TURNING POSITIVE EXPERIENCES PROCLAIMED
Starting with a serendipitous purchase
of a second-hand Miyano, Apsley
Precision Engineering developed a taste
for the brand, now having four.
Jay Pritchard, halfway through a
four-year mechanical engineering
apprenticeship, is seen here
using Citizen’s Alkart CNC Wizard
programming software
Growing production
Second-hand Miyanos give subcontractor a leg-up to higher quality and start a trend; same again
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Acase of serendipity allowed
subcontractor Apsley Precision
Engineering to install its rst Miyano
bar-fed CNC lathe, and the company has gone
on to acquire further models of the same
brand. Managing director Peter Aymes
explains: “We were aware of this make of bar
auto and knew they rarely come onto the
second-hand market, so we were lucky to be
able to buy the rst machine, a BND-51S
twin-spindle lathe with live tooling in the
turret.”
That luck followed one of its customers
ceasing in-house production, releasing the
machine for sale. Its arrival in 2012 on the
shop oor at the company’s 12,000 ft2 facility
in High Post, near Salisbury, heralded the
start of a big improvement in CNC turning
capability. Continues Aymes: “Compared to
our single-spindle, bar-fed lathes without
driven tools, it approximately halved cycle
times for machining parts up to 51 mm
diameter. Generally, we were able to start
producing components in one hit, rather than
two or three operations, reducing handling
and work-in-progress.
“That in turn improved accuracy and
allowed us to manufacture more costeffectively,
so we became more pro table.
It is dif cult to overstate the improvement the
machine made.”
The Miyano also allowed for unattended
running, due to the dimensional consistency
of output, unlike the subcontractor’s other
bar autos, which typically require the
attention of an experienced setter for much of
the time, raising the labour content of parts.
Following the initial purchase, two more
second-hand Miyanos were acquired. And
even though the rst was 12 years old,
it was and still is capable of holding
tolerances of ±5 microns, which Aymes
describes as “amazing”, adding: “By that
time it was abundantly clear just how good
these machines are. They are heavy, compact
and very robust, which leads to high accuracy,
repeatability and reliability. They need very
little money spent on them for repair, so cost
of ownership is low.
“It is rare to operate a machine that is
almost completely trouble-free. With the
Miyanos, that applies to the electronics and
electrics, as well as the mechanics.”
The third Miyano was installed in 2015,
a second 42 mm machine of similar age
acquired from another subcontractor, this
time a BNJ model with two turrets. It resulted
in higher production output, better prices for
customers and shorter delivery lead-times.
July 2019 saw the arrival from Citizen
Machinery UK (https://is.gd/silefi ) of the rst
new model, however, a BNJ-51SY twinspindle,
twin-turret lathe with a Y-axis, offering
51 mm bar capacity. The machine has
additional Y-axis movement on the main turret
that is proving invaluable for machining offcentreline
and providing exibility and
accuracy of milled features. It was
accompanied by Citizen Machinery’s Alkart
CNC Wizard programming software. It assists
and simpli es the creation of even complex
cycles using a built-in G-code and M-code
library, plus reference material and diagrams.
Inexperienced users, in particular, bene t.
Exampling the latest machine’s capability,
Apsley Precision Engineering’s managing
director cites a tubular, thin-wall aerospace
part machined from solid 304 stainless steel
bar of 38 mm diameter. It requires a blind,
longitudinal hole to be drilled and bored, and
the outside diameter (OD) to be turned to
leave two lugs. Not only does the Y-axis allow
the lugs to be drilled in-cycle, instead of the
component having to visit a machining centre
for completion, but by being able to program
both Y- and C-axis movements for OD turning,
cutter de ection is minimised and accuracy
improved. As the component is required in
batch sizes ranging from 200 to 800, the
bene t is considerable.
Furthermore, the new machine can be run
on a ghost-shift – theoretically possible with
the other Miyanos but not practically feasible
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