UK NEWS

Growth matched with investment at LC Precision

Formed in 2013 when Lee Coles bought a one-man machining business, Weymouth-based LC Precision Engineering has achieved sales growth in excess of 600% over the past five years.

The company works across a variety of sectors, including defence, motorsport, nuclear and electronics, mainly focussing on work that could be produced on its three-, four- and five-axis vertical machining centres. To further develop its offer, the company has now invested in new turning capacity in the form of an XYZ SLX 1630 ProTurn lathe.
With five employees, including managing director Lee Coles, LC Precision Engineering may be a small business, but it has big ambitions. Over £175,000 has been spent on new equipment in the past two years.
The XYZ SLX 1630 ProTurn lathe is described by Coles as being “in a different league” when compared with his previous experience on manual lathes. While the SLX 1630 may be the entry point for ProTurn lathes, it comes with a cast bed and base, 400 mm swing over bed capacity, 760 mm distance between centres, and a 5.75 kW, 150-2500 rpm constant surface speed spindle.
The SLX ProtoTrak control was key in the decision by Coles to go with XYZ Machine Tools for his move into CNC turning: “The control system definitely sold the machine to us. We specialise in lower volume work with seven out of 10 jobs being one-offs. Therefore, the ability to easily programme complex forms and be confident that we will achieve a good part first time, every time – thanks to features like TRAKing and Do-One – makes a huge difference.”
For further information www.xyzmachinetools.com

BG Engineering plans for future with XYZ

Investing in the future of its business in terms of skills and capacity, BG Engineering is actively recruiting apprentices and has just invested £75,000 with XYZ Machine Tools to create a machining cell that will help apprentices to hone their skills.

The cell comprises an XYZ SMX 5000 bed mill and an XYZ SLX 355 ProTurn lathe. Both are controlled by XYZ’s ProtoTrak control system, which offers simple-to-program capability that makes apprentice training and the machining of one-off and small batch parts straightforward.
“The XYZ machines are unlike anything else we have on the shop floor,” says Chris Brown, director of Cooper Brown Enterprises, which bought a strategic stake in BG Engineering last year. “They provide the perfect introduction to CNC machining and, our apprentices are making full use of the ProtoTrak control’s features, such as TRAKing, as well as learning manual machining skills. The apprentices can gain experience of the ‘feel’ you only get by winding handles to produce parts – thanks to the XYZ machine’s ability to operate
in full CNC or manual mode.”
For further information www.xyzmachinetools.com

Name change

Turnkey production solutions provider Geo Kingsbury Machine Tools Ltd, which until recently was best known as Geo Kingsbury, will with immediate effect trade under the name Kingsbury.

The company is sole agent in the UK and Ireland, and more recently in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, for a range of German machining centre and lathe builders, as well as a French additive manufacturing machine producer. Managing director Richard Kingsbury says: “We wanted uniformity in the way we are perceived by industry throughout the country’s into which we sell.”
For further information www.kingsburyuk.com

Manufacturing hotspots

The Advanced Engineering show, which takes place at the NEC at the end of this month, has published its league table of top 20 high-value manufacturing hotspots in the UK.

The table places Sheffield at the top of the pile, narrowly beating last year’s winner – Bristol – by just two points. The highest new entry this year is Cambridge, which comes in at number 4. Other new entrants are Northampton, Poole, Telford, Swindon, Banbury and Chesterfield. The biggest improvers in the table since last year are Milton Keynes, which moves from 10th to 3rd, and Nottingham, which moves from 8th to 5th.
For further information www.advancedengineeringuk.com

Tungaloy becomes member of WEAF and MAA

As part of its strategic drive to infiltrate the aerospace market and introduce the aviation sector to its cutting tool solutions, Tungaloy UK has joined both the Midlands Aerospace Alliance (MAA) and the West of England Aerospace Forum (WEAF).

Tungaloy will now be actively participating in events and collaborative projects to further raise awareness of the Japanese cutting tool brand. The company has extensive knowledge and experience of the global aviation and defence industries, and by joining both organisations, Tungaloy is looking to transfer its expertise, knowledge base and product lines to members of the groups.
For further information www.tungaloy.com/uk