Founded by managing director Wayne Bouchier at the youthful age of 25, Letchworth-based Maztech Precision Engineering (MPE) today runs four Mazak machining centres, which include a VTC-530C, an i-500 and the jewel in the crown, an i-300 AWC five-axis, 32-pallet machine that runs unmanned around the clock.

However, the journey to acquiring high-end machine tools was certainly an uphill struggle, as the entrepreneur started the business with little more than loans, family support, some good faith from Mazak, a sprinkle of luck and truck loads of hard work and determination. Six years later, the combination of hard work, research and experience has been integrated with some innovative business nous that has seen Maztech invest in machine tools from Mazak, high-end CAM software from Open Mind and, of critical importance, high-quality cutting tools from Industrial Tooling Corporation (ITC).
Recalling the formation of the company and how the relationship with the Tamworth cutting-tool specialist transpired, Bouchier says: “During the early years of the business we relied largely upon one prominent tooling vendor, as well as a few smaller vendors. This combination gave us access to a range of products that would suit our initial needs. The primary supplier continually promised us a vending machine, which never materialised. Simultaneously, the price of tooling kept fluctuating. As a small subcontract manufacturer, we sometimes factor the cost of tooling into our work, so ever-changing prices were unacceptable. Instead of inviting every cutting tool sales rep to our site to conduct countless time-consuming trials, we asked 10 vendors to work with us on one single job.”

Applying this novel and efficient route to selecting the most appropriate tooling vendor, Maztech offered up an EN24 component for the MoD that was required in a volume of 300-off. Utilising one of its five-axis Mazak machining centres and CAM software from Open Mind, each steel cover component required over 10 minutes of continuous trochoidal roughing. So, Maztech asked the 10 invited vendors to supply a couple of their preferred five-flute solid carbide end mills to test. Each participating tool was run at identical speed and feed parameters that had been agreed with each of the 10 cutting-tool engineers from the various suppliers.
Bouchier says: “Every company claims to have the best cutting tools, so we put that theory and the confidence of the reps to the test. This was a genuine test of carbide quality and the performance of tool geometry. I ran every single tool until it broke and then recorded the data and tried the next tool – that was the fairest way of conducting the trials. The contrast in performance was staggering. We had one end mill that lasted just 30 seconds. However, most of the leading names in the industry machined five, six or seven parts, with some of the best performers reaching 10 finished parts before failure. The second-best tool managed to cut its way through 14 parts before failure, which we considered very good performance when measured against all the previously tried brands. However, the ITC tool was in a completely different league: the ITC Widia 577C five-flute solid-carbide end mill blew everything else out of the water.”
The ITC Widia 577C completed 25 parts before performance started to diminish. However, despite the deteriorating performance, the end mill would not break.
Following this testing process, Maztech introduced ITC Widia solid-carbide end mills to other components at its facility.
“Over 20% of our work is EN24 and another 20 to 30% is stainless steel, so we rapidly introduced ITC’s solid carbide tools to all our steel parts,” says Bouchier. “Based on the performance of the ITC Widia 577C, we felt confident that we could roll them out across our machine shop. I probably didn’t give ITC the ‘fairest of opportunities’ in the early days, but the 577C trial changed all that.

