UK NEWS

Gripple names new MD

Gripple, a manufacturer of wire joiners and tensioners for agriculture, innovative suspension solutions for construction, and engineered solutions for civil, solar and infrastructure applications, has appointed a new managing director for the UK & Ireland and new board directors. Kevin St Clair takes up the role of UK managing director following 21 years at Gripple, while Charlotte Hill will replace St Clair in his former role as operations director and Sam Ryall joins as supply chain director. St Clair says: “My focus will be on delivering strong results in the UK and continuing to improve our global service and support.”
For further information www.gripple.com

Business behind Covid memorial invests in youngsters

An engineering business behind a striking Covid-19 memorial is investing in young people as it looks to build a bright future.R.A.F Engineering, like many businesses, put its expansion plans on ice to ensure it could deal with the economic impact of Brexit, Covid-19, war in Ukraine and increased energy bills.Now, the Workington-based companyis setting its sights on the growth and diversification that itpreviously planned.

Rafal Gibki and Aneta Gibka took over the company, formerly Hudson Swan, five years ago, with ambitious plans to develop the business.They are already ahead of schedule on their revised plans after reaching a £1m turnover target in February 2023.“We’ve also continued to recruit young people and apprentices from Lakes College and trained them up ourselves,” says Gibka. “Rafal has a lot of engineering experience so young people and apprentices who come here are gaining expertise and knowledge that is standing them, and the business, in good stead.”
For further information www.rafengineering.co.uk

Bystronic provides retail therapy for Crown

Founded in the late 1990s, Crown Manufacturing has evolved into a true manufacturing success story, overcoming adversity and growing to become a business with a presence at two locations in Somersetand a team of over 60 staff. Bystronic has travelled this journey with Crown Manufacturing almost since its inception.

Disaster struck the business in 2018 when a fire caught hold of the paint department, creating catastrophic damage. However, one thing that the fire did provide, was an opportunity to review processes, workflow and production equipment.

“The fire also gave us the realisation that we could work smarter with the people and suppliers that we have,” says Paul Read, works manager at Crown Manufacturing.

Since the fire, Crown Manufacturing has invested in three machines from Bystronic, the latest of which is a ByTube 130. This machine features a fully automatic set-up, bundle loading, six-axis control and high-speed and precision cutting that allows Crown Manufacturing to take on and efficiently complete high-quantity orders to a high standard.

“The tube laser takes away our dependency on a third-party supplier that we ended up struggling with,” states Read. “Integrating the ByTube 130 into our arsenal of machinery has been revolutionary, as it removes bottlenecks in the manufacturing process by allowing us to schedule and prioritise tube laser work in-line with due dates and urgency.”

In conclusion, Read says: “As much as the fire was a disaster, we bounced out of that to create far more productivity from being better organised. Having a new factory layout will help us to move onto the next level.”
For further information www.bystronic.co.uk

TOOLMAKER MAKES IT MARK WITH MITSUBISHI EDM

With four generations of toolmakers in the family, Denmark Products has been manufacturing injection mould tools since its inception in 1993. Started by father and son team Dennis and Mark Rowlands with a £15,000 investment that stretched to the purchase of a mill, spark-erosion machine and surface grinder, the company has come a long way since the 1990s. Testament to the journey travelled is the recent investment in a high-end Mitsubishi spark erosion machine from the Engineering Technology Group (ETG).

The small start-up that operated out of a 900sqft unit has moved to a 4500sqft facility in Donnington on the outskirts of Telford, where it manufactures precision injection mould tools for the automotive, medical and white goods industries. With considerable business growth, the company has added both a Mitsubishi wire EDM and a spark erosion machine to its plant list in a little over 12 months. As a company with everything from three- to five-axis machining centres, milling machines and lathes through to surface grinders, spark erosion machines and more, the interest in Mitsubishi machines started just over a year ago.

The seven-employee company was using an external supplier for its wire EDM requirements. This was not an ideal situation with costs and process control surrendered to the subcontract supplier.

Recalling the situation, company co-founder and managing director Mark Rowlands says: “With the demise of so many companies through the pandemic, we had an opportunity to buy a used Mitsubishi MV1200S wire-erosion machine. As the UK supplier of Mitsubishi machines, we went straight to ETG for installation and commissioning support. In the 12 months since the machine arrived, we’ve eliminated our subcontract wire EDM costs and the lead times associated with a subcontractor turning work around, and have complete process control. Additionally, when it comes to wire EDM, we 100% know if we want a loose or interference fit between our components.An external supplier would not know this, so our quality and surface finishes have improved too.”

With next-generation technology such as precision automatic wire rethreading, IoT capability, the latest drive systems and a user-friendly control system, the high-performance Mitsubishi MV1200S has reduced lead times and improved throughput for Denmark Products. Furthermore, the acquisition exposed the subcontract manufacturer to the high service levels provided by ETG.

