MTD Audiobook

Moving up the value chain.
The UK aerospace sector, and particularly the many SMEs are facing a variety of challenges.

These range from the uncertainty caused by Brexit, to consolidation of supply chains and the steep production ramp-ups driven by record growth and back-logs.

Now more than ever, to survive and grow, companies need to be competitive.

This is well-recognised by government which, as part of the Aerospace Growth Partnership, has invested in programmes to help companies to innovate and grow.

The stakes are high.

In 2018, total UK civil aerospace turnover was worth over £35 billion, and the sector had approximately 17% of global market share.

As the crown jewel for UK exports, 90% of domestic aerospace production is exported and more than 3,000 aerospace companies operate in the UK.

The sector provides over 282,000 direct and indirect jobs.

Sharing in Growth, is one such government-backed programme that is supporting innovation and growth in this supply chain.

This productivity and competitiveness programme for aerospace and advanced manufacturing has proven so successful, that the government has twice re-invested to the tune of £86 million.

And, when in late 2019 a similar transformative improvement approach was required in the offshore wind sector, Sharing in Growth was selected to develop the pilot. 

New places are still available on the Sharing in Growth programme that provides funded support with a value up to £300k per year for three years.

It's endorsed by many of the big players such as Airbus, BAE Systems, Boeing, Bombardier, GE, GKN, Leonardo, Lockheed Martin, MBDA, Rolls-Royce, Safran and Thales.

The Sharing in Growth programme is supported by the Regional Growth Fund and more than £150 million in private investment. 

To qualify, companies need to be aerospace suppliers, have genuine ambition to grow and be able to release their teams for on-site coaching, training and mentoring.

As Sharing in Growth is a not-for-profit organisation, the advice and guidance provided is entirely independent and geared towards the company’s particular needs.

Sharing in Growth's CEO Andy Page says “Structurally the UK needs more midcap companies who have the capability and capacity to supply primes and tier ones.

The Sharing in Growth programme is creating a virtuous growth cycle where improved people development drives productivity and competitiveness,.

This, in turn, wins contracts that provide the funds to invest in people, technology and infrastructure to win even more business.” 

Participants in the programme have secured more than £4 billion in contracts since it was established in 2013 and many are growing at five times the rate of their peers.

Sharing in Growth helps companies tackle their individually diagnosed barriers to growth through training, coaching and mentoring and, on average, double their turnover.

For many participants, the Sharing in Growth programme has helped them transform, moving up the value chain, from reliance on the uncertainty of short-term contracts to long-term strategic supply partners. 

Founded in 1979, Walker Precision Engineering or WPE, is a Glasgow-based family company with a reputation for cutting-edge innovation.

Back in 2015, its £15 million turnover depended on winning short-term contracts.

These were mainly in the defence, commercial aerospace, food and telephonic sectors for internationally recognised companies such as Rolls-Royce, Raytheon, Thales and Kongsberg.

However, to fulfil its growth ambitions, WPE knew it needed to move up the value chain and become a long-term strategic supplier by investing in its people, processes and plants.

Today, the business is now Walker Group, formed of WPE, Walker Precision Engineering Polska and Walker Guidance Systems or WGS.

These three state-of-the-art manufacturing hubs employ over 300 highly skilled staff.

The group continues to serve key markets such as aerospace and defence and is on track to exceed a £25 million turnover during 2020.

It 's also rapidly gaining recognition as a centre of excellence for the space industry.

In 2015, the company’s gaze was firmly fixed at ground level.

Short-term contracts made investment difficult.

Its small company culture was very informal and lacked real role definition, leading to an inefficient crossover of responsibilities.

With a fragmented organisational structure, lengthy lead times, delivery challenges and decisions based on assumptions rather than integrated data, the company applied to join Sharing in Growth.

Using Sharing in Growth's expertise, Walker implemented radical operational change including visual management boards to monitor and control its processes and better display its production progress to customers. 

As people are essential in delivering excellence, Walker boosted its skill pool by hiring new staff while also developing its more experienced employees, increasing its yearly apprentice intake by 20%, and financing degree and industry qualifications.

By 2017, the wide-ranging improvements had given Walker the confidence to create Walker Guidance Systems.

It did this by acquiring a temperature-controlled precision machining and assembly centre from global player Leonardo.

They then went on to secure an additional £4 million investment from the Business Growth Fund for plants and technology to increase its capacity and expand its offering to clients.

In Glasgow, Walker has invested over £2 million in its NADCAP-approved wet processing facility.

At WGS ultra-high precision machining was introduced with a £900,000 robotic assembly line being commissioned.
With this more advanced capability, Walker moved into the latest generation of satellite and satellite constellation programmes.

It's now supplying Teledyne for the Airbus joint venture OneWeb constellation of 650 satellites.

Walker Precision Engineering has secured a considerable forward order book, with significant long-term agreements required for sustainable growth.

Mark Walker, the Managing Director of Walker group says: “In these past four years, Sharing in Growth has supported Walker in its journey, providing conscientious coaching and mentoring to facilitate the company’s growth plans.

