CONTENTS
Volume 178 Number 4292 January 2020
10 Lead feature Disruption, commodities, platforms
The past year has been one where the overriding theme of several of our
feature articles, often cover stories, can be summed up as ‘not
business as usual’ in the engineering manufacturing sector.
Andrew Allcock contemplates this theme further, pulling out a few
examples from the year
14 Exhibition preview MACH’S new decade
This year’s edition of MACH sees in a new decade characterised by
connectivity and data. As our cover feature suggests, the coming years
herald a time of great technological change for industry and society.
MACH will re ect some of that. Andrew Allcock sets the scene
18 Supply side Making a statement
At more than 450 m2, Sodick Europe’s exhibition space is double that
of the Sodick brand’s usual MACH presence. The company is making a
statement, having opened its new European headquarters in Coventry
last year. Andrew Allcock reports
22 Exhibition preview There’s no business like show business
Steed Webzell sets out the exhibits likely to catch the eye at this year’s
Southern Manufacturing exhibition, an established annual event in the
manufacturing technology/services calendar
26 Supply side Mazak brings EMO machines to the UK
Mazak’s December EMO Encore event at its Worcester European
Technology Centre gave visitors a foretaste of the company’s MACH
2020 presence. Andrew Allcock visited and has this report
28 Turning Growing production
Second-hand Miyanos give subcontractor leg-up to higher quality and
start a trend; same again Nakamura-Tome tech for Scot Bennett
Engineering; new start-up looks to Haas to kit out production
31 Punch, profi le, bend Premier League effort
Two companies demonstrate their leading-edge credentials by acquiring
UK technology rsts: ESP Laser Cutting with a 12 kW Bystronic laser
pro ler and GF Laser, which is applying a Trumpf TruLaser Cell 5030
5-axis pro ler
35 Quality & metrology Speedy measures
Fast cylindrical part inspection delivered by Bowers for Qualiturn;
Mitutoyo video scanner supports volume hike at Fluorocarbon Company;
Blum explains on-machine surface measurement; plus,
industry & product news update
41 Manufacturing sector
First thoughts
MACH 2020 exhibition organiser the Manufacturing Technologies
Association (MTA) offers its thoughts on the Conservative Party’s
re-election from a manufacturing industry standpoint
42 Mould, tool & die making
Trend patterns
While two Italian injection mould specialists declare their CADCAM
preferences, a UK automotive manufacturer reveals the gains achieved
by 3D printing its tooling. Steed Webzell has more
45
Workholding & more Enhanced productivity up for grabs
Steed Webzell reveals how a selection of manufacturers is using the
latest workholding innovations to great advantage
Regular sections
7 Comment
News round-up
8 DMG Mori/Nikon partner to
develop on-machine tech
8 Fastest 3D printing demo
news from Formnext
8 Renishaw/Sandvik
partnership on AM powder
8 Offshore wind supply chain
initiative announced
8 HP & AM Solutions partner
on AM post-processing
8 AMRC Cymru opens
8 Scotland National
Manufacturing Institute
8 Strongest robot in UK for
MTC, supplied by FANUC
9 A&M retires wire EDM after
30,000 miles
9 MACH Show Daily from
Machinery/The Engineer
9 Matsuura appoints two
spindle specialists
9 Mazak apprentice triumphs
at Worcestershire event
New products
9 Tool laser production
9 Lathe handles 15t
9 EDM for AM sector
9 NCSIMUL release
9 Tibo deep hole drilling
9 Solid carbide milling
9 Dugard VMCs
9 WorkNC release
9 Air gun’s 50% more puff
9 Haas automation tech
48 Classifi ed section
50 This month
25 years ago...
10
18
28
MACH-METCUT cycle ends; MACH to shorten; economy on the up for UK fi rms;
JIMTOF & IMTS developments have 21st century feel – multi-process machines and
new mechanical designs; CNCs increasingly fronted by Windows
january1995
This year we kick off with a comment that announces the fact
that the alternating MACH-METCUT exhibition cycle, each one
every four years, with one or other every two years, will next
year give way to the beginning of the biennial MACH exhibition
series. This news was accompanied by yet further MACH news, that
the previous 10-day extravaganza would become a six-day event.
