Following Alpha Manufacturing’s investment in a STOPA four-bay automated material handling and storage system from Trumpf in 2016, the company has extended to a 10-bay system that now runs 62m down the centre of its factory near Stafford. The STOPA – which serves Trumpf machines such as a TruLaser 3030 Fiber, TruMatic 6000 laser/punch combination, TruPunch 5000 and TruBend Cell 7000 – houses more than 600 tonnes of raw material and part-processed items in a total of 207 available pallet spaces.

Plans for the large-scale installation were first set out in 2015. The aim was to make Alpha Manufacturing the UK’s foremost precision sheet-metal fabricator in just five years, doubling turnover in the process. With the completion of the STOPA system extension in July 2020, the total investment is close to £4m, securing what Alpha describes as one of the most technically advanced factories in the industry.

For further information www.uk.trumpf.com

Faced with a need for additional machining capacity, Minehead-based Superior Levels opted to install an XYZ SMX 5000 bed mill (now the RMX 5000) from XYZ Machine Tools.

“All of our machining is CNC and the design of the levels is inspired in part by my aerospace background, with the cut-outs – which are both for weight saving and practical reasons – resembling wing ribs,” states Bill Parfitt, who founded the company five years ago. “Calling the company Superior Levels meant we had a lot to live up to, but we concentrate on delivering the highest standards, not wanting to compete with the low-end plastic products found in DIY stores.”

As part of the quality drive, Superior Levels developed its own I-beam extrusion for the body of the level, which is then machined on the SMX 5000. The SMX 5000 gives Superior Levels the capacity to machine the longest products in its range at 2.4 m in length. Accuracy is key for the pockets that house the bubble vials, along with the weight-saving pockets. The latter will enable Superior Levels to access other product opportunities that will be advantageous to its customers around the world. The company currently exports to 21 countries as far afield as Australia, all of which has been achieved through word-of-mouth recommendations and customer reviews on social media.

“We chose XYZ Machine Tools for this latest machine for a number of reasons, but mainly for the ProtoTRAK control, which was a step-up from our existing control system,” explains Parfitt. “The control allows us to do exactly what we want and deliver the accuracy that we need, while the overall package was also excellent value for money. In addition, the training and support we can call on made it easy to deal with XYZ. The consistency and accuracy with which we can machine pockets has led to us developing a new accessory range that we will be launching soon.”

For further information
www.xyzmachinetools.com

Harwin has started production at its new manufacturing facilities in Portsmouth. Providing an additional 1200 sq m of factory floor, the new plant is enabling the company to quickly and significantly scale-up the production of its high reliability (Hi-Rel) connectors to meet market requirements. The total investment is £3.8m, £1m of which brings in state-of-the-art equipment, with the last few Industry 4.0-ready machines arriving over the coming 12 months.

Harwin has a policy of replacing production equipment every five years to keep up with the latest developments in machinery, thus maintaining reliability and operational effectiveness. In 2016, a new-build 3000 sq m factory was opened, while an R&D centre and apprentice training hub was set up in 2019. The latest round of investment also includes a new training area to support staff with ongoing professional development, encouraging advances in skills and job flexibility.

For further information www.harwin.com

High forces must be applied to machine parts from forged steel. This material also tends to form longer pieces of swarf that are difficult to remove. For these reasons, Höhnhart, Austria-based Ferdinand Bernhofer GmbH machines forged steel workpieces on a two-spindle machine from Schwäbische Werkzeugmaschinen GmbH (SW).

Bernhofer began ambitiously expanding its range of services several years ago, with the expansion of installation-ready machining to a standard service being a top priority. Bernhofer therefore set out to find a manufacturer of suitable machine tools. Above all, the machine tools had to be sturdy and powerful enough to handle the three-shift machining of forged parts. The components being machined are combined in groups so the systems can be changed over or re-tooled as quickly and smoothly as possible. Another criterion was the most extensive automation possible, in order to conserve resources through 24/7 operation.

The first project was a family of parts with six variants made of quenched and tempered steel for motorcycle frames. Project goals included fully automatic machining and product swaps with no change-over. The BA 322 (a horizontal machining centre from SW with two synchronous spindles), was chosen to accomplish these ambitions.

“The mutual trust we have built on this foundation led us to choose SW again for the next project,” says managing director Ferdinand Bernhofer.

To explain, the new project involved machining particularly large drawbar eyes made from different variants of 42CrMo4. The task was made more difficult by the relatively large number of holes and fits that had to be machined, and was further complicated by the need for cooling lubricant to drill the holes. SW’s milling machine type BA 722 was purchased for this purpose. The larger machining centre, also with two spindles, was needed mainly because considerably greater quantities were to be removed through machining than for the motorcycle parts. Machining must remove up to 3 kg of material from each drawbar eye, which may weigh up to 18 kg, depending on the variant.

For further information
www.sw-machines.de

Nearly all of the respondents (99%) surveyed in HP’s latest Digital Manufacturing Trend Report believe that digital manufacturing technologies can lead to economic growth. As a result, decision makers are looking to transform their business models, with 77% of those surveyed indicating that they will invest in digital manufacturing technologies, such as industrial 3D printing, within the next 12 months. The medical, industrial and automotive industries were called out as those most ripe for innovation in additive manufacturing/3D printing over the next five years.

For further information www.hp.com