty of the late budget and the shutdown of JLR. Suppliers are proving fussy on which jobs they are quoting for and careful with how they are spending their money.”

More information www.qimtek.co.uk

PTG Precision automates production with Dugard SMEC

PTG Precision Engineers – an engineering specialist with over 40 years of experience serving the nuclear, aerospace and energy sectors – has taken a significant step towards production automation with the installation of a SMEC NS2000 bar-fed turning centre supplied by Dugard. The investment represents the company’s first foray into automated machining and comes in response to a growing order book and persistent challenges in recruiting skilled machinists.

Over the past 12 months, PTG had experienced a significant upturn in demand, creating operational pressures that existing production capacity struggled to accommodate. When PTG mentioned its interest in a bar-fed lathe to Dugard, the trusted machine tool supplier put together a comprehensive package.

PTG selected the SMEC NS2000A, a bar-fed turning centre that combines accessibility with precision. The NS2000A is equipped with a 6-inch chuck and offers a maximum turning diameter of 310 mm, with a swing over bed of 565 mm.

PTG’s new SMEC NS2000 has been integrated with an LNS bar feeder. The transformation in production has been dramatic. Previously, PTG was processing batches of 25 expanding mandrills at a time on conventional equipment. With the SMEC NS2000 and LNS bar feeder combination, the company now runs batches of 350 off – a 14-fold increase in batch size that has fundamentally changed stock availability and production scheduling.

“The machine requires very little set up,” notes production manager Jim Adkins. “In the morning, we may spend an hour setting the bar feeder, loading it up with bars, putting the programs through again. Then the guys go back and run our other machines. They only return to remove parts from the catcher every half an hour.”

More information www.dugard.com

Two further Citizen CNC lathes bring total to 21

The decision to set up a turned parts subcontracting business at the start of the worst economic crisis in living memory has paid dividends for Yian Stavrou and George Dingley, joint owners of Luton-based Sub-CNC Precision. Supporting their successful evolution from earning a few thousand pounds a month in 2008 to turning over a predicted £3m in the company’s current financial year has been, from the very beginning, continued investment in twin-spindle, multi-axis, bar-fed lathes supplied by Citizen Machinery UK.

Over the years, the ISO 9001-accredited and JOSCAR-registered subcontractor has bought 25 such machines, part exchanging a few to leave 21 on the shop floor as of the end of 2025. Two-thirds are Cincom sliding-head models for producing parts from 0.5 to 38 mm in diameter, while the remainder are Miyano fixed-head turning centres. Many run lights-out from 18:00 to 07:00. 

In 2017, the introduction of Citizen’s proprietary LFV (low-frequency vibration) chip-breaking software in the Cincom control massively assisted unattended machining. The big advantage of the function is that it can be programmed using G codes to switch on and off during a cycle, added to which it also has different modes to adjust the size of the chips. The function is disabled for parts of the cycle where enhanced chip-breaking is not necessary.

As to the fixed-head Miyano lathes, which produce parts from bar ranging from 8 to 65 mm in diameter, or from billet up to 200 mm diameter, they started arriving at the subcontractor’s factory in 2012. The latest to take its place on the shop floor, alongside a new Cincom L20-XLFV, is a Miyano BNE-51MSY.

More information www.citizenmachinery.co.uk

Delta XD achieves Nadcap accreditation for measurement

Basingstoke-based Delta XD, a Zeiss-certified metrology partner and provider of advanced dimensional inspection services, has achieved Nadcap AC7130/4 accreditation for 3D structured light (3DSL) systems. The accreditation was awarded following the company’s first audit, building upon Delta XD’s existing certifications: AS9100D, Cyber Essentials and JOSCAR.

The accreditation covers both in-house services with Delta XD’s Zeiss ScanBox and ATOS system, and on-site inspection using portable 3D scanning equipment — a capability held by only a handful of companies worldwide. Nadcap accreditation is widely recognised as irrefutable evidence of a company’s capability to operate at the highest level of quality and safety.

With more than 50 aerospace prime subscribers requiring Nadcap throughout their supply chains, including Rolls-Royce, the achievement demonstrates Delta XD’s ability to support aerospace OEMs and their supply chains with the highest assurance standards.

“We’re very pleased to have secured Nadcap accreditation in such a positive way,” says Daniel Lainchbury, COO of Delta XD. “This milestone underlines our expertise and commitment to high standards. It’s recognition not only of our technical capabilities, but also of the dedication of our team. We look forward to maintaining this accreditation and working towards Merit status in due course.”

Delta XD’s achievement of Nadcap accreditation sends a clear message to existing and future customers: the company is committed to delivering accredited, high-precision 3D scanning services that meet the most stringent aerospace and defence standards.

More information https://delta-xd.com/

Mitutoyo technology ensures quality at Purso-Tools

In the manufacture of demanding machined components, maintaining precision requires advanced quality control strategies and technologies, and smooth collaboration with the equipment supplier. For Purso-Tools, Mitutoyo has for many years served as the company’s trusted partner in measurement devices.Purso-Tools Oy, located in Pori on the west coast of Finland, is the world’s largest producer of camshafts for heavy industry, supplying customers such as Wärtsilä, MAN, Bergen Engines (Rolls Royce), Bosch and Caterpillar. With such a prestigious client list, uncompromising quality management is an absolute prerequisite.

Says Mika Aerikkala, production manager at Purso-Tools: “In the production of connecting rods and camshafts, we deal with tolerances measured in thousandths of a millimetre. Not a single defective part can be sent to a customer.”


The collaboration with Mitutoyo begin in the early 2010s. At that time, Purso-Tools was seeking a new CMM and found the right solution in Mitutoyo.

“Previously, we used technology from several different suppliers. Now, we practically focus on one brand: Mitutoyo,” says Aerikkala.

Purso-Tools currently operates three large Mitutoyo CMMs: a Crysta Apex 163012, a Crysta Apex 122010 and the latest addition, a Crysta Apex 574.

Continues Aerikkala: “All machines use the same measurement head and probe options, making them easily interchangeable in our operations. The larger machines feature the motorised indexing probe head, which adds dynamic capability and speed to the measurement process.”

In addition to its three CMMs, Purso-Tools uses a range of other Mitutoyo equipment, including surface roughness testers and handheld measuring instruments. More demanding surface roughness measurements, such as waviness analysis, take place in the metrology room using a software-driven Mitutoyo Surftest SJ-500P. Mitutoyo’s MeasurLink software handles data management, collection and analysis.

More information www.mitutoyo.eu