Mills CNC, the distributor of Doosan machine tools in the UK and Republic of Ireland, and home of the CNC Training Academy, has announced that it will hold an open house at the company’s Technology Campus facility in Leamington on 18-19 October. Branded ‘Strokes of Genius…LIVE’, the event is being used by Mills to showcase new ranges of Doosan machine tools and a host of technology innovations to visitors. A significant percentage of the machines on view will include new Doosan models that recently made their international debuts at the DIMF Show (Doosan International Machine Tool Fair), held in South Korea. The open house also provides Mills with the platform to promote a number of innovations that will soon be introduced. These include new Siemens Sinumerik 828D 15.6” TFT touchscreens that will become a standard feature on Doosan (Siemens-controlled) machines in the near future, and the launch of a robot workpiece load and unload automation system.
For further information
www.millscnc.co.uk

Rolls-Royce has announced a £150m investment in new and existing civil aerospace facilities in the UK to support the planned doubling of engine production and deliver on its record civil aerospace order book. The investment, which will be made over the next few years, is part of Rolls-Royce’s ongoing industrial transformation, and will provide additional capacity as the company develops and tests the next generation of aero engines.
The majority of the investment will provide a new facility for the testing of large civil aero engines in Derby, the home of Rolls-Royce’s civil aerospace division. The new test-bed will be capable of testing a range of engines, including the Trent XWB. Rolls-Royce has also committed to retaining the Precision Machining Facility (PMF) in Derby, which it previously announced would be closed.
For further information www.rolls-royce.com

600 UK has appointed Keith Clowe as area sales manager for the West Midlands and South Wales, focusing on the Colchester and Harrison, and Clausing machine tool ranges. Clowe is an engineer by trade and previously worked for London Transport for a number of years before moving into a wide variety of machine tool sales and product management roles over the past 20 years. His experience spans many well-known names in the machine tool industry and he is highly respected for his technical expertise on many projects.
For further information
www.600uk.com

Published last month, the eighth annual Sunday Times HSBC International Track 200 league table listed machine tool sales company NCMT in sixth place. The table ranks 200 mid-market private companies (unquoted and not subsidiaries) in Britain with the fastest growing international sales. NCMT hit export sales of £10.7m in the last financial year, propelling the company to a two-year average international sales growth rate per annum of 163%. The company is now looking to diversify into gear manufacturing technology and has written proprietary software for use on Makino and Okuma platforms.
For further information
www.ncmt.co.uk

Within an hour of putting its first post on social media, a start-up engineering business from North Yorkshire has been bombarded with orders from around the world – all thanks to help provided by the Manufacturing Growth Programme (MGP). Topcliffe-based K2 Design & Fabrication Ltd, which makes specialist car parts, set up a Facebook page and secured 80 orders from as far afield as Australia and Singapore within 60 minutes of its initial post.
The company, founded by friends Duncan Oakes and Dominic King in January 2017, continues to be swamped with enquiries and is already taking £25,000 per month in orders after it received specialist advice from a marketing expert funded by MGP. K2 has now taken on an extra member of staff to cope with demand and is looking at employing another person because of its strong future order book.
For further information
www.manufacturingrowthprogramme.co.uk