We seek to fully embed a high-performance culture across the group, delivering excellence in everything we do and through Sharing in Growth’s lessons, we have identified gaps in our leadership to make changes to support this goal.”

Surface engineering specialists Poeton Industries joined the Sharing in Growth programme in 2016 and have invested heavily in their people, their plants and in their brand.

As a result, they have improved productivity by 50% in focus areas, secured some £30 million in contracts and are on target to increase their annual turnover from £12 million to £20 million by 2021.

With a rich, 120-year heritage Poeton positions itself as a ‘global partner not a local supplier’ and has a vision to deliver excellence as the surface treatment partner of choice.

As the saying goes, ‘a vision without a strategy remains an illusion’ so the Poeton leadership team spent time and effort to develop its corporate planning and governance as part of its platform for success.

To engage its 260 staff in its growth strategy across sites in Gloucester, Cardiff and Poland, Poeton worked with Sharing in Growth to determine its vision, mission, values and goals for each part of the business.

The goals were then defined by five-year strategic objectives covering what needed to be achieved in the next year, in years two and three, and then in years four to five. 

These were developed into the annual policy deployment, a cascading set of goals with clear targets that aligns the actions of the entire company.

Poeton used the Sharing in Growth X-matrix, a one-page document that includes annual objectives, improvement initiatives and key performance indicators.

This makes it clear who is responsible for delivering what and when.

At each level of responsibility, business measures were drawn up to track and show monthly status against plan.

Where actual fell short of plan, a standard process was used to solve problems and report of countermeasures. 

Delivery of the KPIs was backed by site-level project plans that document what had to be achieved by when.

For example, detailed plans were needed to ensure that the sales and operations strategy were aligned to deliver growth.

This meant mapping out a four-year plan of how the factories would need to change and what capex investment was needed. 

Sean Needham, Group Operations Director at Poeton says: “To ensure everyone could see progress – or problems – and make a contribution, a management review and control system was implemented with clear status available on display boards in an operations information centre.

A similar approach was taken with the development of a business development information centre to chart progress towards sales targets.” 

A Sharing in Growth lighthouse cell has also been implemented to deliver operational improvement.

Here Sharing in Growth gives training and coach in a particular area to establish best practice.

Those who have been trained, can then help roll-out similar initiatives elsewhere in the plant so that learning is embedded and shared. 

Poeton used a lighthouse cell implementation in its thermal spray facility with stunning results.

Not only did it turn the area from loss-making into profit but it also halved lead times and raised delivery performance from 65% to 95%.

It worked so well that the company held a customer open day where companies like Rolls-Royce and Safran witnessed how the facility has been transformed.

The building layout has been redesigned to better utilise the space, lean manufacturing techniques have been implemented and equipment upgraded to ensure Poeton can offer world-class levels of quality and service. 

Darren Burge, Managing Director at Poeton says: “Supported by invaluable guidance from the Sharing in Growth experts, our thermal team have achieved a successful transformation that we’re all very proud of.

In every sense, the full range of benefits in working with Sharing in Growth are evident; from effective planning and optimised flow management to 5S and improved equipment availability through planned preventative maintenance.

This has resulted in us taking a significant stride towards our goal of becoming world-class.”

The overall results on the Sharing in Growth programme have so far been impressive for Poeton.

They’ve signed their first long-term agreement with customers worth £15 million, their turnover is up by over 20%, and their value added per person is up by more than 70%.

New Year, New Investment, New Materials, Same Challenges...

A review of the aerospace industry in January 2020 can be summarised in three parts: big themes, new technology investment and new materials.

Will Stirling reports...

THE FIGHT IS ON FOR UK WING MANUFACTURE

Airbus has expressed a more upbeat tone about the company’s long-term UK prospects since new chief executive Guillaume Faury said that expertise in the UK supply chain is critical to Airbus.

Before then, uncertainty over a possible no deal Brexit had fed speculation about the future of wing manufacture in Britain.
The manufacture of narrow body aircraft in the next five to 10-years will have to change to keep up with demand.

There's the need to deploy new technologies such as next generation engines, composite wings and automated production and assembly, and the UK has competition here.

With Airbus sites in France, Germany and Spain keen to take wing manufacture from Britain, Airbus in Broughton and Bristol must fight and invest in all of the above to retain its wings ‘global centre of excellence’ position.
Spirit AeroSystems bought the wing manufacturing division of Bombardier in Belfast last year, which had previously used research funding, Queen’s University Belfast and local SMEs to develop a patented resin transfer-injection process for composite wings.

This is the kind of innovation Britain will need to take further to retain its wing making as competitors circle.
Airbus is benefiting from Boeing’s crisis following the grounding of Boeing’s popular 737 Max after two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019 – orders for the rival Airbus 320neo overtook the 737 in 2019.

