Rapidly approaching 20 years of business, Hi-Spec Precision Engineering has evolved from a start-up business to an established subcontract manufacturer that has fully embraced the latest automation and CNC technology with robots and multi-pallet three- to five-axis machining centres.

The Market Overton company has grown rapidly over the past decade, today offering everything from conventional and CNC machining to grinding, lapping, honing, welding, hydraulic pressure testing and assembly with 15 CNC machine tools now in-situ on the shop floor. Among the latest additions is a Matsuura MX330 10-pallet five-axis machining centre. To drive this investment, Hi-Spec invested in CAM software from Open Mind Technologies.

Hi-Spec’s journey of investing in the latest technology and automation now sees the 10-employee business deploy two machinists across eight CNC machining centres and another two machinists on six turning centres, with the remaining six employees deployed in non-production tasks such as fabrication, inspection, stores and assembly. This lean business model has grown turnover by more than 40% in recent years without increasing staff numbers due to its ongoing investments.

As part of the investment trail, the company, which already has a four-axis pallet loaded Kitamura Mycenter and Hurco three and five-axis machines, needed to increase its five-axis capabilities. This led to the arrival of the Matsuura machine in the first quarter of 2022. Hi-Spec was already utilising a well-known three-axis CAM system that was sufficient for many of its machine tools, as well as the four-axis Kitamura. Simultaneously, the easy-to-use conversational programming on the five-axis Hurco only required occasional five-axis CAM programming. However, the existing CAM system was unreliable.

Alluding to this, Hi-Spec founder and managing director Darren Grainger recalls: “Our CAM system had very poor support and, on occasions, would crash or fail to boot-up. We managed for a while but, when we knew the Matsuura machine was due to arrive, we had to up our game on CAM software. We looked at a couple of packages and had some very insightful demos, but HyperMill jumped out at both my brother and me. We instantly felt comfortable with HyperMill, the demo showed its user-friendliness and functionality – it just seemed to click into place.”

Hi-Spec is renowned in the music industry for manufacturing custom precision-crafted electric guitars. Other components include hydraulic valves and cylinders through to equipment for the quarry and aggregate industry, producing anything from prototypes and small batches up to production runs of more than 10,000. With diversity in both component types and volumes, a five-axis solution with a powerful CAM system was a necessity.

The manufacturer acquired one seat of HyperMill a couple of weeks before the arrival of the Matsuura machine and has not looked back since.

“We had our training and set up the post-processors for all of our other machines too,” says Grainger. “There was a learning curve, but the Open Mind support team were fantastic. Initially, we may have called them 3-4 times a day, but nothing was too much trouble. Both the product and support from Open Mind team compared with our previous supplier is like comparing a Ford Model T with a Bugatti.”

With the company rapidly gaining familiarity with HyperMill, Hi-Spec is gradually rolling out the CAM system on its other machine tools.

“The strategies in HyperMill have drastically improved our cycle times and surface finishes,” states Grainger. “In addition, the strategies have reduced our cutting tool consumption and costs, freed more positions in the tooling carousels and enabled us to look at how we program jobs differently.”

Looking at some of the strategies, he adds: “An example of how we are programming parts differently is our use of five-axis cycles where we wouldn’t have considered them previously. This highlights the ease of use, our confidence in HyperMill and the benefits of the different strategies. For example, we’re now using the five-axis ‘Swarf Cutting Strategy’, which utilises the edge of a standard end mill to apply chamfers and forms. This is far easier than using 3+2 machining and, by creating multi-function use for standard tools, it reduces both our tooling inventory and the need for special or additional tools in the tooling carousel.”

As a company that is keen to adopt the latest strategies to improve productivity, Hi-Spec is also utilising barrel cutters. Open Mind says it is a trailblazer for CAM strategies for this technology.

“We’ve started using barrel tools and they are massively improving our cycle times with the increased step-overs when compared with ball-nose tools,” explains Grainger. “On a wedge-type component for rock crushing machinery, we’ve applied barrel tools in place of ball-nose cutters. On one particular feature, the ball-nose tool had a cycle time of 12 minutes, but by changing to the barrel tool we reduced this to less than 4 minutes, a 75% saving. Furthermore, the surface finish is significantly better. We previously had a cycle time of 45 minutes per part and the application of barrel tools and other strategies within HyperMill have cut this to less than 30 minutes.”

This impressive time saving is magnified by the company recently producing a batch of 200 parts with an additional 100 components in the pipeline.

