In 2015, Wesbart decided to carry out a full review of all products and manufacturing processes, which involved looking at every aspect of manufacturing to help improve productivity and reduce costs.

One of the main processes which required investment was folding. All aluminium and stainless steel parts were folded at Wesbart using a manual system with an operator. Due to an increase in orders it was necessary to use subcontractors to meet demand.

“Our production runs can range from 150 parts to more than 5000,” says sales executive David Patey. “We carried out some testing of various automation options and found the parts would need to be fed into the cell on a conveyor system. As a result, we contacted a locally based robot integration company [ICS Robotics and Automation] to work with Bystronic and develop a suitable system. We chose to use Kuka robots and the Bystronic Xpert 40 press brake due to their small footprint.”
ICS designed a bespoke space-saving set up using three Kuka robots, one operating each press brake with another feeding components from the conveyors. A camera system was included to identify the parts and confirm their correct placement on the conveyor.

The system arrived in January 2021 and has already shown a great deal of potential. According to Wesbart, the Bystronic press brakes are incredibly quick and reliable, while the user interface is very easy to operate, which helps expedite robot programming for the company’s components.

“With the investment made in the bending cell we hope to remain a market leader based on the quality, price and lead time of our products,” concludes Patey. “We also hope it will allow us to enter new markets.”

For further information
www.bystronic.co.uk

Blazehill Capital has launched as a new alternative lender that provides credit and working capital funding to mid-market manufacturers requiring additional financial support which they cannot get from traditional providers. The company typically provides secured lending ranging from £5m to £30m per transaction, delivering fast and flexible credit solutions to companies with non-standard lending requirements that are often complex and time critical. Blazehill’s ambition is to build a lending book of over £1bn in five years.

The team focuses on supporting management teams through tough trading periods, providing them with the necessary capital and financial breathing space to deliver on a turnaround plan. Blazehill Capital has the backing of a number of high-profile investors, including major financial institution WAFRA Capital Partners, the global credit investment firm with $5.1bn in assets under management and specialisms in asset-based finance.

For further information www.blazehill.com

The Digital Manufacturing Centre (DMC) in Silverstone will be the first business to officially adopt Renishaw’s new manufacturing connectivity and data platform, Renishaw Central, across its complete additive and subtractive manufacturing operations. Ongoing collaboration between the two companies has evolved from Renishaw initially supplying the DMC with additive manufacturing (AM) equipment, followed by several of its metrology solutions, to the implementation of this digital platform.

Driving the future of AM by realising a fully connected process chain, the DMC is leveraging actionable data to deliver a step-change in manufacturing capability. Renishaw Central will play a crucial role in this ambition and enable the DMC to embrace Industry 4.0 practices and principles. Not only will Renishaw Central provide end-to-end manufacturing data capture, it will allow DMC engineers to further refine part design and processes by effectively implementing capabilities that include predictive analytics and AI.

For further information
www.digitalmanufacturingcentre.co.uk

Like many businesses, 2020 posed challenges for HiCi, a designer and manufacturer of hand tools for joiners and carpenters under the Trig Jig brand.

CEO Dan Soanes-Brown says: “Thankfully we’re now seeing the release of pent-up spending within the UK construction industry. Projects that were postponed are coming back and we are seeing that reflected in demand for our tools.”

The result is an expectation of strong growth for existing products, driven in part by an ambitious schedule of one new product launch every month in 2021. The first two of these new products, a carpenter’s square and a T-square, are the first to benefit from production on HiCi’s latest investment, an XYZ 750 LR vertical machining centre.

Equipped with a 12,000 rpm spindle, Siemens 828D control and optimised digital servos, the XYZ 750 LR – with its linear rail construction – met the company’s performance criteria. Like every capital investment, price was also a consideration, and here the XYZ 750 LR also came out favourably.

“Price is obviously important and there were three machines that we were looking at; the XYZ 750 LR was the most competitively priced and I couldn’t see where the extra £10,000 for the other machines was going,” says Soanes-Brown. “Another factor was the ability to actually see the machine in action, with XYZ Machine Tools being the only supplier able to demonstrate a machine of the specification we wanted. For a young company like ours it was important to see what we were spending our money on.”

He concludes: “Once we have the XYZ 750 LR running to 80% capacity we will order a second machine, as we look on it as a long-term brand investment and will go with XYZ again.”

For further information
www.xyzmachinetools.com

For manufacturers seeking a heavy-duty machining centre that offers a stable platform for high removal rates on challenging materials, GM CNC has introduced the UK market to the Victor Vcenter G135 vertical machining centre.

Confirming its credentials is a Meehanite casting with a wide-base A-frame design, a wide span column, four box-ways and screw removers with a box-way width of 145 mm, and an overall machine weight of 11,500 kg. Upon the G135’s foundation is a 1400 by 700 mm table that can accommodate parts up to 2200 kg.

This three-axis axis workhorse offers travel of 1350 x 700 x 700 mm in the X, Y and Z axis, with a BT50 spindle taper. The gear-head spindle design generates a power output of 18.5 kW with torque of 498 Nm.

Developed, manufactured and built in-house by Victor, the 6000 rpm spindle has a gear-head concept that retains maximum torque levels throughout the speed range. This factor makes the Vcenter G135 suitable for machining hard materials and exotic alloys.

The Victor Vcenter G135 vertical machining centre has an automatic tool change unit offering 24-tool capacity that can accommodate tools with a maximum weight of up to 15 kg. Furthermore, the axis feed motor on the machine generates 3 kW of power on all axes with a rapid feed rate of 20 m/min and axis acceleration of 0.28 G, which is driven through 50 mm diameter ball-screws.

As standard, the Victor Vcenter G135 is supplied with the latest FANUC CNC, fully enclosed splash guarding, spindle oil cooler, screw-type chip removal, bottom guarding for coolant flushing, rigid tapping, three-step warning lights, automatic power-off and levelling pads.

For further information
www.gm-cnc.com