Airbus is pushing for “rate 60” – that's the manufacture of 60 completed aircraft per month – for its single aisle models in 2020, the main driver of which is fuel efficiency as airlines seek to replace legacy aircraft with cleaner Max and Neo versions.
Linked to this is jet engine design and, in the UK, the big story is Rolls-Royce’s next generation Advance and UltraFan engines.

These programmes are high performance, high temperature, more efficient fuel burn engines for the next 20-30 years’ service.

They represent the first time in 20-years that Rolls-Royce has changed its main engine architecture, a radical move in the jet engine world.

New features such as a lightweight CTi fan system, hybrid ceramic bearings, advanced high OPR cycles, and high torque density shafts are designed into Advance.

Rolls-Royce procurement has gone worldwide to find new suppliers for components made in these materials with such aggressive delivery schedules.

UK suppliers need to tick many technology and delivery boxes to be in with a chance.
THIS NEW ‘HIGH VOLUME’ SECTOR PRIORITISES THE BEST MACHINES
As aircraft manufacture hits rate 60 and aims to reach rate 90 and above in the next few years, subcontractors serious about aerospace have to invest.

A trend, albeit anecdotal without figures on individual machine type sales volumes, is that more precision engineering companies are buying high performance, multi-turret and multi-pallet machines for high productivity – often with automated pallet loaders.

Followers of www.mtdcnc.com will see plentiful evidence of this.
Coker Engineering in Taunton does high volume work in hard materials and has invested in a DMG Morry NZX 2000 triple turret machine to handle some big batch work,

According to Managing Director Giles Throup this proves why high capacity machines are now essential for subbies serious about aerospace

He says “This machine can run 18 to 20 hours a day, making prismatic parts not conventional turned parts, with a minimum amount of manual input.

With 12000rpm on the driven tool, we run end mills on this harder than on some of our VMCs.”

The company also bought a DMG Morry NX4000 with an RPS pallet changer.

“We soon had it clocking 120-hours a week, but it only requires 15-20 hours of labour per week,” Giles says, and that's a point echoed by Rab Duncan at Contract Solutions, a subcontractor in Cupar, Scotland.

The busy firm bought a new multi-pallet Matsuura MAM72 for increased capacity.

The winning point for the MAM seventy-two is it can take five or six jobs at the same time, with storage space for many tools and several pallets per job.

Unlike its other Matsuura machines, which can run 24/7 with automated loading, the MAM can process several different jobs in sequence with no manual intervention.

These advanced machines are helping companies with skills shortages.

The MTD video on this story, paraphrasing Rab’s comment “Manpower in Scotland is an issue, we had to automate” has received over 2,200 views, showing that this point is a hot topic.
Business was dominated by uncertainty during 2019 with political inertia over Brexit forcing some companies to hit the investment brakes.

However AE Aerospace opened a new 16,500ft factory at Network Park, Birmingham in July, and has spent £1.25 million over 12-months on six new Mazak 5-axis machines.

Regarding 2020 Managing Director Peter Bruch says: “Following the general election result, we now have a parliament that ‘works’, we also have ‘certainty’ that we will leave the European Union on the 31st January 2020 and enter trade negotiations.

Although it isn’t yet certain when we will complete the transition period, there does now seem to be a plan and it is unlikely that Parliament will descend into the tactics of the past 3.5 years.”

Peter expects a big increase in demand and investment as a result.
On trade Peter adds: “The aerospace industry is generally tariff free, and won’t be adversely affected by a move to WTO rules in the event that a trade deal with the EU can’t be signed by the end of 2020.

However, in the absence of a deal being signed, it is very simple for both parties to agree a ‘no tariff – no quota’ deal based on everything we currently do.

The only barrier is the political will to make this happen.”
GET USED TO NEW MATERIALS
The biggest trend in manufacturing in aerospace is light-weighting to reduce fuel burn and build costs, and a key pillar of this is new materials.

Titanium is strong but expensive and it’s also wasteful to remove up to 95% of material from a billet to produce a machined part, even with swarf recycling.

Universities and companies are working on new alloys and materials all the time.

In November, the BCAST Centre, for liquid metal research at Brunel University hosted a conference on aluminium for aerospace and it believes the evolution of new aluminium alloys is essential for the aerospace industry.

It said: “there is scope to expedite this evolution through cross-sectoral knowledge transfer using materials development and process optimisation, with the automotive industry manufacturing processes and technology becoming increasingly relevant in the context of increased aerospace production rates.”
Additive manufacturing is getting more mainstream and UK-based researchers are perfecting methods for making very large aerospace structures.

In 2019, Cranfield University’s Welding Engineering and Laser Processing Centre won a £6 million EPSRC grant to develop the next generation of ‘Directed Energy Deposition additive processes’.

The project target is to manufacture at 8kg/hour net shape in titanium, to a specific
shape with no post-processing and proven full integrity.

Centre lead Professor Stewart Williams says “The build rate is nearly one order of magnitude higher than current AM techniques, and uses our novel patented Multi Energy Source concept.”
Outside of metals, composite materials are likely to have a big 2020 as the aerospace industry seeks to use more of these lighter but strong materials in airframes and parts.