“The next step was to try the aluminium cutters and it has just grown from there,” he adds. “In the past couple of years we’ve implemented ITC’s deburring tools, thread rolling taps, ball-nosed end mills, through-coolant drills and much more. We only use solid-carbide tooling, and ITC now supplies 99% of our cutters. The remaining 1% will be tools that ITC do not manufacture. Our decision to work almost solely with ITC has been fully justified. We used to spend upward of £3000 per month on cutting tools, but ITC has helped us to half this cost. While a 50% cost reduction is great, what’s more impressive is that we’ve doubled the size of our business, our productivity and our output in the last two years since introducing ITC. So, in real terms, without ITC, our tooling costs would be four to five times higher than what they actually are today.”
One reason behind ITC now claiming 99% of the tooling supply at Maztech is the service.
“We machine 1000 steel blocks every six weeks for an aerospace customer and this job requires the rough machining of 2” cube sections,” says Bouchier. “We were using a long-series, five-flute 10 mm diameter solid-carbide end mill with a 42 mm flute length and chip breaker from our previous, unreliable supplier. At that point, ITC didn’t have a 42 mm flute tool with the dimensions we required, but they produced one for us. The performance of the ITC five-flute 10 mm diameter tool was comparable with that of the previous tool, so ITC revised it to extend tool life from 40 parts per tool, to 50.”
Looking to the future, Maztech is venturing into the realms of indexable cutting tools. Again, ITC has been on-hand to support the company.
“We’ve tried a few of the ITC indexable tools and had some good results, especially with the Widia VSM490,” states Bouchier. “We have been cutting stainless steel dry with a 50 mm diameter five-insert VSM490 face mill and that has been very good. We did a few trials from numerous suppliers and found that the Widia VSM490 face mill from ITC halved our tool spend on the inserts, and made an improvement to tool life. Basically, we were taking a 5 mm deep cut in stainless 304 and the ITC indexable reduced tooling costs by 15% and improved tool life by over 20%. This is a big saving on a job that is produced in batches of 150-off at least four times a year. The first-op machining time is 50 minutes per part using the VSM490 face mill, with a second op that requires another 40 minutes of machining, so ITC is again delivering huge benefits.”
For further information www.itc-ltd.co.uk

Carney (UK) Ltd began life as a business development consultancy in 2014 to deliver the project management expertise of founder Simon Carney to small and medium-sized engineering companies. While working on a business turnaround project for a fabrication company, things fell into place, with Carney UK Engineering & Automation being invited to work as project manager on the design and development of fixtures for a powertrain assembly used by a luxury vehicle manufacturer.

This opportunity was the first step in the transformation of Carney UK into a leading designer, developer and manufacturer of bespoke assembly jigs and fixtures, production line equipment such as end-effectors for robots, pneumatic handling systems, and special purpose machinery for assisted assembly – all with a focus on the automotive sector.
“Through hard work and dedication to delivering projects on-time and to budget, we overcame the challenges faced by small businesses breaking into large OEM automotive manufacturers,” says Carney. “We are extremely proud of what we have achieved.”
With a UK customer base ranging from prestige, low-volume manufacturers, through to high-volume vehicle producers, Carney UK develops solutions to the specific assembly and automation needs of customers. This service looks set to grow thanks to the significant interest generated by Carney products, such as multi-purpose jigs that can be used on more than one model of vehicle. Also fuelling the rise in demand is the growing number of start-ups in the electric vehicle sector, while interest from as far afield as China is a further factor.

Initially, the machining required on the designs created by Carney UK was carried out by subcontract machine shops in the local Runcorn area. However, as demand grew and time pressures from customers increased, the subcontractors were struggling to deliver what tended to be lots of low-volume component batches. With the relocation to its current premises, Carney therefore took the decision to start bringing machining in-house. Initially, this was low key, with a few ‘old’ manual machines as stop gaps, but he recognised that investment in new machining technology was the way to go. Having employed Edward Hibbert as his technical manager, Carney asked his advice as to what the next move should be; his immediate response was XYZ Machine Tools.
“Through working with subcontractors I had seen XYZ machines almost everywhere I went; this, along with the trust that Eddie put in them, convinced me it was the way to go,” says Carney. “Our first purchase was an XYZ 500LR vertical machining centre, which was quickly followed by an XYZ CT65 turning centre. We then added further vertical machining centre capacity with an XYZ 750LR featuring 4th-axis capability and, to round off, we brought in an XYZ 1330 manual centre lathe to cover smaller turning work.”
The two XYZ LR machining centres, which make use of the latest linear-rail technology, offered a good starting point for Carney UK, with the Siemens 828D control system providing straightforward conversational control. At the same time, the control allows the business to develop its use of CADCAM systems to generate programs and overcome the local challenges of finding skilled machine operators. The LR machines also provide the capacity needed for the vast majority of components produced by Carney UK, with the XYZ 500 LR and XYZ 750 LR having axis travels of 510 x 400 x 450 mm and 750 x 440 x 500mm respectively.
Both machines feature the same 8000 rpm, 13 kW, BT40 spindle and 20 m/min feed rates in all axes. The LR machines are complemented by the CT65 for turning, with its 65 mm bar capacity and 17 kW spindle, a maximum turning length of 260 mm and maximum diameter of 200 mm. Along with the use of the ShopTurn version of the Siemens 828D control, the CT65 provides a compact yet highly capable addition to manage the company’s turning needs.
“The XYZ vertical machining centres and the addition of the 4th-axis on the 750 LR, along with CT65, give us the versatility and competitive edge that we need, but most importantly, we now have total control over our machining requirements,” says Carney. “While initially we programmed at the machines, the move to OneCNC CADCAM software is a further step in developing and streamlining our machining capability. We are now confident that we can produce anything that falls within the capacity of the XYZ machines.

