The Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) has expanded its additive manufacturing portfolio by investing in an FDM-based Fortus 450mc 3D printer.

According to the MTC, the addition strengthens its capability to meet more demanding production applications for UK manufacturers and develop innovative solutions geared towards driving increased productivity and profitability.
After announcing an official partnership with Stratasys in 2017, the MTC has been utilising the latest 3D printing technology to support customers’ manufacturing needs and objectives, which include engineering tooling and complex end-use parts. The Fortus 450mc installation complements the MTC’s existing stable of Stratasys PolyJet solutions, which comprises full-colour,
multi-material J-Series 3D printing technology, as well as a large-scale Objet1000.
For further information www.stratasys.com

Expert electrification company, Equipmake, has opened a factory in Snetterton, Norfolk that will design and manufacture its fully integrated electric bus chassis for an increasingly international customer base.

Guest of honour Liz Truss, Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade, cut the ribbon and officially opened the new facility. Home to Equipmake’s 52-strong workforce, the factory will primarily design and build the EBus electric bus chassis, a fully integrated cost-effective electric chassis that allows bus coachbuilders with no electric vehicle knowledge to become electric bus manufacturers.
For further information https://equipmake.co.uk/

Three CNC control/HMI configurations are now being offered by Holroyd with its helical rotor production centres.

Until now, Holroyd has provided its own, in-house-developed CNC and HMI systems. However, to provide customers with greater levels of choice when specifying their rotor milling centres, the company now also offers both Siemens and Fanuc controllers as standard-fit alternatives to its own CNC.
The proprietary CNC system from Holroyd is partnered with Bosch motors and Bosch Rexroth digital drive systems, while both the Fanuc and Siemens controllers have been engineered as ‘complete systems’, and are supplied with their respective drives and motors. The controls have also been developed alongside a proprietary Holroyd HMI that has been designed to replicate the functionality and simplicity of programming with which users of Holroyd CNCs will be familiar.
Holroyd’s Siemens CNC/HMI option benefits from a large 300 x 525 mm screen and incorporates a user manual as well as all maintenance drawings relevant to the machine in question. Other features include a ‘soft button’ panel that can be ‘swiped’ to reveal further programming options or additional machine information.
Also available are optional CCTV cameras that can be specified to assist operators during machine set-up, while newly developed ASUB cycles allow users to select set-up routines that can then be activated through the handheld unit. Twin helical vacuum or hydraulic pump screws can be easily manufactured thanks to auto-positioning of the helical paths. In addition, the newly introduced flow guide style programming allows the operation to start, stop and even omit sections of the program while the machine is in cycle.
For further information www.holroyd.com

Being able to import completed NX assemblies into G-code simulation software is proving to be a valuable time-saver for the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (Nuclear AMRC). NCSIMUL, part of Hexagon’s Production Software portfolio, guarantees that finished G-code sent to CNC machine tools, is 100% accurate, and collision free.
“It gives us an exact representation of what’s happening on the machine,” states Tom Parkin, production engineer at the Nuclear AMRC. “Having this digital twin is absolutely vital in ensuring cutting paths are correct.”

And the software’s ability to import full NX assembly files is an added bonus. “CAM and simulation systems generally aren’t particularly user-friendly when it comes to positioning individual models,” says Parkin, “but being able to take an NX assembly, including a fixture, stock model and the final part, is particularly beneficial. Without it, we’d have to import single models one at a time, import the fixture by itself and position it, and import the stock model and position that in relation to the fixturing. NCSIMUL, however, allows us to import a full assembly file from the NX package straight into the simulating environment. From there I can select where my datum positions are, select the tooling, put the NC program in, and run the G-code simulation.”
This point is reiterated by principal production engineer Andrew Wright. “Some of our set-ups are quite complex, in that they have multiple pieces of stock and workpieces, plus fixture items. So being able to take in a file containing full assemblies which have been designed in CAD and not have to manipulate them, saves us considerable time.”
For further information www.ncsimul.com

Just before Christmas, the University of Sheffield officially opened AMRC Cymru, a £20m research and development facility in North Wales.

As a member of the AMRC, Schunk UK played an integral role in the opening ceremony, holding the ribbon with a Schunk gripper for Wales’ First Minister Mark Drakeford to cut the ceremonial ribbon. Mounted on a Kuka AGV, the new Schunk EGH Co-act gripper is the latest addition to the Schunk Co-act gripper family, and is a flexible system for gripping and moving small to medium-sized workpieces in the areas of handling, assembly and electronics.
For further information www.schunk.com