Subbies that can fabricate in both metals and composites, ideally with some additive capability, and can deliver quickly, are well positioned for aerospace in the medium term.

An expert overview of the industry.

For the last decade and more, Close Brothers Asset Finance has been surveying business owners in the manufacturing and engineering industries on a quarterly basis about a broad spectrum of issues.

Ian Barker, Managing Director, Manufacturing, Close Brothers Asset Finance.

He says the contents of the survey range from financial confidence to mental health and has provided a unique level of insight and we're now sharing some of the points, and where relevant, comparisons are made with national sentiment.

ECONOMIC OUTLOOK
Manufacturing and engineering SME business owners’ views on the economic outlook continue to trend higher than the rest of the UK.

43% are confident the economy will grow across the UK, the figure is 36%, with a further 24% feeling that while it will take longer, better times are ahead, nationally the figure is 27%.
A significant minority of 28% are concerned that the economy could decline and haven’t
experienced any true economic growth.

Looking ahead, over half, some 53% of firms expect their performance to remain static, while 39% are hoping to expand their operations in the coming year, which is more optimistic than the UK average of 36%.

Only 8% predict their business will contract.
CONCERNS & PRIORITIES
Maintaining cash flow is the biggest concern for 33% of businesses, followed by ‘late payments’ on 13% and ‘finding extra working capital’, also on 13%, which broadly reflects the national sentiment.
At 39%, ‘achieving growth’ is by some distance the main priority, followed by ‘paying down debts’ on 23% and ‘business consolidation’ on 18%.
MENTAL HEALTH
While the impact of mental health continues to be felt across the SME community, with 51% of manufacturing and engineering firms in the UK reporting that at least one of their employees has taken time off work because of it, attitudes are changing for the better.
Only 6% of SMEs in the industry think that attitudes towards those suffering from mental health are becoming worse, against 53% who say it’s changing for the better.
AGEING WORKFORCE
Despite SMEs overwhelmingly understanding the benefits of employing older workers, including their breadth of experience and mentoring capability, over two-thirds feel that the recruitment process discriminates against older workers.
While exactly half of manufacturing and engineering firms are comfortable with being able to recruit the talent they need in the coming five years, 39% are predicting problems in the future and a further 11% say they’re already struggling.
BENEFITS OF DIVERSITY
The UK’s manufacturing and engineering SMEs strongly believe that having a diverse workforce is both beneficial to their bottom line and makes it easier to attract candidates.

Over three quarters in total 77% of respondents agreed that diversity is ‘good’ for their financial performance, contrasting to only 15% who didn't agree.
The benefits of having a diverse workforce are also well understood, with 72% of the opinion it makes their business more attractive to candidates, nationally the figure is 64%.

However, while this may be recognised by employers, many are having difficulties increasing diversity with 42% as against 33% nationally finding it difficult to fill existing vacancies while a further 27% don’t get enough interest from ‘minority’ candidates.

Firstly, the MTD team would like to wish all our readers, social media followers and listeners, a Happy New Year.

It’s been an eventful few months since the November issue.

We’ve had a thumping election victory, a promise to ‘Get Brexit Done’, the lull of the festive period followed by the annual headache of ‘year-end’ paperwork; and now, we move onward into a new decade.
So, where do we go next?

Nobody has a crystal ball, but the election victory and the Brexit promise has given the markets and industry an element of confidence; and even if uncertainty remains, the fact that progress will finally be made, can only be a positive.

Flocking South for the Winter.
The Southern Manufacturing & Electronics exhibition has certainly risen in prominence in the last decade.

It's now in a position where it can arguably be described as the UK’s most popular annual engineering show.

Now entering its 22nd year, the 2020 exhibition is set to be one of the busiest yet, with more than 400 exhibitors lined up to demonstrate their wares. 

In 2019, the exhibition drew almost 9,000 visitors and as this number excludes exhibitors, academia and students and return visitors, the overall numbers are likely to be 10,000 plus.

With numbers that certainly stack up and a geographical location that gives exhibitors access to the manufacturing industry in the south of the UK, the appeal is obvious.

Growing in popularity, the 2019 show attracted 13% more visitors than the previous year – is it any wonder, engineers flock to the south during the winter? 

The event offers a diverse selection of exhibitors from around the UK, Europe and even further afield.

India, Japan and China are all set to gather at the new 20,000sq/m Farnborough International Exhibition & Conference centre from February 11th to 13th; for what the show organisers expect to be the busiest exhibition yet.

The exhibition is a great gauge of how industry is performing and at the 2019 event, MTD magazine spoke with more than 60 manufacturers and OEMs.

The majority were witnessing growth and prolonged confidence off-the-back of 2018.

Despite the protracted Brexit situation and the political landscape, it will be interesting to gauge confidence levels at the 2020 showcase.

