From its shared stand at last month’s Southern Manufacturing 2019 exhibition in Farnborough, representatives from Fintek found themselves busy discussing a range of surface finishing requirements. Achieving superior surface finish on components for applications in the aerospace, automotive, motorsport and medical sectors has never been more important.

Reducing friction, extending maintenance intervals, and increasing component life and performance, are desirable benefits when choosing the right surface finishing process.
Offering a range of deburring, edge-honing, fine-grinding and polishing equipment, Fintek works closely with engineers to achieve their design aims and commercial objectives. Cost-effective component surface finishing often takes just minutes, sometimes seconds, and is a repeatable process with a consistency impossible to achieve by hand. On visual inspection alone, finished parts look superior and this is borne out by surface smoothness measurement in the laboratory.
As UK agent for the sales of OTEC Präzisionsfinish drag, disc and stream finishing systems, Fintek provides a service to manufacturers wanting to establish in-house surface finishing. OTEC also offers fully automated systems for inline production, including options for robotic loading and unloading.
Fintek’s own subcontract services use OTEC machines. Choosing the right finishing technique comprising machine, media/compound and processing time is crucial to meet quality and commercial goals. Often, Fintek achieves multiple finishing processes in a single cycle time – for example: deburr, edge round and polish at the same time. Cycle times can be measured in as little as seconds.
For further information www.fintek.co.uk

A specialist in precision engineering, Dawson Shanahan, is celebrating 10 years since the buyout of automotive component manufacturer FloForm and its plant in Welshpool.

As a business that had been in decline over a two-year period, FloForm finally went into administration in 2009 and 80 jobs were sadly lost. Hertfordshire-based Dawson Shanahan took the decision to purchase the business and all its assets, and made the strategic decision to retain the Welshpool site, reinstating 12 employees. Dawson Shanahan had been in business with FloForm for 30 years, and knew the employees with their skills and expertise, had to be harnessed.
For further information https://dawson-shanahan.co.uk/

A specialist in hand-arm vibration (HAV) risk management has collaborated with an RFID software consultancy to develop a new automated management tracking and reporting system.

Reactec, with the support of CoreRFID, has developed a range of HAV management tools which aim to improve protection for employees in heavy industries. These include HAVwear wearable technology, HAVmeter tool-mounted technology, mobile apps and an analytics software platform. The new HAVwear device is worn like a wristwatch and provides real-use monitoring of HAV exposure when using power tools.
For further information www.reactec.com

A one-day conference being staged by the Manufacturing Technology Centre at its Coventry facility will discuss the future of intelligent automation in manufacturing.

Delegates will be given an insight into where the technology is heading, what benefits it can deliver for manufacturing and how the latest innovations can be implemented. As well as hearing a number of keynote speakers, delegates will get the opportunity to see the latest automation equipment in action at the MTC. The conference will take place on 26 March at the organisation’s headquarters on Ansty Park, Coventry, starting at 09:00.
For further information www.the-mtc.org/AutomationDay

Further to an already extensive list of licensed machine manufacturers, eight more have recently signed up to utilise Big-Plus spindle and tooling systems from Big Kaiser on their machine tools. Big-Plus spindles, which are available in the UK from ITC, are now licensed to circa 170 machine tool manufacturers.

Said to be the only system that provides simultaneous taper and flange contact in a 7/24 cone interface, the Big-Plus dual-contact connection between the machine and tool is robust, reliable and accurate. Despite the fact that Big-Plus was developed over 25 years ago in Japan by Big Kaiser’s parent company, Big Daishowa, the adoption of the spindles is still seeing solid growth across industry.
For further information www.itc-ltd.co.uk