CONTENTS
Volume 178 Number 4299 October 2020
10 Lead feature Joining the dots
The Advanced Machinery and Productivity Institute (the AMP Institute) is
a new initiative, currently in its formative stage, that will ll a missing
hole in the UK’s innovation landscape. It aims to exploit one of the
country’s deep wells of expertise – mechanical machine building – but
marry it to Industry 4.0 technologies to develop machines for future
products and processes. Andrew Allcock has more on the background to
this signi cant development
16 Turning Helping hands
Two companies have been aided in setting up machining facilities by
helpful machine tool technology suppliers. Denis Welch Motorsport lent
on Haas Automation for help, advice and technology, while TWP
Manufacturing saw Citizen Machinery UK provide extensive support for
its independently acquired, 20-year-old, rst CNC sliding-head
investment
18 Quality & metrology Productivity measures
Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence (HMI) recently
unveiled four new products that sit within its autonomous operation and
smart factory future vision. Andrew Allcock has more
21 CADCAM & production IT No room for error
The Nuclear AMRC (Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre) is part of
the government’s High Value Manufacturing Catapult alliance of seven
leading manufacturing research centres backed by Innovate UK. It is
using Vericut CNC simulation and optimisation software to protect its
most valuable assets – over £35 million-worth of state-of-the-art
manufacturing equipment in its open-plan 5,000 m2 workshop – while
also safely and ef ciently getting the most out of both tools and
machines
25 Subcontracting Pump up the volume
A move to horizontal machining centre technology for CTPE; Mazak
turning centre delivers boost at GW Martin; a cobot rst and vertical
machining upgrades keep NPI Solutions on top form
Regular sections
7 Comment
News round-up
8 MACH2021 cancelled, next
MACH show now 2022
8 Soraluce All in One
technology wins Chinese award
8 Funding for manufacturers
with smart ideas
8 Faster digital
transformation on offer
8 Hurco Europe’s Covidsecure
Open House
8 GFG Alliance members get
together to go smart
9 First UK taker for Star
SX-38 Type A
9 Salamander Fabrications’
environmental initiative
9 MSC Industrial Supply bags
three-year Thompsons contract
9 Ficep UK stock control
installation
9 LVD Insights 2020 online
events rolled out
9 Appointments at: CGTech,
Dugard & TTL
New products
9 XYZ turning centres
9 More cobots from Mills
9 ABB: AR for robots
9 FANUC: long-reach robot
9 Snap-together coolant pipes
9 Horn: titanium milling
9 Mill-turn machining centre
9 Fine boring tool
9 Wenzel: CT scanner
9 SigmaTEK software
40 Classifi ed section
42 This month
25 years ago...
10
16
18
21
Cover images: metamorworks / Andrey Kuzmin/ stock.adobe.com
Aerospace Supplement
Introduction: Stalled ascent (p28) – New technologies
such as alternative fuels and electric power are
gies much talked about, but the supply chain must
remain intact to deliver this future
Machining case studies (p36) – WFL (Kyal Machine
Tools); NCSIMUL (Hexagon); Traub (Kingsbury)
systems; Economic ozonedepleting
& Monetary Union, yes/no; manufacturing execution solvents drive cleaning developments; tool selection made easier;
Cincinnati Milacron boosts output; Matsuura machine tools to be made in the UK
october 1995
25years ago
Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), or the single European
currency, today’s Euro precursor, is the subject of our rst
issue’s comment. To join EMU or not? Seeking comment from
an expor t-oriented machine tool industry managing director, he said
he would answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ just as soon as someone explained it
to him. Following that encounter, the EEF published a 16-page
booklet detailing pros and cons, but no conclusion. Machinery had
already offered its opinion ahead of this in its Machinery Classifi ed
publication. Drawing on information and expert opinion of the day, as
an engineering magazine, we looked for a pragmatic, fact-based
solution. We suggested adopting the Maastricht criteria that de ne
economic convergence necessary for EMU and making the Bank of
England independent (required only within EMU), because only then
could a sensible choice be made about its effect and whether joining
EMU or not would be best. Not adopting these measures leaves
open politically motivated interest rate manipulation and pro igate
government expenditure, we said, adding that it would also allow the
UK to continue its historical approach to remaining competitive,
currency devaluation. But this approach was founded on EMU
requirements being sensible. An article in The Economist later
highlighted that they were otherwise. We concluded that this
apparent poor foundation just adds further to the confused state of
affairs that our managing director found himself in and that any
attempt at EMU will open the project up to failure,
which would then taint any future move in this
direction. (In 2005, the UK will fail Gordon Brown’s
ve economic tests for Euro adoption. The
2008 nancial crash will strain Eurozone
countries, and in 2016 the UK will vote to
leave the EU, which it has, but is in the
transition phase till year end).
