With the turned components at DGF Engineering increasingly needing secondary milling operations on machining centres, the Royston-based subcontractor recently acquired a SMEC SL 2000M turning centre from Dugard.

“We picked this machine as we needed an upgrade,” states Liam Fernard workshop manager at DGF Engineering.“The machine that we had was only a two-axis machine and we were getting more and more work needing additional milling work. As we were happy with the service we had received from Dugard on our previous acquisition, a Dugard 1000 three-axis VMC, we naturally looked at their lathes and this one ticked all the boxes.”

The SMEC SL 2000M slant-bed CNC turning centre has a 570mm swing over bed and a 460mm swing over the cross slide with a maximum machining diameter of 360mm and a machining length up to 540mm. The 8inch chuck machine has a bore diameter of 76mm that accommodates a maximum bar capacity of 68mm. As with all machines in the SMEC range, Dugard says that the SMEC SL 2000M is a powerhouse with its 15/18kW spindle motor that drives the spindle at a speed up to 4500rpm and a 3.7/5.5kW motor that drives the driven tooling stations in the 12-position tooling carousel.

Discussing the components machined on the new Dugard SMEC turning centre, Fernard says: “We’re a typical subcontract company, so batches are varied and volumes of up to 200 parts is a big batch for us. We will machine a bit of everything on this machine;it will help our production move much faster. Dugard have been excellent and the investment is 100% worth it.”
For further information www.dugard.com

Mills CNC, the exclusive distributor of DN Solutions’ (formerly Doosan) and Zayer machine tools in the UK and Ireland, has supplied subcontract specialist JTB Pressings with two new, FANUC-controlled CNC lathes.The machines, a 6”chuck/51mm bar capacity Lynx 2100LYSA and, a similarly sized Lynx 2100, are now in place at one of the company’s three production facilities in Willenhall.

Since their arrival, both lathes have been put through their paces machining, almost exclusively, a range of small, precision turned parts for JCB. These high-volume, short-cycle parts, include six individual components made from a range of materials that include steel, bronze andnylon.

JTB’s decision to invest in the two Doosan lathes was made to help the company increase the range of manufacturing services it provides to existing customers, as well as spearheading a drive to secure new business from different sectors.

Explains Ivan Evans, JTB’s managing director:“We are always looking to improve, diversify and grow.We did consider sliding-head as well as fixed-head models, but ultimately decided on the Lynx 2100 LSYA from Mills CNC owing to its compact size, proven reliability and multi-tasking capabilities.”

With both Lynx lathes’ capacity taken up machining parts for just one customer, JTB has now made the decision to invest further.

Says general manager Steve Lounds: “To free-up capacity on our Lynx machines we hope to invest in another two pre-owned Emi-Mec CNC lathes in the near future. These two-axis lathes will handle the high volume of turned parts currently machined on the Lynx lathes and, as a consequence, enable us to fully exploit the true potential of the Lynx machines and diversify our operations – as was originally intended.”
For further information www.millscnc.co.uk