THIS WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS

Nucor commissions huge steel rolls

Nucor, the largest steel producer and recycler in North America, has placed orders for ultra-large steel rolls with Sheffield Forgemasters for its brand-new plate rolling mill.Sheffield Forgemasters will deliver three rolls weighing 147 tonnes each to Nucor’s Brandenburg Mill near Louisville, Kentucky, which can produce 1.2 million tons annually.

Dan Millington, technical sales manager (steel processing) at Sheffield Forgemasters, says: “Manufacturing rolls of this size is a highly technical process, requiring multiple forging operations through our 10,000 tonne press, controlled heat treatment to meet the customer requirement, as well as rough and finish machining. We are the only UK company with the capability to produce rolls of this size.”
For further information www.sheffieldforgemasters.com

£2.2m seed round for machine tool AI

Productive Machines, an artificial intelligence (AI) start-up from the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), has raised £2.2m in seed funding to make its advanced machine tool process optimisation technology available to a far wider range of manufacturers worldwide.UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (UKI2S) led the round with participation from NPIF – Mercia Equity Finance, ACT Venture Partners and Fuel Ventures, alongside grant funding from Innovate UK.

Productive Machines has developed a powerful computational model to predict and mitigate the influence of harmful vibrations at every stage in metal and composite milling. It uses a digital twin to determine the best parameters for each machine tool and production run.Machines configured by Productive Machines can produce parts in half the time it took originally and deliver improvements in surface quality and tool life. The technology is already in place at 10 major manufacturers, including Renault and MASA Aerospace.
For further information www.productivemachines.co.uk

MTA expands support for manufacturers

The Manufacturing Technologies Association (MTA) has expanded its support to the engineering-based manufacturing sector with the formation of a new cluster of trade associations and events. This progressive move sees the Engineering Industries Association (EIA) and Additive Manufacturing UK (AMUK) join the MTA portfolio to create a unique alliance dedicated to promoting excellence in the field of engineering-based manufacturing.

Combining with MACH (Birmingham NEC, 15-19 April 2024), the UK’s national event for inspiring, innovating and connecting manufacturing, and the new Engineering Supply Chain Show, the cluster represents a united front dedicated to furthering the interests of engineering-based manufacturing in the UK, in turn boosting business opportunities.
For further information www.mta.org.uk

Machining centres set to disrupt the market

Two new machining centres areset to shake up the market and provide component manufacturers with high cutting performance, flexibility and value.MACH Machine Tools, part of the Vigilance Group, is introducing two production-led vertical machining centres:
the MACH MDV 800 and MACH MDV 1100. Both machines feature the flexible and easy-to-use DynaPath WinDelta CNC control system, and are available at competitive prices.

Says Dave Andrew, Vigilance Group’s managing director:“Our new MDV machining centres are powerful, precise, fast and reliable.They have a rigid design and build, deliver best-in-class cutting performance and their price point will give other manufacturers’ equivalent-type machines a real run for their money.”

MACH MDV machines house BT40 air-cooled, high-torque spindles as standard (11-15kW, 8000rpm), but can be ordered and supplied with direct-drive 12,000rpm spindles replete with spindle chiller and through-spindlecoolant capabilities that extend their application potential.Other standard features include: Hiwin linear roller guides, 24-position swing arm ATCs and generous-sized worktables (1000 x 500mm with 500kg maximum load on the MDV 800, and 1200x 600mm with 800kg maximum load on the MDV 1100).

The machines are fast with 36m/min rapid rates on all axes and, to ensure process reliability, are fully enclosed with armoured telescoped covers.High precision comes courtesy of C3-class PMI precision ball screws and laser interferometer dynamic lead-screw compensation that enables 6 µm positional and 3µm repeatable accuracies across the work envelope.

As with all MACH machine tools, both MDV models are equipped, as standard, with a range of technology features that include auto-lubrication, flood coolant and wash-down systems.
Among the optional extras available are tool and workpiece probe systems, 4th-axis system configuration, and swarf augurs and conveyors.

“We’re confident that our new MDV machines will shake-up the market and prove that you needn’t ‘break the bank’ to acquire a new high-productivity, high-precision machining centre.”
For further information www.machmt.com

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