From one-off components to high-volume production, IML UK Ltd is a subcontract machining company that specialises in giving its customers exactly what they want, when they want it. With more than 25 CNC machine tools running 24/7, 365 days a year, the Weymouth-based company has invested in the latest five-axis machine tools, pallet automation technology and HyperMill CADCAM software from Open Mind Technologies.

IML director David Zollo says: “The work on the machining side of our business is predominantly aluminium, with our turning department being mainly stainless steel. We entered the CADCAM system market back in the early days and we’ve had our original system for probably around 25 years. However, things have evolved and jobs are getting more complex. The software systems have changed too.”

The company recently introduced HyperMill to run alongside its original system and is witnessing a number of notable differences.

“HyperMill is better on our complex parts, but we’re also applying it to simple components,” says Zollo.“For parts where there are endless lines of code, it’s all about the re-generation. Previously, regenerating a complex component that is millions of lines long would take forever, but with HyperMill it regenerates just the bit we need. This saves us a lot of time.”

He adds: “As a company that has two software systems, we know what we’re talking about. We can give an honest opinion of where we are with the two systems. We’re now leaning increasingly towards HyperMill when it comes to our complex parts.”

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