Dowty Propellers has announced approvals to create a new facility in the Gloucester area. The move follows a fire in February 2015 that destroyed the company’s operating headquarters and blade manufacturing facility. Dowty expects that the new facility will be operational in 2019. The exact location will be determined by the end of this year on completion of a tender process to ensure the best combination of cost and efficiency.
For further information
www.dowty.com
The Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) has become the UK’s first centre to install HP’s latest 3D printer, the Jet Fusion 4200, which was supplied by Europac 3D. It is housed
in the MTC’s National Centre for Additive Manufacturing, which recently agreed a partnership to be the benchmarking centre for the European Space Agency. The MTC says that the HP Jet Fusion 4200 will be available to all companies interested in testing the technology and the capabilities of 3D printing, allowing them to explore the latest technologies and see what benefits additive manufacturing may bring.
For further information www.europac3d.com
The annual Trumpf UK open house proved itself to be a real success in more ways than one. For instance, not only did the three-day event attract more than 200 people through its doors, but orders in excess of £2m were secured. Arguably the star of the show at this year’s event was the TruMatic 1000 Fibre, an entry-level combination machine. Featuring a compact footprint, this combination laser machine can be equipped with functionality that punches holes, bends flanges and forms threads.
Elsewhere at the open house, the high end of Trumpf’s laser-cutting capability was on show. For instance, the company’s flagship TruLaser 5030 Fibre with 8 kW resonator was being put through its full range of capabilities, including cutting stainless steel up to 40 mm thick. Open house visitors were also introduced to the new Trumpf touchdown nozzles on the TruLaser 5030, which can reduce gas consumption by up to 70%, while doubling processing speeds, says the company.
For further information www.uk.trumpf.com
Aerospace heat treatment and hard coatings specialist, Wallwork Cambridge, has just received its AS9100 Rev D certificate and in so doing become one the first few dozen UK companies to make the transition. All companies working within the aerospace sector must be in compliance with the revision by September 2018. Works manager Andy Fox says: “Preparing for the transition has been a massive effort by all the team, and especially by quality manager Adam Yates who joined us in Cambridge from the Bury site just six months before the audit.”
Site director, Simeon Collins, adds: “Aerospace orders are rising and it is vital that we continue to meet the necessarily stringent quality standards of the industry. Revision D includes additional requirements for product risk systems, traceability and mitigating counterfeit parts. Interestingly, it also extends into ethical sourcing and business context, taking it beyond quality and day-to-day management.”
For further information www.wallworkht.co.uk
XYZ Machine Tools’ recent Sheffield
open house saw 23 orders received for
new machines.
“The response from customers at this event was brilliant,” says the company’s managing director Nigel Atherton. “This success is backed by continuing good levels of business across our range of machines from a wide variety of customers. Hopefully, this confidence among machine tool buyers and the UK manufacturing sector in general remains for the foreseeable future. We are also seeing strong sales from across Europe, with
record numbers being generated.”
For further information www.xyzmachinetools.com