If exhibitor numbers and pre-registered visitors are anything to go by, the signs are already looking positive.
The exhibition attracts all areas of industry with registered attendees in 2019 being split 37% to 32% as businesses with a mechanical or electronic interest.

Similarly, visitor registrations from industry sectors are also split with the aerospace industry on 34%, automotive/motorsport at 30% plus, and the defence sector on 26% claiming the majority of visitor interest.

The show is well supported by influential industrial organisations such as Composites UK, the Confederation of British Metalforming, Farnborough Aerospace Consortium, The British Gear Association, The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders and the Gauge and Toolmakers Association.

This support is a contributing factor in visitors having a multi-disciplined interest across both mechanical and electronic facets of industry.
The diversity of interest from visitors is well catered for with an incredible range of suppliers taking part.

This includes major machinery and production equipment manufacturers, component suppliers, consumables and every type of subcontract service provider imaginable.

The show is the place to see the latest machinery from world-renowned manufacturers such as Matsuura, Haas Automation, Yamazaki Mazak, Hurco, OPEN MIND, XYZ, ITC, Guhring and others.

Entry to the exhibition is free. There is also free on-site parking and a free technical seminar programme running continuously over the three days of the show.

The seminar programme will be as diverse as the exhibitor list with keynote speakers discussing everything from best practice, funding & taxation, economics, lean manufacturing, Industry 4.0, CE Marking, intellectual property, additive manufacturing and much more.

When Precision Creates Joy.

The headline phrase isn’t commonly associated with mechanically engineered parts, but it sums up how one company owner views his production facility.

Werner Buschorr owns a medium subcontract manufacturing plant in Switzerland and had two growing problems.

The first was that his customers’ tolerances were getting tighter and on his existing equipment he was relying on his operators to ‘tweak’ the programmes and tooling to achieve the desired results.

His second issue was that his production was reliant on his operators, and as customer delivery times were becoming shorter, he had to look at production when the machines were not attended in the evenings and at weekends.
Founded in 1989, Buschorr Praezisionsmechanik AG is always looking for real precision in the parts they manufacture, which included prototype batches with as few as 20 components up to production runs of 20,000+ parts.

This huge range in the quantity of components produced by the Swiss company, tested the efficiency of the company.
When trying to find answers to his accuracy problem Werner Buschorr found KERN Microtechnik and was soon able to realise that the KERN Micro machine was also able to help solve his second problem of working unmanned.

He says: “The KERN Micro is the first milling centre that can stand up to our measuring machine, which we purchased two years ago.

The measuring machine has a measurement uncertainty of half a thousandth of a millimeter and the Kern Micro offers a positioning accuracy of half a thousandth of a millimeter.

The first KERN Micro was immediately connected to a System 3R automation system, with the possibility of adding another machine.

The large tool magazine with 186 tools and the repeatability of the KERN Micro are ideal for automatic production.

Finally, we can manufacture workpieces that require the highest level of unmanned precision.”
Key to this solution is the thermal stability of the machine with its smart cooling management system that ensures the temperature of the structural components of the machine remains constant with a maximum deviation of 0.2 oC.
For KERN, the performance of the patented light-metal axis structure and software for volumetric compensation bring the performance of this high-tech machine to an unmatched level.

In terms of 5-axis machines, the consistency of achieving tight tolerances on all faces was paramount, so it was important that the swivel position of the table was at the base of the component.
The flexibility of the tool magazine was also important.

The tools are held on pallets that are easily loaded and unloaded from the magazine, giving flexibility to store a particular set of tools away from the machine till the next batch comes along.

A tool pallet can hold the sensitive tools for a particular job, while standard tools would be set up on a different pallet.
Another advantage is the compact design of the KERN.

The 4m2 footprint surprised Buschor with the amount of accessibility that the machine provided for the tool magazine.
As with most companies, producing a first-off component is normally difficult.

To ensure everything was within tolerance, a part would be manufactured, measured, tweaked, then the procedure was possibly repeated.

On the new KERN, Buschor says the first part fits the drawing specification and this saves a lot of time and effort.

To improve matters, a second KERN Micro has been installed and connected to the workpiece changer, giving Buschor a powerful unmanned cell.

Siemens delivers Simplicity on Dugard Machines.

Benfleet based Wilson Tool & Engineering Ltd has recently purchased a brand new SMEC SL2000 turning centre from Dugard.

MTD’s Paul Jones visited the Essex subcontractor to take a look at the new installation. 

For over 50 years, Wilson Tool & Engineering has been at the forefront of the UK precision engineering industry.

It's provided CNC machining, in-house heat-treatment, grinding & JIT services to global companies in a wide and varied range of industries.

The machine shop is home to machine tools from a range of manufacturers and the SMEC SL2000 has proven the perfect addition for the subcontract company. 

The compact SMEC SL2000 has a maximum machining diameter of 360mm with a machining length of 540 and an 8inch chuck as standard.

Commenting upon the machine and a cutting test that Wilson Tool & Engineering Ltd is taking, Darren Wilson says: “We have just put a billet of EN24 in the 8-inch chuck with a 4.5mm side cut.