With customers in the high-end automotive and medical industries ramping-up production post-Covid, Denmark Products needed to invest in a larger capacity spark-erosion machine. Three ageing spark-erosion machines were already on site, so the company needed a machine with a larger bed and tank capacity for processing the increasingly larger dimensions of automotive interior trim parts and large white goods injection mould tools. Despite having spark-erosion machines from several different vendors on-site, the service provided by ETG with the MV1200S was a major factor in why the company invested in a second Mitsubishi machine.

As Rowlands continues: “We did our due diligence and looked at spark-erosion machines from a few leading suppliers. Once we identified our capacity needs, it was the technology, capability, reputation for quality and impeccable service levels from ETG that were the main factors in our decision to buy a Mitsubishi EA28V Advance.”

The Mitsubishi EA28V Advance can accommodate maximum workpiece dimensions up to 1350 x 850 x 450mm in its 390-litre capacity tank that utilises an automatic elevation method. Capable of accommodating electrodes up to 200kg and workpieces up to 2000kg, the Mitsubishi EA28V is a powerful workhorse with technology that delivers finesse for the productive processing of components.

Discussing this spacious work area, Rowlands says: “We’ve been increasingly receiving requests for larger components that had to be producedexternally as our spark-erosion machines were not big enough. This resulted in external subcontract costs that were a drain on our business and extended lead times. With the arrival of the Mitsubishi EA28V we’ve brought all of this work in-house, reducing both our costs and lead times.”

However, the Mitsubishi EA28V Advance has given Denmark Products so much more.

“The extra capacity not only allows us to process larger parts, it also enables us to put two or three different smaller jobs on the bed and run them consecutively,” explains Rowlands.“This means we can undertake lights-out machining and, in many instances, we can set the machine up on a Friday night to run all weekend unmanned. This is a huge saving for our business. The ability to run up to three different components on the machine consecutively is a credit to the 20-electrode tool-change facility and intuitive programming technology on the Mitsubishi EA28V.”

He continues: “Our existing spark-erosion machines only have single-electrode capacity, which means that we would continually change electrodes for every operation and part. With the Mitsubishi EA28V, we can set up to 20 electrodes and program several parts, and the machine will run for a couple of days unmanned. From a productivity perspective, the technology in the Mitsubishi EA28V means that we can adjust our settings to erode components at higher speeds and feeds, or we can similarly slow the speeds to extend the life of electrodes or improve surface finishes. Regardless of the multitude of settings, the machine can process parts far faster and to a higher level of quality and precision than any of our other spark-erosion machines.”

All of this is reducing energy consumption and costs for Denmark Products while simultaneously lowering consumable costs. Another advantage for the small business is the reduction in hand polishing.

“Our existing spark-erosion machines are typically generating a surface finish in the region of 1.6Ra, which often requires considerable post-machining hand polishing,” says Rowlands.“This is particularly the case for injection mould tools for interior vehicle trim components and medical mould tools. With the new Mitsubishi EA28V, we’re easily achieving surface finishes of 0.4Ra, which has drastically reduced our hand finishing. On some parts such as ribs and cavities, the high level of surface quality has eliminated hand finishing, which is a necessity for sensitive features. Overall, bench finishing has massively reduced, freeing up hours for our machinists every week.”
For further information www.engtechgroup.com

Laser cutters help Redhill reach new heights

Redditch-based access equipment maker, Redhill Manufacturing, has purchased two fibre laser cutting machines from Nukon Lasers UK, helping to meet increased demand for the company’s products.

The first of the new fibre lasers, a Nukon ECO 315 4kW flat sheet model, was installed at Redhill’s newly acquired facility in December 2022. The second laser, a Nukon NKT-125 2kW 3D tube cutting model will arrive later in 2023 complete with a fully automatic Nukon 8 m loading and unloading system.

Following a fire at the company’s previous manufacturing site, Redhill wasn’t simply faced with finding new premises. The business also needed quality CNC machine tools to maintain its standing as the only UK manufacturer of ‘kitemarked’ British Standard mobile safety steps.

“As I didn’t really know the Nukon brand, the companytook me to a customer in Sheffield that had been using a Nukon flat sheet metal laser for around a year; all so I could see the machine in action and chat to the operators about their experience of using it,” says Redhill Manufacturing’s managing director Andy Colley.

Hearing glowing reports of how the Nukon flat sheet metal laser had streamlined the process of cutting complex precision components at the Sheffield business, Colley then travelled to Nukon’s European manufacturing facility to see a Nukon tube laser machine in action.

“The tube laser machine was just as impressive as the machine I’d seen in Sheffield,” he says. “The build quality was very good. Both machines were competitively priced, and the features include nLIGHT fibre lasers with adaptive beam optimisation and Lantek Expert nesting software.”
For further information www.nukonlasers.co.uk