Our second comment this month is
on a new computer system acronym –
MES, meaning ‘manufacturing execution
▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼
Singer Cliff
Richard
knighted
Regormark /stock.adobe.com
Drilling In XXL-Format
With the KUB Centron you can create large holes
High length-diameter ratio with safety and economy.
system’. MES provides a two-way connection between MRP and the
resources required to deliver the production plan. A complete MES
with all functional elements cannot be sourced from a single
company, but adoption of a standard communications architecture
allows one to be built. Integration of non-conforming systems that
might t the MES mould are not cost-effective, we are told. We said
readers should expect to see more mention of MES in Machinery in
future, but the acronym is still not commonly used in this country.
In news this month, as legislation looms to outlaw ozonedepleting
solvents at the end of 1995, we have news of UK company
Vixen’s own-developed citrus-based solution, Tristar. And fellow
degreasing equipment maker Turbex, another UK rm, has
introduced a series of front-loading aqueous degreasing units.
Sandvik Cormant’s Corokey concept, which has the Tool Selection
Guide at its core, offers a step-by-step tool selection process. The
system links to a series of inserts developed in support, plus Insert
box labelling that re ects the same underlying nomenclature and
application data. In other tooling-related news, Spanish broaching
machine/broach tool maker Ekin has established a UK base.
Re ecting the fact that Cincinnati Milacron is seeing its vertical
machining centre manufacturing operations in Birmingham boom off
the back of growing international sales, UK machine tool maker
Asquith Butler has delivered a VNG Starcut, travelling-gantry, vertical
ram-type machining centre to the rm. More UK machine tool
industry good news comes from Matsuura Machinery Corporation of
Coalville, Leicestershire, which is to commence machine tool
building, shipping rst units in August 1996.
In features this month: a metalworking and forming special
report; modern mould tool making at Ak-U-Rite; Delcam’s new
PowerMILL software; a Jones & Shipman pro le, which is now “a
totally different company”, reorganised and with new products; a visit
to South Korea’s Hyundai, for whom Dugard had just become UK
representative;UKbuilt
Dormer’s new PFX drill; and an overview of the low-cost SuperSwift multi-slide CNC auto. ■
PA
For more information:
cutting.tools/en/kub-centron
Key Events
Adv-KUB-Centron-229x65mm.indd 1 31.07.2020 11:12:48 42
John Stillwell/PA Archive/PA Images
French woman Jeanne
Calment reaches 120 years & 238 days;
oldest person ever recorded
Rugby League world cup,
Australia beat England
16-8 at Wembley Stadium
oct 95
O. J. Simpson found
not guilty of double
murder of former
wife Nicole Simpson
& Ronald Goldman
Alec
Douglas-Home,
British PM
(Con: 1963-64),
dies, 92
▼
XIII
10 Film
“Se7en” 7premieres
in New York
042_25yrpages_MACH_OCT20.indd 42 28/09/2020 17:31
www.machinery.co.uk october 2020
OVER A CENTURY OF MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY INSIGHT
AEROSPACE
SUPPLEMENT
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Introduction: Stalled ascent p28 – New technologies such as alternative fuels and
electric power are much talked about, but the supply chain must remain intact to deliver this future
Machining case studies p36 – WFL (Kyal Machine Tools); NCSIMUL (Hexagon); Traub (Kingsbury)
Airbus SAS 2020 – computer rendering by Fixon photo by Dreamstime.com – MMS – 2020
027_MACH_OCT20.indd 27 23/09/2020 15:44
www.machinery.co.uk | MachineryMagazine | @MachineryTweets | October 2020 5
/stock.adobe.com
/stock.adobe.com
/www.machinery.co.uk
/www.machinery.co.uk
/Dreamstime.com