“As we move forward, we will continue to expand and realise greater ambitions,” he continues. “Although we first went to XYZ because of a recommendation, we have developed a good relationship with them as they share the same dynamic and forward-thinking outlook that we have. As we grow, I’m confident that they will continue to provide the support we need to meet our future machining challenges.”
For further information www.xyzmachinetools.com

Today, more than half a century after singer Gene Pitney put America’s southern central state of Oklahoma on the world map with his hit song ’24 hours from Tulsa’, another phenomenon is bringing global recognition to the area – Orizon Aerostructures.

Orizon Aerostructures is a manufacturing and technology company that is building something unique in the Midwest with six locations and 763 employees dedicated to aerospace manufacturing and complex sub-assemblies. The company has almost 780,000 sq ft of production space at sites in Kansas and Missouri, as well as Oklahoma, including four machining locations which between them utilise 100 CNC machines (50 of which have five axes or more). But it is the company’s newest plant in Grove, a little under a 90-minute drive from Tulsa, where a new tune in manufacturing excellence is being played.
In a purpose-built factory that is part of a total investment of $50m in 10 Ecospeed F2060 machines, Orizon has installed a flexible manufacturing system (FMS) based around nine Starrag five-axis Ecospeed machining centres. And it is setting new standards in the machining (predominantly milling) of aerostructures.
The FMS – the largest integrated system of its type in the western hemisphere – is enabling the company to achieve: at least a 30% reduction in machining times across all the parts, compared to former methods; a massive improvement in surface finish with much less deburring and polishing requirements; and a good revenue-to-capex ratio.
Using the Ecospeed, it is possible to convert a 550 kg aluminium billet into a 24 kg complex structural part in less than four hours when the machine is running at a maximum cutting volume of
up to 10,000 cm3/min.

Incorporating the nine high-speed (50 m/min traverse rate) Ecospeeds that are fed by an automated rail-guided, 18-station pallet system and completed by an integrated washing/drying cell, the FMS is manned by just five people on each of the two daily shifts (for 24/7 operations). A range of aerostructures is produced, primarily wing spars, skins and bulk heads.
CEO Charlie Newell says: “In October 2016, we began dreaming of building something unique, and building it in just 12 months: a new factory to house a new FMS that would produce machining efficiencies to surpass anything we’d ever encountered. Working from the start with Starrag, together we have created an unbelievably formidable and highly successful partnership for the world-class machining of aerostructure parts. It was clear, even before the first machine sale, that Starrag was willing to listen and to share and support our vision. Starrag has done this by, for example, offering excellent levels of knowledge transfer and assisting us to develop the appropriate processes around our business systems.
“These include standardising machining operations across all the parts and, for instance, the use of online diagnostic tools that enable us to ‘interrogate’ the system or individual machines via smartphones, iPads or desktop computers at any time of the day or night,” he adds.
Online diagnostics are just one aspect – and benefit – of Starrag’s Integrated Production System (IPS), a modular digital platform that offers users a suite of functionality to meet individual tasks, including: cloud-based solutions help users analyse and optimise processes more specifically to further increase productivity; and a machine production system that monitors manufacturing in real time and protects against incorrect operation/collisions.
“We chose Starrag Ecospeed F2060s, each with a Sprint Z3 parallel kinematic machining head and an angular milling head, because the machine produced everything Starrag said it would in terms of metal removal, reliable uptime and excellent surface finishes,” says Orizon president Henry Newell.
It was not, however, a case of Orizon simply placing an order for the initial six machines for the FMS. The company first installed a stand-alone Ecospeed with the Z3 head to test the machine’s effectiveness and efficiency on production parts.
Orizon’s original Ecospeed F2060 sits alone in its own area, enabling the factory floor to host the FMS, which began development as a six-machine system. The first F2060 for the FMS was installed in January 2017, followed two months later by the pallet changer, and the system was in production by October 2017. A year later, three additional Ecospeeds were added and, importantly, these latter three machines did not add any labour overhead to the system; just revenue.

