THIS WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS

Renishaw joins NMIS

To showcase how Scottish manufacturers can use advanced technologies such as additive manufacturing (AM) to improve their processes, Renishaw has joined the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS). As part of its membership, Renishaw has installed AM systems at the new NMIS headquarters (opening later this year) and will provide its expertise to members. The company will also collaborate with other NMIS members to share its knowledge in ongoing projects, helping manufacturers unlock the true potential of AM as part of the NMIS Digital Factory.
For further information www.renishaw.com/am

Ward CNC strengthens sales manager network

TW Ward CNC Machinery (Ward CNC) has expanded its presence across the Yorkshire and East regions by appointing John Hawkins as regional sales manager. Hawkins brings a wealth of technical and sales experience within the machine tool and engineering industry, possessing over 20 years of selling high value/high technology solutions, capital equipment and associated software to major manufacturers and OEM customers in the UK and overseas.“The comprehensive range of products and highly reputable brands is one of the key reasons why I am so pleased to be joining Ward CNC,” he says.
For further information www.wardcnc.com

Subcontract market surges by 60%

The latest Contract Manufacturing Index (CMI) shows that the UK subcontract manufacturing market surged by 60% in the first three months of 2023 compared with the previous quarter. As political and economic uncertainty eased, high-value purchasing organisation came back to the market and the release of pent-up demand saw activity soar.
The market jumped by 178% from December 2022 to January 2023 and remained healthy for the rest of the quarter.

Overall, the first quarter of 2023 was 31% higher than the first quarter of 2022, demonstrating consistent growth in the longer term. The CMI, produced by sourcing specialist Qimtek, reflects the total purchasing budget for the outsourced manufacturing of companies looking to place business in any given month. This represents a sample of over 4000 companies who could be placing business,which together have a purchasing budget of more than £3.4bn and a supplier base of over 7000 companies with a verified turnover in excess of £25bn.
For further information www.qimtek.co.uk

Siderforgerossi Group renews its production capacities

For more than 50 years, the old counterblow hammer from Bêché –now a Schuler brand – has been faithfully performing its duties at the Siderforgerossi Group. But now the time has come for a renewal at the Busano Canavese production site near Turin: in the future, a Schuler DG50h counterblow hammer will take up residence to produce large steel and aluminium forgings for the oil and gas, automotive, mining, and aerospace industries.

“We’re very pleased that our customer has once again awarded the contract to Schuler,” says managing director Frank Klingemann. “Air-powered counterblow hammers are characterised by high availability, as can be seen from the long service life of the predecessor model.”

As the drive components are not in the vibration range, there is low downtime and maintenance,and thus a high degree of utilisation, reports Schuler. The pneumatic drive also allows a high number of consecutive strokes without any drop in stroke frequency – in the case of the DG50h, up to 36 per minute. Notably, the energy-efficient expansion of the drive medium during the impact stroke results in an almost unchanged working capacity of 500 kilojoules at different die heights up to a maximum of 900 mm. Commissioning of the system weighing 355 tonnes will take place later this year.

The scope of supply also includes an intuitive control system, which Schuler has developed specifically for work-bound forging units. Functions include various impact programs, monitoring of impact energy, part thickness and temperature, and documentation of die and production data. Access to the operating instructions is also possible, as is remote maintenance and connection to the customer’s network.
For further information www.schulergroup.com/en

Howells on track forsuccess with ITC

Founded in 1946 as a radio and TV repair shop, Howells Railway Products has travelled a long way since its early days. Today the company has an extensive list of marque clients that include household names like Siemens, Network Rail, Alstom, Transport for London, Bombardier, Babcock Rail and others. To work at the cutting edge of technology, Howells Railway Products has added a new 40,000 sq ft CNC machine shop with 26 Haas machine tools and cutting tools from Industrial Tooling Corporation (ITC).

The company has worked with ITC since 2018. A recent project saw ITC introduce the Widia line of indexable cutting tools with modular drills and high-feed shell mills on CLA3 alloy steel castings (end bracket components for rail stretcher bars).

A 63 mm Widia M8065HD face mill set about removing 6 mm of excess casting stock in a single pass as part of a facing and shoulder milling process. With the previous high-feed face mill removing material at a rate of 1mm per pass, the M8065HD significantly improved cycle time.

Always looking to take productivity gains to the next level, ITC then introduced the benefits of aBig Kaiser system to the end bracket components, helping to produce an 88.1mm diameter bore at a depth of 65mm. Previously performed using a 50mm diameter indexable shell mill helical interpolating inside the bore, the process took 3 minutes 30 seconds.

The idea to change the process from helical interpolation to a plunging application paid dividends using a Big Kaisertwin-bore tooling system (SW rough boring head). Howells Railway Products runs the twin-bore head at 542rpm and 81mm/min feed rate, reducing the cycle time by 2 minutes 50 seconds per part.
For further information www.itc-ltd.co.uk