CONTENTS
Volume 178 Number 4296 May/June 2020
10 Lead feature Four manic weeks
At the beginning of March, life in the UK was still close to normal, albeit
with heightened awareness of Covid-19’s threat and approach, plus a
focus on hand-washing. But from Monday, 16 through into mid-April as
peak announced hospital deaths approached, there was frenetic activity
within UK manufacturing. This was evident all the way from top-level
OEMs, right through the multiple tiers of the supply chain network on
which they draw. Within Machinery’s sphere of interest, it was ventilators
and personal protection equipment (PPE – most typically face shields/
visors) that were the top-line products spurring action. The urgency
during this period was driven by the looming possibility of too many
patients and not enough equipment, most critically the availability of
ventilators. We capture here the mood of those four key weeks
22 Machining centres Growing, with help
Two companies have grown, aided by their machine tool technology
suppliers: Tranquil PC with XYZ Machine Tools’ help and BT Lerson,
which has partnered with DMG Mori
25 Grinding, honing & surface fi nishing Committed customers
FT Gearing Systems depends on Studer grinding technology; Coorstek
returns to Okamoto for challenging ceramic grinding duties; plus, Italian
rm gets more out of tools ground on Walter Ewag kit
28 Additive manufacturing Broadened offers
Andrew Allcock catches up with some of the latest developments in the
additive manufacturing eld, with two new product launches of
signi cance, one from laser pro ling specialist Prima Power UK,
the other from German metalcutting machine tool rm Chiron
30 Quality & metrology Subcontractors get the measure
Medical sector demand prompts inspection capacity action at NPI
Solutions; rst-in-Europe Mitutoyo CMM adds to existing Mitutoyo eet
at ESL Group
33 Tooling Medical cuts
The latest case studies are very much a re ection of current times.
Ceratizit UK & Ireland offers tools and advice to ventilator part maker;
ITC supports face visor making effort
37 Automation Doing the other stuff
Universal Robots recently held a webinar to underline the capabilities,
bene ts and applications of the company’s cobots for machine tending.
Andrew Allcock attended and has this précis of the event’s key
messages from the global cobot market leader
Editor: Andrew Allcock
andrew.allcock@markallengroup.com
Art editor: Neil Young
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Lapping, Polishing, Grinding and Honing
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The
10
www.machinery.co.uk | MachineryMagazine | @MachineryTweets | May/June 2020 5
main image: Feydzhet Shabanov/stock.adobe.com
Engineering Heroes
There is no other story that
Machinery could have led
with this issue but engineering
and manufacturing industry’s
response to the government’s call
for its help in providing
ventilators and personal
protective equipment.
Across 10 pages we celebrate
the four manic weeks that
saw a race to avoid the possibility
of the NHS being overwhelmed
by critically ill Covid-19 patients,
due to insuf cient numbers of
ventilators to support them. The
experience of Italy and the related
news report images were all
anybody needed to understand
what that might look like.
While we have captured the
efforts in this magazine’s sector,
our publisher, MA Business, has
many engineering titles that cover
the wider picture. So, as part of
an initiative to make sure that all
these efforts are not forgotten,
we have collectively launched the
Engineering Heroes campaign to
celebrate the people, companies
and technologies that have been
part of UK engineering’s massive
contribution during this time.
To get involved, show your
support or submit stories, visit:
www.engineeringheroes.co.uk.
/www.markallengroup.com
/www.machinery.co.uk
/www.machinery.co.uk
/privacypolicy.markallengroup.com
/www.engis.com
/stock.adobe.com
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