In terms of material, there are more challenging materials, but it's still a challenge and the machine is just eating it alive!

I’m not too sure whether it’s the V-D-I replacement mount or the rigidity of the machine, but it really is improving tool life and machining performance.

Previously we were taking 1mm of side-cut and by upping the cut to 4.5mm, I was expecting the inserts to last for two components – we’ve currently machined 35 parts.

That is a measure of the build quality of the machine.”

“We looked at a milling facility and a Y-axis lathe and I decided a C-axis wasn’t for us, but with just small batch runs and the subsequent set-up times of milling heads, we knew we wouldn’t get that time back.

So, we opted for the SMEC.

The machine was with us in just 10 days and as we specified the Siemens control, Dugard brought a machine in from Germany.

There was a machine immediately available with a FANUC control, but we decided the FANUC control wasn’t for our business.”

MTD’s Paul Jones was particularly interested in taking a closer look at the new Siemens 828D CNC control interface with a touch screen facility.

Darren Wilson says: “There are a few new extras on this control such as a touch screen interface and the control is the perfect size that makes it really workable.”
Looking at the Shopturn software on the Siemens control interface and talking through a cycle, Darren Wilson says: “The process is very simple.

We can just select a turning cycle and then select stock removal and then a lot of information is pre-stored.

So, we can pick a roughing tool, select the feed and the start and endpoint and then click ‘accept’.

There is also a contour turning function that we can pick.

From this, we can choose the option of external profiling and select a ‘new contour’.

We can give the contour a name and then we have options, and I personally like to have the graphic view on.

From here, we can add the X and Z axis parameters and whether we want to add a radius or chamfer and which direction the feature is in.”

“In this demo, I will just add a 2mm radius and I’ll also add a 5mm blend radius and change the X axis to 130mm diameter.

Once we select our parameters, we can add the machining data, like the stock removal.

This then provides tool, feed and depth of cut and finishing allowance options. Once the parameters are selected, we can do a quick simulation and that will load.”

Darren says: “The simulation is showing all the tool paths, depth of cut and radii.

Sometimes if there is data missing, the simulation can add a radius at the front, and this is a lovely feature.”

When asked what happens if you make a mistake, Darren says: “On this simulation, you can see where I have turned into the jaws.

So, we can turn the simulation off, go back to our program parameters and see that the chuck jaws are set to 87.5mm, I can see that I have set that wrong and then go back to change that parameter.

If you enter any details incorrectly, they will show up on the simulation and it won’t look right. So, this gives us an element of security.”

When asked if the touch screen is a gimmick or whether it helps the subcontract manufacturer, Darren says: “At the early stages of installation, it certainly looks like it’s the best control that we have in our business.

Just using the touchscreen, we have a lot of shortcuts that speed up processes as it saves cursoring through cycles.

When you have a long program, you can use the touchscreen to simplify and speed up the process.”

Subcontractor has been winning with XYZ since 2002.

When Roant Precision Engineering was founded in 2001, it was set up as a small precision subcontract business relying on a selection of manual machines to make a living.

Now, 18 years on and the company has just completed the takeover of its biggest customer, Eiger Torrance, a manufacturer of mixing, milling and de-aeration systems for the production of paints and printing inks. 

This investment will secure machining work for Roant Precision Engineering, as well as providing further growth opportunities for both businesses.

Darren Chisnall is the Managing Director, Roant Precision Engineering.

He says“We have had a 15-year relationship with Eiger Torrance, working on fabrication and machining of their range of products, and have invested in machinery over the years to support that work, such as the recent arrival of an XYZ XL1100 large capacity lathe.

Therefore, when the opportunity arose to buy the business, it made perfect sense, as it protected the future of our business and opened up even greater potential.”

“We have integrated all of Eiger Torrance's activities into the one building alongside our machining and fabrication activities, which has delivered further streamlining of the businesses.”

The arrival of the XYZ XL1100 from XYZ Machine Tools is the latest in a long line of XYZ machines at Roant Precision Engineering,.

The first of these was an XYZ SM3000 bed mill which was a prize won at MACH 2002!

Darren says “That first XYZ machine changed how we approached work and was the start of our success, and the ProtoTRAK control has served us well as we expanded our machining capacity with more XYZ ProtoTRAK mills and ProTURN lathes.

We did need larger capacity though, hence the decision to go for the XL 11-hundred, which was bought specifically for Eiger Torrance work.

Once word got around that we had the capability to swing 1100mm components weighing up to 4000 kg we soon found work coming in from other customers.” 

The knock-on effect of having the larger turning capacity was that Roant’s milling capability then needed an upgrade.

So an order was placed for the largest ProtoTRAK mill in the XYZ range, an SMX5000 bed mill.

With a table size of 1930 by 356 mm and a maximum load of 850 kg, this machine can handle the vast majority of Roant’s milling needs, alongside the three other XYZ bed mills, including the original SM3000 from 2002.

