Tenon Engineering enjoys a global reputation for its high-precision manufacturing capabilities. In addition to serving an international scientific equipment client base, the Dorking, Surrey-based business counts companies involved in similarly demanding technical sectors as loyal customers.

Approximately 80% of Tenon Engineering’s output is exported to major markets in the USA, Asia, Africa and mainland Europe. Along with its high-precision subcontract work, the business also manufactures for its sister company, Wallace Instruments, a specialist in the quality assurance testing of rubber, plastics and other materials.

Given the nature of the sectors it serves, and the critical functions that much of its output is designed to perform, quality, accuracy, efficiency and reliability are central to the ethos of the business. To help ensure adherence to these values, Tenon Engineering boasts a comprehensive range of in-house resources, including multi-axis machining, cylindrical grinding, precision sheet metal fabrication, assembly and coil winding, and electrical motor manufacture.

The company’s machining facility houses a variety of advanced CNC machine tools, including a range of Dugard CNC lathes and several multi-axis machining centres. As the company’s machine tools are normally involved in performing the low-volume production of high precision parts, to help minimise job changeover times and reduce non-productive periods, Tenon Engineering’s chief engineer Terry Healy searched for a suitably efficient work-holding system. He found the answer to his quest in a Lang pre-stamping unit along with a collection of Lang Technik Makro Grip Vices.

”Our capabilities and world-class engineering expertise, from the design and development of prototypes to all aspects of manufacturing, means that we can provide innovative solutions across a multitude of industries,” reports Healy. “Therefore, our international customer base includes companies involved in the scientific instrumentation, materials testing equipment, aviation, medical instrumentation and quality control analysis sectors. The nature of our customer means that we generally employ our machine tools in high-value, relatively short machining runs.”

Consequently, with the intention of cutting the times lost in job changeovers and increasing our machining efficiencies, Tenon Engineering invested in Lang Technik’s advanced pre-stamping technology and Makro grip vices.

“The use of Lang Technik’s advanced work-holding systems on our machine tools has achieved our target of significantly speeding-up our job change-over times and increasing the efficiency of our machine tools,” explains Healy. “By using our LANG Technik products, a lot of the work involved in setting-up the next job on a particular machine tool can now be done while the current machining task is still being performed.

“Now, within the cycle time of an existing job, our production staff use our new Lang Technik stamping unit to make high-precision, small indentations into the next workpiece blank to be machined,” he continues. “Then, when the prepared workpiece is clamped into one of our Lang Makro-grip vices, the features on the vice’s jaws engage precisely with the workpiece’s pre-stamped indentations. By using this arrangement, we’re able to achieve outstanding holding power while only needing to apply minimal clamping forces. Also, the rapid loading and unloading of our Lang Technik work holding means we have achieved much quicker job change-over times.”

Adds Healy: “The system’s reduced holding pressure requirement ensures that, under all machining conditions, we’re able to securely clamp from the softest to the hardest of materials without worrying about the component deforming or the vice loosening its grip under high machining loads. An added advantage is that the Lang Technik stamping unit makes its indentations into just the last 3 mm of each workpiece blanks. Therefore, we’re now also making savings on material.”

Notably, the many benefits gained from the use of the innovative Lang Technik pre-stamping technology and Makro grip vices has ensured that the system has become the benchmark clamping method for ultra-secure five-axis machining.

The toothed jaws of conventional vices must perform two distinct roles, in addition to indenting workpiece’s material, they must also securely hold the workpiece under all machining loads. Commonly used vices are only able to exert a maximum pressure of approximately 4-6 tons. As a result, the effective penetration of their jaws into workpiece material can be problematic, especially when clamping harder metals. Also, to ensure adequate piercing of the workpiece, a vice’s teeth must remain sharp. Due to the exposure of vice teeth to high levels of torque and wear in use, their clamping ability inevitably declines. Subsequently, when using conventional vices during the machining of soft, distortion-prone materials, jaw teeth also tend to lose their holding power and work free from components when under machining forces.

Using Land’s advanced stamping technology overcomes these issues by applying up to 20 tons of pressure during the pre-stamping of workpieces. This capability guarantees the creation of precise indentations, even when applied to the hardest of materials. Following pre-stamping, as the teeth of Makro Grip Vices engage exactly with the pre-stamped indents, only relatively low clamping pressure is required to hold the workpiece securely. In addition to holding the workpiece in the vice under the most severe machining conditions, the truncated pyramidal shapes of the pre-stamped indents prevent vice teeth from moving deeper into the workpiece material by providing a defined penetration limit.