Identifying a further impressive strategy, Grainger says: “Another feature we’re using is the ‘5-axis Drilling Strategy’. This interpolates the job around a tool so we can use a standard end mill to drill holes of any diameter. By rotating the part around the end mill, there’s no need for large drills and the associated costs of multiple drill sizes, plus we don’t need to drill pilot holes. In addition, it removes the number of required tools in the tooling carousel, giving us more freedom to maximise our tooling positions. Another benefit is that it’s more forgiving on the machine tool, as we don’t need to draw a lot of torque from the machine whereas large drills draw a lot of power.”

Overall, HyperMill has drastically reduced cycle times and improved throughput at Hi-Spec, while improving surface finishes and component quality. Furthermore, intuitive cycles have streamlined programming tasks, provided a new outlook on programming strategies, and simultaneously improved tool life, performance and reduced inventory.

“HyperMill has been excellent and the service from Open Mind is outstanding,” concludes Grainger. “Even the collision avoidance is remarkable. It shows everything in the cutting zone, from the work holding to the tool configuration, which gives us astounding confidence. In some instances, it is almost ‘too good’. For example, if we program an 8.7 mm diameter for an 8.5 mm hole due to a customer error on the drawing or model, HyperMill collision avoidance will identify the error as a collision. We’re delighted that we opted for HyperMill.”
For further information www.openmind-tech.com

MTC Training – the training arm of the Manufacturing Technology Centre – is launching a new apprenticeship and training courses to support the UK’s rapidly growing space sector.
The education suite will include a new Level 4 space technician apprenticeship, a graduate development programme and a series of courses to upskill space engineers.

These new programmes will boost the UK’s skills and capabilities in the space sector, which forecasts predict will be worth £450bn by 2030. The new 48-month space technician apprenticeship launches in September 2023, delivered from the Oxfordshire Advanced Skills (OAS) training centre in Abingdon. Similarly, the graduate development space programme, also delivered at OAS, will support engineering graduates who are new to the space industry or are considering a move into the space sector.
For further information www.the-amtc.co.uk/training

Among the UK’s leading structural engineering and metal fabrication companies, Tranent-based Had Fab has built one of the company’s largest constructions to date. The 16.5 m long, 3.5 m wide and 4 m high piling frame will form part of the high-profile redevelopment of Stornoway Deep Water Terminal. Working to a tight deadline, Had Fab fully refurbished and converted the frame (from H-pile to tubular pile configuration) so as to successfully install 1220 diameter piles, up to 44 m long on the Stornoway Deep Water Terminal. The structure is now fully operational.
For further information www.hadfab.co.uk

A total of 176 people visited Citizen Machinery’s recent three-day open house at its Brierley Hill facility, up 28% compared with the previous year’s event. Owing to the seniority of the attendees and others who had expressed interest but could not attend, the tally of 25 new machine orders placed by 18 companies during October was a company record for a single month. The event also staged a Formula One car simulator competition. The person clocking the fastest lap won a bottle of champagne, an accolade that went to Raphael Poulequin of Renthal, Stockport, a producer of accessories for motorcycles and mountain bikes.
For further information www.citizenmachinery.co.uk

Addmore Engineering has found the optimal way to measure safety- and performance-critical components with an air gauging system from Bowers Group. As part of its inspection process, Addmore needs to measure bolts that are critical components on braking systems. It is, therefore, imperative that 100% of the parts produced are within tolerance. The air gauging system from Bowers Group ensures that the performance critical parts manufactured by Addmore Engineering satisfy customer requirements to 100% inspect safety-critical characteristics and meet tight tolerances.

Ben Vasquez, managing director at Addmore, says: “The Bowers air gauging system is the perfect solution because it standardises the measurement process and eliminates the potential for human error. The system allows multiple operators to check the diameter of the components accurately in minimal time, while the modern control panel gives a quick yes/no output that allows each bolt to be checked with guaranteed high-precision results.”

Addmore Engineering manufactures in excess of 10,000 bolts every month. The business had previously experienced some difficulties whereby operators were achieving different readings with micrometers; a significant problem when trying to measure 7 µm tolerances. Bowers’ air gauging system allows team members to check component diameters in a short space of time. Using air flow volumes and pressures to measure parts, air gauging is a reliable, repeatable technology suited to applications that demand sub-micron precision.

As a further benefit, air gauging technology is also flexible, enabling measurement of not only dimensions, but geometric and relational characteristics, such as squareness, parallelism, ovality, taper and straightness. Inspectors and machine operators at Addmore Engineering use the Bowers air gauging system on a daily basis.
For further information www.bowersgroup.co.uk