Students studying courses at South and City College Birmingham – from BTEC through to City & Guilds Level 2 and Level 3 (including apprentices) – are benefiting from investment in machines from XYZ Machine Tools.

In fact, the college’s Bordesley Green campus now has 12 XYZ machines, a combination of manual trainer lathes, turret mills with DROs, a surface grinder, ProtoTrak-equipped SMX 2500 bed mills, and an SLX 1630 ProTurn lathe. A similar range of machines has been installed at the Bournville campus.
“The mix of manual, DRO and ProtoTrak-controlled machines is ideal for our needs,” says Ian Partington (pictured), Advanced Technician – Engineering. “The ProtoTrak system was a big influence in our final decision to go with XYZ Machine Tools as it provides the perfect middle ground between manual and CNC, and is not too big a step up for students as they progress.” The ease of use of the ProtoTrak control system is combined with its ability to handle complex parts for either one-off or small-to-medium production volumes.
For further information www.xyzmachinetools.com

As specialists in the supply of machines to the education market, Chester Machine Tools (via Irish partner Central Technology Supplies) recently provided CNC and conventional machines to the Waterford and Wexford Education and Training Board (WWETB) in Ireland.

The machines supplied were a Chester EDU360 CNC lathe and a Chester V6L Delta three-axis CNC machining centre, both of which were installed in the education workshop facilities to help young engineers complete their prototyping and design projects utilising the latest technology.
Chester’s engineers undertook the final commissioning and training on site at the WWETB facilities as part of the company’s ongoing support package to education customers. The installation of these machines follows recent Chester machine installations in Ireland of a CNC mini machining centre at the Institute of Technology in Tallaght, Dublin, and 16 conventional lathes and turret
milling machines at the Regional Skills and
Training Centre in Dundalk.
For further information www.chestermachinetools.com

Established in Burgess Hill in 1969, Heidenhain (GB) Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the German manufacturing group Dr Johannes Heidenhain GmbH, is this year celebrating 50 years of supporting industry.

Employing 24 people, the company is the sales, service and distribution centre for the UK and Ireland. Application engineering as well as customer service and support are also provided, covering the firm’s CNC systems, digital readouts, encoders, length gauges, measuring probes and machine calibration equipment.
A network of trained, regionally based distributors specialises in offering local sales and service of Heidenhain encoder products. All distributors are authorised, have exclusive access to the manufacturer’s technical databases, and are assisted as required by specialists in Burgess Hill. The test equipment they use is calibrated every two years.
For further information www.heidenhaingb.com

Coolant pumps from Spandau Pumpen are now being deployed for the machining process and a modular island filter system, including chip conveyor, at the SKF Lubrication Systems plant in the Czech city of Chodov.

Supervisors have been noting lower energy and operating costs, and higher system availability, ever since installation. The filter system serves two production lines, each with three machine tools and a single-station solution. Full-flow cleaning of chips up to 25 µm in size is facilitated, plus up to 5 µm by a second fine-filter stage. Spandau Pumpen supplied three low-pressure and three high-pressure pumps (PS and LMP series), each with frequency converters.
For further information www.skf.com/spandaupumpen

The UK’s first ‘Faculty on the Factory Floor’ celebrated its largest graduation recently, when 29 students received their BEng and MEng qualifications.

A joint collaboration between Coventry University and Unipart Manufacturing, the Institute for Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering (AME) saw its second cohort graduate in style, with many of the industry-ready engineers going into high-profile jobs at the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC), Wipac Ltd, Precision Castparts Corp and Unipart.
Marking a successful four years in operation, the initiative was designed specifically to give young people the opportunity to learn on real-world manufacturing projects. Over 100 students are now currently working their way through the hands-on course at AME, aided by a specially compiled textbook that is linked directly to what ‘first’ and ‘second’ year students will be trained on.
For further information www.ame.co.uk