Darren says “Looking back, winning the XYZ SM3000 at MACH 2002 was a major point in the ongoing success of the business.

Up to then we had been all manual machines and being honest, struggling to be competitive.

The ProtoTRAK control changed how we worked and transformed the business, hence our continued reliance on that control for our milling and small to medium size turning.”

“We now have eight XYZ machines, seven of which have the ProtoTRAK control, that familiarity has helped to develop the skills and experience we need to produce work to exacting tolerances needed for the products designed by Eiger Torrance and others that we work for.” 

In addition to the work for Eiger Torrance, Roant Precision Engineering continues to provide specialist one-off and low-volume milling, turning and grinding to customers across the north west of England.

The ProtoTRAK control from XYZ Machine Tools is the perfect solution for this type of work, thanks to its easy-to-use conversational programming and other user-friendly characteristics.

Its success is summed up by Darren Chisnall who says: “If I had a £1 million to spend on machine tools, I’ll still buy XYZ ProtoTRAK as it is perfect for the work we do.”

Simple solution delivers significant savings at Rolls-Royce.

Twelve months ago, Freddy Products Ltd received a telephone call from an intern at Rolls-Royce plc based at Derby.

This enquiry was the first step to the development of the new Coolant Health Unit, or CHU filtration machine from the Pershore manufacturer.

Simon Hanmer, Managing Director at Freddy Products says“Initially, the intern asked about cleaning and recycling coolant.”

Rolls-Royce has a long-standing commitment to reduce the environmental impact of its products, services and manufacturing activities.

Part of this commitment includes a waste action plan that targets a 25% reduction of liquid and solid waste in the manufacturing process by 2025.
Referring to the enquiry, Simon says: “I knew the Rolls-Royce site and wondered if he was aware of all the Freddy machines on-site.

He didn’t, so the first thing to do was identify the production area and look at what they had, so we could explain how to use existing Freddy’s to better effect.”
“Like so many sites that have Freddy units, the equipment has been there for a long time and tends to be used for ‘suck and dump.’
Freddy’s are made to recycle, but many owners aren’t aware of what they can do because the knowledge hasn’t been handed down.

We must educate users and make them aware that Freddy’s will recycle coolant.

In many cases, Freddy units are used by on-site cleaning companies on behalf of the owner, so they don’t know how the unit is being utilised.

This was the case at Rolls- Royce Derby.”
“Once the intern understood the machines on-site, we set up visits to demonstrate how the product should be used, so that Chris Haynes, the Rolls Royce intern, could implement it into his on-site testing plan.

Through demos, we considered if there was a way to adapt an existing unit and make coolant cleaning more effective and faster.

With such vast machine tool sump sizes, this was the catalyst for Rolls-Royce to work with Freddy to develop the new CHU.”
Initially, Freddy took an existing Freddy Ecovac into the refurbishment program to pass as a new machine.

Simon says “There was no need to sell Rolls-Royce another machine when they already had a perfectly good machine.”

“We refurbished the Ecovac and added some extra features, so Rolls-Royce could use the machine as part of an ongoing development trial.

The trials soon transpired into how Freddy Products could be utilised better to enhance machine shop cleanliness at Rolls-Royce whilst approaching the subject of fluid control and contamination.

The ageing single filter vacuums could empty a machine sump into an IBC in a matter of minutes; yet a thorough machine clean, re-cycle and replenishment would take considerably longer.

Freddy acknowledged the large machine sumps at Rolls-Royce would require extensive and regular cleaning.

Likewise, Rolls-Royce recognised that it was continually disposing of a high level of cutting fluid that was not environmentally or cost beneficial to the business.

Furthermore, poor coolant quality had the opportunity to be detrimental to health and also the quality of components machined.

Working on these shared goals, the two companies set about developing the CHU.
The new CHU design incorporates an additional filter bag, an automation feature for unmanned use; and by working with the engineers at Rolls-Royce, a secondary outlet with a lance.

Working like a jet wash, this lance can be manually directed to pump recycled coolant into areas of the sump, at pressure, to loosen any fines or swarf resting in difficult to access areas.
Simon says “The big thing for us, really is the extra filtration that is credit to an additional basket that is placed at the top of the machine.

This allows us to speed up the operation; and by putting two different filters in the machine, it becomes twice as effective.

So, the first filter will remove the larger particles from coolant and the second filter will extract the finest of particles.

We can have filter units that range from 1000 microns down to a single micron.

Working with engineers and chemists at Rolls-Royce, the optimal solution was a 100micron filter to capture large chips and swarf with a secondary 25micron filter to extract fine particles and residue.”
“Very early on, we knew we were getting great results with the new CHU product.

Through tests on different machines within the Rolls-Royce facility, it was noticed that where coolant was being dumped and replaced, they could now recycle it and extend the life.

Thorough analysis of the coolant by both Rolls-Royce and the oil provider proved the new CHU should be deployed throughout more sites.”

