Government help for industry; modular workholding; CNC retrofi tting; additional
Mitsui Seiki FMS for 600 Group; 600 Group CADCAM software order for Pathtrace;
manual/CNC milling machine sales; £2m Rover Group order for DMG (UK) & more
december 1995
25years ago
Asingle issue this month, as is the norm for December at this
time 25 years ago, and our comment is talking about the
then President of the Board of Trade, Michael Heseltine
(today Lord Heseltine) and one of his cornerstone efforts to help
industry, Business Links. There are now 150 of ces running and
240 are predicted by March of next year (1996). These of ces bring
all business advice under one roof and are designed to enhance the
competitiveness of local companies through a variety of services.
We note that over 350,000 businesses are registered on Business
Link, that 3,000/week are using the service, that 23,000 have been
‘counselled’ by personal business advisors and that 6,000 have
been provided with diagnostic health checks. We encourage all to
make use of the service, because maximum use will both be key in
the service’s continuation and the greater competitiveness of UK
businesses. And in a related news item, we highlight a variety of
engineering businesses that have made use of the service already,
as further encouragement to Machinery readers.
In news we report how System 3R 3Re x modular workholding on
a Makino A55 horizontal machining centre is helping its user,
Ottaway Engineering, achieve ‘super precision’ when resetting
previous jobs, as location of the workholding elements is highly
repeatable. Use of such systems is far from the norm
at this time and still is today.
The retro tting of new CNC units to existing
machines is a major business at this time and
another rm, jig grinder expert Moore Tool, is
joining the club, we report, with Whitstable,
Kent-based UK agent Moore Services
highlighting this cost-effective effort.
Japanese machine tool maker Mazak is
expanding its Worcester manufacturing site,
something that has been a habit across the
years, through which it will boost output by
50%. This year, 1995, has seen this site become the European
headquarters, too; previously in Belgium since 1975.
UK machine tool maker 600 Group has installed a new threemachine
Mitsui Seiki exible manufacturing system (FMS) to support
the manufacture of Harrison lathes, in particular the Alpha model
that offers manual, cycle and multi-cycle CNC operation, allowing
manual machine-trained staff to employ CNC for small batch runs
with minimal training.
This FMS duplicates an existing Mitsui Seiki installation at the
Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire site, in fact, and is part of a £5m
investment. In associated news, UK CADCAM software expert
Pathtrace has sold software to this same facility for support, initially,
in the production of Colchester Tornado CNC lathes on the existing
Mitsui Seiki FMS, but will also be used to program parts for the new
installation. The order is valued at £40,000 (~£80,000 today).
Sticking with the popular-for-this-time combination manual/CNC
machinery and the rst Millpwr 2-axis CNC/3-axis DRO milling
machine has been sold by Midlands distributor Datamach, with the
customer returning for a second unit in short order.
Elsewhere, DMG (UK) has won a £2m order from Rover Group’s
power train transmission facility in Birmingham. A Witzig and Frank
Turmatic Tri ex-MC CNC rotary transfer machine will be supplied.
In feature articles this month, we have: an Inspex exhibition
review, with the event being hailed as “the best Inspex ever”; a focus
on CMM technology from that show; a major measurement-focused
training initiative between Mitutoyo and engineering training body
EnTra; the introduction of a new breed of CNC sliding-head that
competes with cam auto cycle times on simple parts – Star
Micronics’ SH-12, Citizen’s B12 and Tornos’ Deco 2000 are
included; xed-head, multi-slide CNC automatics are compared to
their mechanical, cam-controlled auto predecessors; a look at the
Dutch subcontracting industry ahead of the Utrecht exhibition there;
and a CADCAM software update. ■
Key Events
Sean Gladwell /stock.adobe.com
▼
Superman actor
Christopher Reeve
leaves physical rehab
after horse riding fall;
paralysed from neck
down
The coatings for
the highest performance
For more information:
cutting.tools/en/dragonskin
dec 95
Altnaharra, Scottish
Highlands, matches
lowest ever UK
temperature
−27.2 °C
▼
Barings Bank
collapse: rogue
trader Nick Leeson
jailed in Singapore
for six-and-a-half
years
▼
Number 1
UK single,
Earth
Song,
Michael
Jackson
Internet search
engine AltaVista
launched
▼
▼
Michael Atherton
(185*) bats for
643 minutes
to save
Johannesburg
Test match
PA
PA
ivolodina /stock.adobe.com
Jemma Horsfall /stock.adobe.com
▼
50 December 2020 | www.machinery.co.uk | MachineryMagazine | @MachineryTweets
/stock.adobe.com
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/www.machinery.co.uk
/dragonskin.html