Autodesk (hall 17, stand 600) will be sharing its vision of the ‘Future of British Manufacturing’ at MACH with the 2019 releases of CAM software products that include Autodesk PowerMill and Autodesk FeatureCAM.

Visitors can hear more on the main stage (12 April) at the MACH Conference centre, where Asif Moghal, senior industry manager at Autodesk, will be presenting on the Future of British Manufacturing initiative, a collaboration between UK industrial organisations. Visitors to the stand will be able to view a scaled-down sample of a propeller manufactured using PowerMill additive technology.
For further information www.autodesk.com

Among the innovations on display from 1st MTA (hall 20, stand 560) will be a zero-point clamping system from V-Tech. For clamping workpieces on CNC machining centres, this pneumatic quick-change system features 24 kN retraction of the clamping pin in each receiver, and a positioning accuracy of better than 5 µm.

From a barfeed perspective, the latest announcement is that an Industry 4.0 connection is available for any new Iemca barfeed, allowing constant remote analysis of its condition and operation. With regard to rotary tables, on show will be Kitagawa’s latest TT150 tilting-type compound table with 150 mm faceplate, while elsewhere on the stand, 1st MTA will demonstrate a Chick Indexer SubSystem (ISS), showing how more components can be presented to a machining centre spindle by adding a fourth axis. Another Chick product on show will be the latest lightweight version of its One-Lok clamping system, which is pitched as a superior alternative to the conventional wind-up vice.
For further information www.1mta.com

Among the products from 600 UK (hall 6, stand 565) will be a series of multi-axis CNC turning centres, which are the next-generation machines from Colchester, replacing the previous Tornado range.

The new Clausing MillPWR CNC milling machine will also be demonstrated at the show, utilising the conversational Acu-Rite MillPWR G2 control to program prototypes and small batches of components. 600 UK’s Industry 4.0 package, initially targeted at its range of Colchester and Harrison centre lathes, and MultiTurn and Alpha CNC lathes, will be a further exhibit (on a Colchester Triumph centre lathe).
For further information www.600uk.com

For over 30 years, Huddersfield-based JAW Engineering has provided local industry with low-volume subcontract machining capacity and emergency breakdown support. Up until now, all its machining had been carried out on manual machines, reliant on highly skilled operators, including company founder John White. Now, with John’s son Stuart taking on management of the family business, the time was right to look to the future and move to CNC.

With Stuart White’s lack of experience in CNC he turned to a long-standing customer for advice, and was invited in to see first-hand, and talk with operators about their XYZ ProtoTrak-controlled machines. “The opportunity to chat with guys on the shop floor was fascinating as not one of them had a bad word to say about XYZ. Furthermore, seeing the ProtoTrak control in action convinced me that it was the best solution to take us from manual to CNC machining.”
Encouraged by what he saw and heard, White paid a visit to XYZ Machine Tools showroom in Sheffield for a demonstration and made the decision to purchase an SLX 425 ProTurn lathe.
By introducing CNC in the form of the ProtoTrak control, White is looking to future-proof the business, as finding skilled manual machine operators is not easy. Here, the ProtoTrak’s conversational interface makes the job of programming complex parts straightforward.
“The addition of CNC is allowing us to do more complex work than we could previously,” says White. “Moreover, we are more efficient as the control speeds up operations that manually would take much longer, such as screw cutting. Repeatability is taken for granted, and by storing the programs we can quickly repeat parts as and when they are required.”
For further information www.xyzmachinetools.com