THE IMMEDIATE GAINS
Referring to the savings at Rolls-Royce, Simon Hanmer says: “We've numerous examples of savings at Rolls-Royce.

A CHU machine delivered to Rolls-Royce on the 12th August, saved 24,000 litres of coolant in just four weeks of running.

That has been achieved by cleaning coolant and recycling it back to the machines; avoiding the financial and environmental cost of disposal.

That is quite profound.

That is 24 Intermediate Bulk Containers, or IBCs, when you think about it.

In terms of financial numbers, the oil that is not being taken off-site and replaced is equating to a £9000 saving in a short period of time.”
Looking at specific machine cleaning processes, the new Freddy CHU conducted seven cycles on a single 4-axis turning centre at Rolls-Royce and this removed more than 20kg of swarf from the machine sump.

Seven cycles were required to ensure virtually all waste was removed from the machine base.

On another turning centre, the new Freddy CHU removed 9kg of waste in just 20 minutes.

From the early trials, the Freddy CHU eliminated the need to change coolant on three machines with a combined sump capacity of 7,000litres.
In a grinding area at Rolls-Royce, a cylindrical grinder had 20kg of waste removed from the sump in just 90 minutes, with a second machine witnessing similar waste removal.

The deep cleaning of the two machines prevented another 3000litres of coolant from being disposed of – prolonging coolant life considerably.

In the grinding area, the Freddy CHU utilised a primary filter bag with a 100micron filtration and a secondary bag with 10micron filtration to remove fine particles.
Simon says “With two filters in the CHU, there is no need to filter and transfer fluid to an I-B-C and then pump it back to the machine tool.

The speed of the C-H-U allows customers to wheel the CHU up to the machine tool, drop in the hoses and automatically clean the machine sump. The C-H-U can automatically 100% filter and recycle 2500litres of coolant per hour.”
THE HIDDEN BENEFITS
Simon Hander says “During initial cleaning at Rolls-Royce, significant amounts of swarf and fines were removed from machine tools and this level of waste will reduce as the machines are regularly cleaned.

However, there are hidden benefits here that manufacturers often don’t realise.

For example, if a 1000litre capacity sump generates significant swarf ingress over time, this displaces the coolant and reduces the fluid capacity in the machine.

Lower coolant levels will gradually increase the temperature of the coolant, impacting machining performance.

Additionally, metal fines in the coolant can also put added stress on high-pressure coolant pumps and reduce fluid pressure and machine service life.

Even further downstream, manufacturers may be blasting high-pressure coolant at a part and cutting tool without realising the abrasive content in the fluid and its respective impact on tool life.”

Following the delivery of three initial CHU units to Rolls-Royce Derby in August, Freddy Products has since supplied another four machines to Rolls-Royce sites in Coventry, Washington and Germany with more machines being quoted.

Commenting upon the working relationship with Freddy Products, Machining Specialist at Rolls-Royce Derby, Ian Baker says: “The really simple, yet effective feature is the addition of a pre-filter that catches a lot of waste prior to secondary filtration.

This prevents the system from ‘blinding’ and allows the CHU to work continuously at the machine.”
“Globally, Rolls-Royce has a target to reduce solid and liquid waste by 25% by 2025, the Freddy CHU will certainly contribute to us reaching our target.

The possibility of rolling-out the Freddy CHU at other Rolls-Royce sites around the world is now being investigated.

In the period from August to Christmas 2019, the Freddy CHU has prevented 60,000 litres of fluid from going to waste at just one of our Derby sites.

That is a significant cost and fluid saving in a short period of time; and with the Freddy CHU now being used at other Rolls-Royce sites, this genuinely is a positive application from an environmental, health, cost and sustainability perspective.”

Gewefa offers new collet chucks.

Gewefa UK Limited has expanded its partner portfolio with the addition of products from the Fahrion Precision Centro P Premium range of collet chucks.

The Corsham company will introduce three key products from the Premium programme, the Ultra Power Chucks, Dynamic Performance Chucks and Mini Precision Chucks.
Available with features integral to all Fahrion systems is the new standard Centro P collet chuck system.

Additionally, the new Ultra Power Chucks, or UPC, are designed to optimise material removal rates on high- performance machines with high rigidity and drive power.

Radial rigidity, compact length and mechanical pull-out protection generate torque clamping levels of 1,000nM.

The very high clamping force usually requires rigid connections which in turn results in the creation and propagation of vibration.
The Dynamic Performance Chucks, or DPC, are designed for machines with less stability and drive power, but usually with higher spindle and axis speed.

The DPC is ideal for trimming, finishing and roughing with all processing tasks able to be performed using the same chuck.

Operational features include high removal rates on machines with contemporary milling strategies, making them ideal for applications in tool and mould manufacture.

Finally, the Mini Precision Chucks, or MPC, are designed for use with high-speed spindles or for operating in tight spaces.

The MPC chucks feature smaller clamping diameters for high spindle speeds and the very slim outer contours enable deep cavity machining.