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

Engineering specialist Sheffield Forgemasters is to lead a consortium of partners in its largest ever research and development project, with an overall project value of £10.5m.

The company will explore the industrialisation of electron beam welding in civil nuclear assemblies, with the potential to integrate welding into the manufacturing process, offering material improvements and reductions in production time and cost. Sheffield Forgemasters has been awarded £8m of BEIS funding to lead strategic partners in the project.
For further information www.sheffieldforgemasters.com

One of the West Midlands’ leading female industrialists has been awarded an honorary degree by Coventry University.

Carol Burke CBE, managing director at Unipart Manufacturing Group, was granted the title of ‘Doctor of Technology’ in recognition of her pioneering work in setting up the Institute of Advanced Manufacturing & Engineering (AME) over five years ago. The experienced engineer was one of the driving forces behind the UK’s first ‘Faculty on the Factory Floor’, helping support a new approach to developing the graduates of the future by making them more industry-ready.
For further information www.ame.co.uk