A record number of visitors attended Bystronic UK’s latest open house, held at its Coventry showroom concurrently with the MACH 2018 exhibition at the NEC last month.

The theme of the open house was ‘Mach Speed’, which involved visitors being asked to estimate the time required to manufacture a component for an off-road vehicle. Managing director David Larcombe says: “We believe the theme was not only interesting to visitors but also an eye-opener in terms of the productivity benefits that can be achieved with modern machine tools. During the event we sold a number of machines, notably a 10 kW 4020 fibre laser and two Xpert press brakes.”
For further information www.bystronic.co.uk

A specialist in multi-axis machining is leveraging the benefits of Universal Robots supplied by RARUK Automation to load and unload its machine tools.

A mix of seven UR5 and UR10 robots have helped Rousant Sherwood maximise the productivity of its workforce by automating repetitive tasks and bidding for contracts which would have otherwise been unprofitable. One of the UR10 robots is currently serving a Nakamura-Tome Super NTJX multi-tasking turn-mill centre. The robot loads square billets of aluminium into the machine, where they are turned into aerospace components as part of a 40-minute cycle. The machine and robot are running 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“Just to be clear, we have not invested in robots to save on headcount, we’ve done it to win contracts,” says general manager Robin Salter. “We would never have been able to tender for jobs like this without automation. Using a robot makes us profitable on work where we wouldn’t normally be able to compete.”
For further information www.rarukautomation.co.uk

A tier-one supplier of castings and machined components has tapped into specialist support to manage its energy costs.

Shield Group, which operates from six different manufacturing divisions across Coventry, Leicestershire, Northampton and Oldham, has just hit £80m for the first time in its 69-year history. However, faced with major increases in production, Shield needed to better manage energy consumption. The company turned to Control Energy Costs (CEC), which successfully reduced the amount of energy used by 15%. Furthermore, a recent exercise completed by CEC was to reduce Shield Group’s Green Tax liability, resulting in six-figure savings per annum.
For further information www.cec.uk.com

Almost 10 years ago, JCB CEO Lord Anthony Bamford had a vision for educating the next generation of engineers.

This inspirational spark led to the internationally recognised yellow goods manufacturer establishing the JCB Academy in 2010. To ensure education is vocationally suitable for future generations of engineers, the JCB Academy is supported by metrology expert Mitutoyo.
At the centre of the metrology department at the JCB Academy is a Crysta-Plus M443 CMM that is connected to a 60” wall mounted monitor. The manual Crysta-Plus CMM with temperature compensation offers the facility everything from simple dimensional to complex form measurement on a small footprint 400 x 400 mm table. Utilising the latest MCOSMOS CMM software, learners can evaluate the dimensional precision of components and test pieces. By connecting the CMM to a large monitor, teaching staff can conduct practical demonstrations to learners in a classroom environment.
The vision of Lord Bamford is certainly starting to pay dividends for the future of UK manufacturing and, in particular, the future of JCB.
“As a company, JCB has thousands of employees and there is natural staff wastage of approximately 350 people every year through retirement and other factors,” says Graham Rowley, team leader for technical delivery. “The academy is now generating future recruits, while giving prospective employees a strong grounding in engineering.”
With regard to the service, support and expectations placed upon Mitutoyo, Rowley concludes: “We’ve never had an issue with Mitutoyo; the support is excellent. In terms of how quickly they respond to either an email or a call, there is always somebody on hand with the correct technical information. Furthermore, if we ever need on-site technical assistance, there is always someone available to come to our facility, usually with same-day call-out support.”
For further information www.mitutoyo.co.uk