Starrag’s Ecospeed F2060 has travels in X, Y and Z of 6300 x 2500 x 670 mm (spindle in horizontal position) and traverse rates of 50 m/min in each axis. In addition, the ±45° A/B axis is complemented by a 30,000 rpm, 120 kW spindle that offers a torque of 83 Nm. The specification is additionally enhanced on the highly dynamic machine by acceleration rates of up to 1 g in all five axes, and jerk up to 200 m/s³.
The load/unload station sees the parts loaded manually and clamped by a mixture of vacuum and mechanical clamps, with the pallet in the horizontal position. Once loaded, the pallet is tilted 90° and moved into the 270-ft long FMS, with the cell controller ‘deciding’ which machine will process which pallet.
With common tooling held by each of the Ecospeed’s 129-station tool changers, meaning that any F2060 can machine any part in any order, the cell control system provides for flexible manufacturing. Orizon worked closely with Starrag to standardise the tooling and machining speeds and feeds, as well as programming routines, to enable this high-level flexibility.
After machining, the pallet moves to the wash/dry station where high-pressure wash nozzles direct angled jets to reach every corner of a part before an air blast is used for drying. That said, by using MQL, workpieces enter the wash station bearing a relatively low amount of swarf/cutting fluid. Upon unloading, the pallet returns to the horizontal and each part is removed from the system for deburring, then on to a CMM for 100% inspection.
Orizon operators undertake basic maintenance routines, which are complemented by Starrag’s Service Plus preventative maintenance scheme, where an annual fee covers every eventuality and guarantees service response times, inspection and repair.
For further information www.starrag.com

Over the past eight years, Cumbernauld-based contract machining specialist Cowie Engineering has doubled annual turnover, increased headcount from 13 to 24, and acquired (in 2013) an adjacent factory unit of equal size to the original, raising the total floor area to 9500 sq ft. During this time, the number of vertical machining centres on the shop floor, all of which are from Hurco, has also doubled, to 10. Additionally, a Hurco 10” chuck CNC lathe has been on-site since 2011.

The latest Hurco addition is a VMX60SRTi five-axis VMC with swivelling spindle head and flush rotary table, a design that is providing maximum working volume for the single set-up machining of larger parts used in the oil and gas industry. This machine is also allowing the subcontractor to gain extra contracts from the motorsport sector, particularly for high-tolerance components produced in one hit from materials such as from stainless steel and steel alloys, through to aluminium and plastics. The use of linear scales rather than encoders for positional feedback from the linear axes, together with Renishaw part probing and tool length setting, provide the elevated levels of precision demanded in race-car construction.
Typical tolerances held are from ±0.05 mm, down to 8 or 9 µm total. This demand has necessitated the installation of a new CMM, an Aberlink Axiom Too, in a temperature-controlled room. In addition, a full-time inspector has been appointed to verify that Formula One components coming off the Hurco machines, and others, are compliant.
Prior to the arrival of the VMX60SRTi, the most recent VMC additions (in 2018) were two of the manufacturer’s latest generation VM10i machining centre, one of which has a 4th-axis. These models were preceded by the arrival of a VMX42T and a VM2, both of which were installed in 2016 equipped with Hurco 4th-axis rotary tables. Other equipment in use includes seven more lathes and a Sodick CNC
wire-erosion machine.