(This year’s MACH 2020 will, of course, be a ve-day concern.)
Interdisciplinary
government support for the and Cardiff. The
industryfunded
We also hail in Birmingham Research Centre (IRC) at universities research with connect government-funded related
IRC’s aim is to process-variety of machining research. We cite a programmes and call on industry to continue to play its part in order
to retain government nancial support.
In news, ABB robotics is merging with ABB’s paint nishing
interests to form ABB Flexible Automation, producing a billion-dollar
operation. The UK’s 600 Group is reporting a return to the black, as
business conditions improve. At its Loughborough-based 600 Centre
operation, which has recently seen the integration of Selson
Machine Tool Co and Sykes Manufacturing Technologies, plus a
£1m refurbishment programme, the boast is that the facility offers
the widest array of new machine tools and production equipment in
the UK. We report that another Open House also had a wide range
▼ ▼ ▼
Man U’s
Eric
Cantona
ned &
banned fan
attack
Economic omens are looking good for
comsomartin Mehr Infos unter:
▼
O.J. Simpson
murder trial
begins in
America
PA
PA
www.machinery.co.uk @MachineryTweets January 2020 5
Main image: EllerslieArt / stock.adobe.com
50
of technology on show. Bridgeport’s Romsey, Hants
event included EDM from Sodi-Tech, cutting tools from
Seco plus CNC and probe kit from Heidenhain.
Elsewhere, Hitach Seiki UK is celebrating a record
order book, while Pullmax reports a strong order book.
Another re ection of improving conditions more widely
is tool grinding expert ANCA’s report that sales grew
40% during the past two nancial years (July-Jun),
with the company planning to double
production capacity during 1995.
MACH 1996, then, with a growing UK economy (3.4 and 3.3%
growth, 1993 and 1994), while business investment is also rising,
reports exhibition organiser the Machine Tool Technologies
Association (MTTA – today the Manufacturing Technologies
Association, MTA). Machine tool sales in 1996 are predicted to be
£1,165m (almost £2.3bn today; 2018’s market was £380.2m), but
the MTTA adds that visitor are demanding more value add from their
visits.
Still feeling the negative industrial impact of East and West
Germany’s reuni cation of 1990, Wemex Watts of Nottingham,
which had been the sole importer of East German machine tools, is
still adding replacement agencies – Gioria and Lizzini CNC grinding
machines are the latest. Improving business conditions will see the
company add more soon, its managing director reports.
Feature articles this month see us report on Japan’s machine
tool sector gleaned from the previous year’s JIMTOF exhibition. A
recovering home market is now adding to existing US demand, the
latter having kept the sector a oat for the past four years. The
country has its sights set on technically advanced, complex
machines as its future trajectory, we report. Notable was Amada’s
Espacio sheet metalworking centre that combined laser shearing
and cutting, plus punching, bending, welding and nish grinding. It
looked like a UFO, with its 6 m diameter 4.5 m high dome-like
enclosure. It was a forward-looking, 21st century design for
unmanned sheet metal processing. Matsuura also brought together
multiple processes in a single machine, this time for metalcutting,
with its Ternary. Milling, grinding and polishing of hard materials was
the target there.
Another 21st century possibility of the time was the developing
hexapod machine tool technology – these have six legs and position
a vertical spindle (held on a platform that might have two rotary
axes) by lengthening and shortening these under increasingly
jan 95
Key Events
PA
PA
PA
powerful CNC. They were seen as the route to future 5-axis
British football
transfer fee
record: Man
U sign Andy
Cole, £7m
somartin /stock.adobe.com
PA/Neal Simpson/EMPICS Sport
▼
‘Yahoo.com’
domain registered
25years ago
Austria, Finland and
Sweden join European Union
PAPA
Larry
Grayson,
comedian,
dies at 71
Titanium Machining to Perfection
MonsterMill TCR – ensuring service life
and process reliability
cutting.tools/de/monstermill-tcr
Adv-MonsterMill-TCR-178x65mm.indd 1 28.11.2019 16:31:45
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/stock.adobe.com
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