At the recent Advanced Engineering show in Birmingham, Harlow-based Gratnells Engineering opted to showcase its latest laser technology developments. In 2018, the company invested in a new BLM LT Fiber machine, allowing it to expand its capabilities and ensure clients benefit from even faster turnaround times.

The new machine sits next to an existing LT5, a laser tube-cutting machine designed to cut from small to medium diameters and thicknesses of metal tubular sections. The LT Fiber allows tubes of any shape to be cut, along with the processing of special sections and even open shapes without any additional special equipment.
According to Gratnells, tube laser cutting is continuing to grow in popularity as it offers a quick route to a precise finish, eliminating conventional, time-consuming stages such as marking out, sawing and finishing, while delivering significant cost savings.
Investing in the latest laser technology has increased Gratnells Engineering’s factory efficiency by allowing unloading to various positions, with finished parts from one machine being unloaded while production continues uninterrupted on the other. The need to manually separate parts from different orders has also now been eliminated.
Gratnells’ factory can today turn around tube laser-cutting jobs within 3-5 days from receipt of order and, using sophisticated software, can process parts from a variety of media, including 3D models, XT files and SolidWorks. This capability is particularly beneficial for bespoke automotive and point-of-sale components where minimum quantities can start
at 1-off.
For further information www.gratnellslasercutting.com

New start-up Staffs Laser Ltd has selected a Trumpf TruLaser 2030 Fiber to help propel the business into the Midlands subcontract sheet profiling market.

Installed at the time of business launch in April 2018 as the company’s sole laser cutter, the TruLaser 2030 fiber is on target to help Staffs Laser achieve a turnover of £800,000 in its first year of trading, way ahead of the £560,000 originally budgeted.
Staffs Laser is the brainchild of Eddie Hopkins, who has been working in the laser cutting arena for the past 15 years.
“At my previous employment we had CO2 laser cutting machines, which are fine but cannot match the speed of fibre on thinner sheet,” he explains. “My old bosses were reluctant to invest in the latest fibre technology, so I decided to leave and start my own business.”
Working out of premises near Stone, located between Stafford and Stoke, Hopkins knew he would have to invest from the outset, and Trumpf was always going to be first choice. I knew Trumpf machines well and consider them to be the market leader. In addition, they provide really good service, which I knew would be key to a new start-up business like mine.”
With limited budget, Hopkins duly installed Trumpf’s entry-level machine, the TruLaser 2030 Fiber.
“Such has been the ramp up in demand that the TruLaser 2030 is already running 12 hours a day during the week, and 6-7 hours on Saturday – in fact, we are struggling to keep up and will soon have to consider running overnight,” he explains.
The company recently achieved a record monthly revenue of £80,000, which is nearly double the figure originally budgeted.
For further information www.uk.trumpf.com

The Manufacturing Technology Centre’s events and conferencing division – MTC Events – is celebrating after turning over more than £2.6m in just two years.

Profits from MTC Events are put back into the manufacturing apprenticeship programmes at the Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre (AMTC) at Ansty Park, Coventry.
MTC Events has seen significant growth over the past 18 months, and has hosted events for major manufacturers and business organisations covering the manufacturing, aerospace and construction sectors, and related supply chains. The facilities available are capable of hosting events of up to 500 people, down to boardroom-sized meetings.
For further information www.the-mtc.org

Tamworth-based bespoke work-holding systems supplier and precision machining specialist – Brown & Holmes – has recently invested in a large-capacity Doosan three-axis vertical machining centre from Mills CNC.

The machine, a Fanuc controlled Mynx 9500, was installed at one of Brown & Holmes’ two facilities in May 2018, and is the third new Doosan machine acquired by the company in the past four years.
Brown and Holmes’ decision to invest in the Mynx 9500 was made, primarily, as a direct result of a growing order book and the anticipation of a new business contract to machine precision components for a defence sector customer. To machine the parts, made from titanium plate, to
the accuracies and surface finishes required, and hit the lead times demanded by the customer, the company realised that it needed to invest in additional in-house milling capacity.
Says Kevin Ward, Brown & Holmes’ joint managing director: “We investigated the market and discussed our requirements with a select number of machine tool suppliers.”
The new machine tool checklist drawn up by Brown & Holmes contained a number of ‘must haves’ that focused not just on technical specifications and cost, but on the quality and responsiveness of aftersales services and support.
“The Mynx 9500 is a brute of a machine, and is inherently versatile,” says Ward. “Its large working envelope means we can machine large components, as well as small parts, while its spindle technology ensures improved cycle times and the trouble-free machining of difficult-to-machine materials like titanium. The size, power and versatility of the machine makes it ideal for producing one-offs and small batches, and for parts requiring long machining runs.”
For further information www.millscnc.co.uk

Established 20 years ago, Exeter-based motorcycle aftermarket specialist HEL Performance has for half of that time manufactured its brake line fittings in-house from stainless steel bar using an array of sliding-head CNC lathes, of which 14 are currently in use. The idea was to have full control not only over the design but also over the production and quality of these mainline products.

HEL Performance could therefore not have moved further away from its comfort zone when it decided to manufacture two new families of prismatically machined components from solid aluminium billets, namely master cylinders and radially mounted brake calipers.
Turnkey production systems were clearly needed and managing director Simon Lane researched the market for a suitable machine tool supplier, an exercise which culminated in the purchase from Whitehouse Machine Tools of three Speedio machining centres built by Brother, Japan.
Supplied with tooling, fixtures and programs, two are S700X1 four-axis, 21-station turret-type models installed in March and June 2018, while the third is an M140X2 trunnion-type, five-axis machine with a 22-position tool magazine, which arrived in August.
The S700X1 machines are currently devoted to producing either ‘100’ or ‘108’ caliper sets in two operations using bespoke, four-station fixtures on either side of a trunnion, so two complete components come off each machine every time the doors open. On the M140X2, one master cylinder is produced in two operations in a total cycle time of one hour.
When fully operational, each of the three Speedio machines will produce around 100 components per week, based on a single eight-hour shift per weekday. Lane foresees quantities rising four-fold in the next five years, and has already expressed interest in acquiring a Brother Feedio robotic component handling system to increase production efficiency and introduce unattended running overnight.
For further information www.wmtcnc.com