Ross and Grant Cowie, sons of company founder Rodger, together with his wife Cathie and daughter Julie (who has just qualified as a chartered accountant), all work full-time in the business. Cowie Engineering was established in 1999 and, at the start, all machining was carried out on manual mills and a lathe. However, it was less than two years before the first CNC machine arrived, a second-hand Hurco BMC25 with a 1050 x 500 mm table, which allowed larger and more complex components to be produced.
The North Lanarkshire company has standardised on this make of VMC ever since, due to the reliability of that early model together with the speed and user-friendliness of the conversational control, originally Ultimax and now called WinMAX. It was and still is ideal for producing the subcontractor’s small batches of one-off up to 50-off.
Other Hurco machines followed: a VMX30 in 2011 which replaced the original VMC; a Hurco BMC4020 with 1220 x 510 mm table in 2004; a VMX64 with an even larger table and 4th axis in 2009; and a pair of smaller VM1 models shortly afterwards.

The type of work undertaken by the ISO9001-accredited firm has changed over time. Early contracts were mainly in mining, defence, construction and bottling, as well as in food and switchgear, but more business today comes from the latter two sectors, along with motorsport, the electrical industry and, increasingly, oil and gas, which now appears to be emerging strongly from a marked and sustained downturn.
New also in Cumbernauld in the past couple of years has been the installation of an offline CADCAM system from OneCNC. Previously, all programs for the VMCs were created at the Ultimax/WinMAX controls using touchscreen conversational menus, sometimes with direct input of DXF data to describe more complex geometry.
Now, with the arrival of the CAD package, sections of ISO blocks can be extracted and inserted anywhere within a conversationally created cycle, any number of times, to stitch together a complete part program using the NC Merge feature within WinMAX. This capability considerably advances the subcontractor’s programming capability.
Further useful features within the latest version of the Windows-based WinMAX software exploited by Cowie Engineering include: ‘Mill Polygon’, which facilitates milling a multi-sided contour with equal-length sides; and ‘Mill Slot’, which creates a slot defined by a line or an arc segment and a width, the slot ends being round or square. ‘Swept Surface’ functionality built into the control also continues to be used frequently. This function allows a 2D surface to be moved along a contour to create smooth 3D geometries within one conversational data block.
Company director Ross Cowie says: “We have historically machined a lot of stainless steel, particularly for the food industry, and the material still accounts for around a fifth of throughput. Lately, new contracts have introduced diverse engineering steels as well as challenging alloys such as Duplex, Inconel and titanium, plus more aluminium and plastics.

“We use our Hurco 4th axis tables regularly to gain access to parts for machining on multiple sides, hopefully in one hit,” he continues. “We position them individually with or without a tailstock, or alternatively mount multiple parts on a trunnion for indexing. Sometimes we machine components requiring full simultaneous 4-axis cycles.”
Today, the subcontractor is renowned for its quick turnaround and high-quality work. The third trainee since 2011 has started his apprenticeship and the first two are established members of staff, helping to assuage a lack of skilled operators in Scotland. Continued success in the future will be secured by the firm’s track record of business retention, some current customers having been served by the subcontractor since the very early days.
For further information www.hurco.co.uk

Axminster Tools has established itself as a market leader in the mail order tools and machinery industry, having supplied premium quality products throughout Europe for over 45 years. This family-built business based in Devon has a proud heritage of UK manufacturing operations, and recently invested in a new sliding-head lathe from Star GB to expand upon its already impressive array of machines.

