SUBCONTRACTING INVESTING IN THE FUTURE
Vertical turning lathes (VTLs) are also in
demand, as evidenced at Stoke-based
Unilathe, where the installation of a Doosan
VT1100 VTL from Mills CNC (https://is.gd/
edocag) is helping to consolidate and grow the
company’s aerospace business. The
machine, which has a maximum turning
length of 1,000 mm, has been positioned
adjacent to another Doosan VT1100 machine
to create a exible, high productivity vertical
turning cell.
Since being installed, the Doosan VT1100
VTL has been used to machine a range of
complex, high precision and performancecritical
components for a host of sectors.
CRITICAL RESOURCE
Explains Andrew Sims, Unilathe’s managing
director: “The VT1100 vertical turning cell has
improved our capacity, productivity and
machining exibility, and is a critical resource
in helping us leverage business opportunities
in the aerospace, oil and gas, off-highway,
mining, rail and special industrial equipment
sectors.”
Of course, a vast number of components
required across industry are produced from
materials other than metal, as Hertfordshirebased
Plastic Turned Parts (PTP)
demonstrates. PTP has invested more than
£750,000 in four years to the end of 2019 in
six new CNC turning centres, helping it double
turnover. These machines include four
Cincom sliding-head lathes and, most
recently, a Miyano xed-head model, bringing
the total number of lathes on-site from this
supplier to nine.
All except two of the nine lathes are tted
with the company’s default option bar
magazines from Italian manufacturer Iemca,
represented in the UK by 1st Machine Tool
Accessories (https://is.gd/wexohi).
Managing director and owner Jonathan
Newis says: “We particularly like the Elite
model tted to our smallest capacity, 12 mm
sliding-head lathe, which has a big-bore kit to
take 16 mm diameter bar. The magazine can
be swapped over in a matter of seconds from
gravity barfeed to walking-beam operation for
advancing smaller stock below 6 mm
diameter.”
A little further west, a precision machining
subcontractor has invested in its rst Sodick
wire erosion machine, a VL600Q model
supplied by Sodi-Tech EDM (https://is.gd/
muvegi). Berkshire-based Duckworth & Kent
(Reading) Ltd, is using the machine to reduce
the number of set-ups required, improve
quality and repeatability, and introduce
unmanned operations.
The Sodick VL600Q offers travel in the X, Y
and Z axes of 600 by 400 by 270 mm,
respectively, with 90 by 90 mm U-/V-axis
travel.
“We’ve been putting the rotary axis to good
use,” explains sales director Stuart Gleeson.
“For instance, it’s making light work of a
lifting rod for the defence industry that is
made from toughened steel. The rod features
a series of diameters and squares that have
to be concentric and straight to one another.
There is also a thread and a yoke at the top
for lifting. The rod is about 150 mm long and
we recently produced a batch of 58 in a
single set-up, whereas previously it would
have required two operations. Saving a set-up
probably equates to a cycle time reduction of
one hour per part. So that’s 58 hours saved
on one job alone.”
Moving to the fabrication sector, Concept
Metal Products Ltd has installed an additional
Kimla unit to boost its 10 m metalcutting
offer (https://is.gd/yarocu). Already having 10
by 2 m (4 kW) and 4 by 2 m (6 kW) Kimla
bre lasers, the rm’s third machine, a 6 kW,
10 by 2 m model, will be installed at the
Manchester factory by UK representative MBA
Engineering later this year.
Dean Barnard, general manager at
Concept Metal Products, says: “Being able to
provide a larger scale of laser cutting
A second pair of Miyano
BNE-51MSY turn-mill centres
has been installed at contract machinist
Unicut Precision of Welwyn Garden
capabilities to our customers and a range of
industries is of huge bene t. Combined with
our tandem press brake, which is capable of
forming parts up to 9 m long with rst-bend
depth up to 605 mm, the additional Kimla
laser cutter will assist in boosting this area of
the business.”
On the other side of the Pennines, PP
Pro les (West Yorkshire) Ltd has bought a
plasma and ame cutting machine from Kerf
Developments (https://is.gd/humoze) that
measures 39 m in length.
Commercial director Daniel Morley says:
“We speci ed the Kerf RUR4500 with a
single high de nition 400 A plasma cutting
head on a 12 by 4 m bed, and a two-machine
24 by 4 m bed that consists of both a sixhead
and a four-head ame cutting gantry – all
in a single 39 by 4 m cell. As a result, we’ve
been able to load much larger jobs and open
up new markets, as parts over 12 m long
parts are not uncommon. In addition, this
work ow con guration has reduced our
processing times by at least 50%.”
Scanning the market
Located at the heart of one of the UK’s traditional industrial areas in the West Midlands,
Metal Assemblies produces stampings and assemblies, mainly for customers involved in
the automotive industry. When the volumes of its outsourced work dictate, where possible
Metal Assemblies pursues a policy of sourcing the required equipment and taking this
work in house. A case in point is the company’s recent purchase of a 2.5 m capacity,
8-axis QuantumE ScanArm from Faro (https://is.gd/ucivug), which features a Laser Line
Probe SD.
Quality manager Simon Bullows says: “In addition to performing all of the 3D scanning
tasks that we previously outsourced, our ScanArm is now proving ideal for a range of
tasks, such as rst article inspection. Also, when a production run is underway, the
QuantumE is perfect for quickly identifying features that begin to deviate from nominal
conditions, allowing prompt machine adjustments to be made before out-of-tolerance
situations occur.”
www.machinery.co.uk @MachineryTweets February 2020 39
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