Despite the application of comparatively low clamping pressure, the holding forces exerted on workpieces held in Makro Grip vices actually become greater, the harder and more resistant the workpiece material. Moreover, as workpieces are prepared before being loaded into the machine tool, machine downtime reduces significantly.
For further information www.lang-technik.co.uk

Lisburn-based manufacturer CASC is investing £1.7m in its business growth through the creation of 26 jobs and the skills development of its team. The SME provides project management and professional labour services for the renewables sector, as well as metal fabrication to the engineering, construction and utilities sectors. Karl Crockard, managing director of CASC, says: “We’ve recently invested in new state-of-the-art tube lasers and a robotic welder to enhance our manufacturing capability and increase productivity and efficiencies. With this in place, we’ve been able to develop a strong pipeline of projects, specifically in the renewable offshore wind sector.”
For further information www.casconline.co.uk

A tool-making specialist has increased its portfolio of Sodick machines with the addition of a new AL40G die-sink model from Sodi-Tech EDM. Hampshire-based JSG Engineering is enjoying long-term success using a range of Sodick EDM wire, die-sink and hole-drill machines that provide high-quality work for the company’s customers and help generate repeat business.

“Business is strong at present, particularly on pharmaceutical side,” states director Gary Carpenter. “One customer in particular has been requesting several mould tools as we’ve progressed through the Covid-19 pandemic.”

This demand recently led the company to review its die-sinking capacity. JSG Engineering had some older die-sink machines on site (not Sodick) that were reaching the end of their useful service life.

During a telephone conversation with Sodi-Tech EDM, JSG Engineering learnt that a demonstration model of the Sodick AL40G die-sink model would be on display at the MACH 2022 exhibition in April, so Carpenter expressed his interest. It was not long before the machine was undergoing installation at the company’s Emsworth facility near Portsmouth.

“Some of the tools we produce are up to three times faster to produce on our AL40G than our previous die-sink resource,” he says. “The quality is also far better and we can achieve a mirror finish if required. Where before we would have to polish a cavity after sparking, now there’s no need for 90% of our jobs, so it’s saved an awful lot of time.”

Energy efficiency is another benefit, particularly in the current inflationary environment for electricity, where manufacturers are having to find ways of offsetting the cost burden.

Says Carpenter: “The fact that the latest Sodick technology is energy-efficient and so fast with its linear technology means that we definitely save on our bills.”
For further information www.sodi-techedm.co.uk

Being a specialist in the manufacture of highly complex moulds means working with the best suppliers on the market. At Alcapur – Soperfect, there is an awareness of this fact, which is why ONA has become the benchmark supplier when it comes to EDM. For Portuguese firms, the high precision and efficiency of ONA machines are crucial for producing moulds with very stringent requirements.

Based in Loureiro, Portugal, Soperfect has been designing, manufacturing and marketing plastic injection moulds for sectors such as the automotive, food, household appliance, toys and garden furniture industries since 2008. Since that time, it has been sharing installations with Alcapur, a company specialising in the machining of plastic injection moulds for the automotive and furniture industries.

Being involved in the whole process, from product engineering to production and marketing, innovation is a fundamental asset in their business strategy. The two companies are constantly on the lookout for the most advanced technological solutions on the market, and it was precisely this search that led them to ONA.

“ONA encompasses all the requirements that we needed,” the companies emphasise. “We produce highly complex solutions requiring very precise machining. The high performance and efficiency of ONA machines, as well as their after-sales support, were decisive factors in our purchase decision. We produce parts that often require minute, high-precision drilling. These machines can also handle large workpieces weighing up to 20 tonnes. All this makes our work much easier.”

Access to ONA’s EDM technology undoubtedly gives Alcapur – Soperfect a cutting edge over their competitors, which explains why they already have four ONA machines at their facilities, the last two acquired in 2021.
For further information www.onaedm.com

Established over 30 years ago, mould maker BM Injection operates from a 10,000 sq ft manufacturing facility in Whitchurch, Hampshire. Out of every 10 moulds produced, eight are used for on-site production of injection moulded plastic products for numerous sectors.

Before it is complete and ready for use, every mould has to visit both a die-sink and a wire-cut EDM machine, as well as a machining centre for hard milling. In the production of BM Injection’s mould tools, unless any are hard-milled on an Okuma three-axis machining centre on-site, all three production platforms used for manufacturing the moulds were built by Makino in Japan and supplied through sole UK agent NCMT.

The latest to be installed in May 2022 was a U32j wire EDM machine fitted with the same Hyper-i control system as a Makino EDAF3 H.E.A.T. EDM die-sink model that arrived in 2019.

Okuma’s Hyper-i Windows-based, twin-touchscreen CNC, with an intuitive interface similar to that found on tablets and smartphones, includes advanced functions to support operators of all skill levels at every step of the machining process. The control contains an extensive library of cutting conditions that automatically optimises the erosion process, even for sealed and poor flush applications. It also enables easy access to and selection of power settings to produce accurate results in the fastest possible cycle times.

The control employs HyperCut technology, a process developed by Makino to produce surface finishes as fine as 3 µm Rz in standard tool steels in a three- or four-pass process. Notably, the machine ordered by Mark Combes, director of BM Injection, was a high-accuracy package with 0.05 µm scale feedback capable of producing extremely smooth surfaces down to 0.7 µm Ra if using a seven-pass process.
For further information www.ncmt.co.uk