UK NEWS

OAS wins workplace wellbeing award

An Abingdon training centre specialising in technology and engineering has won Oxfordshire Mind’s annual ‘Commitment to Workplace Wellbeing’ award. The accolade recognises the efforts of Oxfordshire Advanced Skills (OAS) to improve the wellbeing of its learners, training staff and industry partners by making positive changes throughout the training centre and beyond. OAS is a partnership between the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), run by MTC Training. The facility helps businesses to thrive by delivering the crucial engineering skills needed to succeed.
For further information www.oas.ukaea.uk

Mazak rewards staff after record month

Yamazaki Mazak put on a month’s worth of festive activities for its production staff after November 2022 saw its European Manufacturing Plant in Worcester produce the highest number of machines for three years. The month-long programme in the lead-up to Christmas saw employees treated to a broad array of festive fun, with each day involving a different activity. Mazak’s European Manufacturing Plant is responsible for the production of an extensive range of UK-designed and built machines, including the entry-level CV5-500 five-axis machining centre, and the VCN-700 and VCE-600 next-generation VMCs.
For further information www.mazakeu.co.uk

Open house success for Hurco

Despite all the headwinds in the economy, manufacturing has had a buoyant 2022, if Hurco’s experience selling its machine tools is anything to go by. Order intake in monetary value was close to a record high, beaten only just by the exceptional figures posted in 2018. To provide further evidence, 70 companies pre-registered to attend the company’s open house at its headquarters in High Wycombe last month. A total of 104 people attended over the two days, generating £650,000 of sales.

Managing director David Waghorn says: “The outlook for 2023 is good. The vast majority of our customers are subcontractors and all seem very busy. There are raised levels of activity in the aerospace and oil and gas sectors, both are now booming after being in the doldrums for an extended period, while motorsport is perennially active. Against this backdrop, we needed to employ five new service engineers in 2022 and we continue to recruit more.”
For further information www.hurco.co.uk

Total Construction Supplies reinforces expansion

A manufacturer of prefabricated reinforcement steel has invested £4m in a new 220,000 sq ft facility in Cannock, with 57 new jobs created so far. Total Construction Supplies has seen turnover double after securing major new contracts with HS2 and a host of highway, housing and nuclear infrastructure projects. This growth has driven the need for the new site that has already been fitted with state-of-the-art cutting and bending machinery, welding equipment and overhead gantry cranes. Cannock adds to the company’s six existing production sites in the West Midlands, Ilkeston and France.
For further information www.total-group.co.uk

Geometry measurements guarantee accuracy

For more than 43 years, IASA Instandhaltungstechnik AG has been a reliable partner in the field of maintenance, mechanical engineering and machining technology. Based in Switzerland, the core expertise of IASA AG lies in the production of precision components and the servicing and overhauling of pumps, fittings and safety valves.

Since 2011, IASA AG has been using a Unisign CNC – a compact, high-performance machining centre for the rapid, precise and cost-effective production of aluminium structural components. Its 100 kW spindle drive with a speed of 25,000 rpm removes aluminium at a rate of more than 10,000 cm3/min.

Thanks to the rigidity specified in its design, the machine remains extremely stable throughout. However, after so many years of operation there is an understandable need to verify machine precision, which is why the production manager at IASA AG, Yannic Zünti, recently contacted Unisign and asked for a geometry measurement.

When checking the TRAORI point (the pivot point of the turntable and swivel table), Unisign identified a small dimensional inaccuracy in the Z axis. The company corrected this discrepancy before carrying out further measurements on the spindle in two temperature scenarios – hot and cold. The result: both measurements were once again comfortably within the machine’s specifications.

The Unisign machine at IASA AG is now back in operation, in a way that is cost-effective and prevents wear; it is once again ready to continue production at an extremely high degree of accuracy for many years to come.

Says Zünti: “Unisign enables us to achieve an ideal balance between high reliability, speed, performance and accuracy. Those values are not only of importance to us, but are also crucially important to our customers.”
For further information www.unisign.com