Axminster sources products from all over the world, as well as supporting a number of specialist UK companies. With over 17,000 products lines, a multitude of brands and ranges are brought together on the company’s website and in its stores. Boasting steady year-on-year growth through product innovation, competitive pricing and a commitment to customer satisfaction, Axminster’s management team recently decided to further enhance business by investing in the company’s manufacturing processes. The upgrades would allow Axminster Tools to become more efficient, increase productivity and open new opportunities to develop its product range.
With an SR-32J and SR-38 Type B from Star already on-site, and a relationship with the machine-tool supplier dating back over five years, Axminster’s supply chain director Andrew Parkhouse had no question of where to place his trust for guidance on the company’s latest project.
The project focused on a chuck jaw (pictured) for a woodturning lathe, originally produced locally in small quantities over 30 years ago. As demand increased, the company began sourcing the parts overseas to cope with growing volumes, but was faced with quality concerns that led Axminster to bring the component back in-house, where it has since remained for several years.
With production demand in the region of 25,000 units per annum, and current methods of manufacture requiring five operations, including milling, grinding and finishing, the company challenged Star to produce the jaw in a single operation.

The applications team at Star was confident the project was well-suited to a sliding-head lathe and set about selecting the ideal machine for the job. Star was then able to provide a competitive cycle time estimate which would allow Axminster to produce the components more efficiently and increase profitability.
Star’s SV-38R, with its capabilities and flexibility, made the machine a firm favourite for the project. Axminster commissioned a turnkey package and began building an extension to its facility to accommodate the new machine upon completion.
The high-specification machine chosen combines the fast processing ability of a traditional platen-type sliding-head lathe with the flexibility of a turret machine, to enable simultaneous machining operations. The turret allows for a substantial number of tools to be mounted and includes an independent Z3 axis, enabling two different features to be machined at the same time using Star’s ‘super-position’ control mode.
Fanuc’s 31i-B5 control delivers full five-axis capability, permitting complex components to be processed. In addition, the B-axis tool holders on the turret enable angular features to be machined on both the main and sub-spindle.
A sub-spindle with independent eight-station platen increases overlapped machining possibilities, while the Y2 axis on the sub-spindle platen allows both cross working and front-facing power tools to be mounted in any station. The flexibility of the Star SV-38R is further enhanced by its ability to switch between guide bush mode (Swiss type) and non-guide bush mode.

Through combining the machine’s balanced milling capability, specialist tooling up to 75 mm diameter and comprehensive process development, the final manufacturing time was reduced by 60% in comparison with the existing method. In addition to a faster cutting cycle, component quality has also significantly improved as a result of ‘one-hit’ machining, reducing the process down from the previous five operations.
Parkhouse says: “The SV-38R is a significant investment and we are confident that it will allow Axminster to progress to the next level. Our new machine will only run these parts for the majority of its service, however, we highly value the additional capabilities it gives us to develop other products in the future.
“At present, the machine also significantly releases capacity on our other machines to truly maximise the machining potential of our business,” he adds. “There are exciting times ahead for Axminster and we can’t wait to further reap the benefits of our continued investment in Star and its technology.”
Following the successful pass-off and delivery of the new machine, Axminster’s engineers underwent programmer training at Star’s UK headquarters in Derby followed by on-site setting and operation training. Included in the package was Star’s programming software, PU-JR. This editor makes programming the three-channel machine more efficient, allowing Axminster’s setters to generate complicated programs quickly and easily.

Says Parkhouse: “Our machinist, Marika, is particularly excited about the new machine. She has been with us a relatively short amount of time but took a liking to the Star sliding-head machines very early on. Marika joined us with little machining experience but is now operating, setting and programming all of our machines. With Star’s help, she will be up to speed with the SV-38R in no time.”
Moving forward, Axminster is forecasting continued growth with an ongoing investment strategy to keep up with the fast-moving industry it supplies. The company and its employees have consistently been nominated for awards, and several prizes have been won for customer service, alongside recently achieving high rankings on major consumer choice platforms in its business category.
For further information www.stargb.com