Product category:
Motor sports manufacturing: machining, software, CAM
News Release from: Colchester-Harrison | Subject: Colchester Tornado A90
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 27 June 2002
Racing team's CNC lathe will also supply
parts
Not only has the installation of a CNC production lathe paid for itself on a single batch of components, but the machine will play a key rolein a motorcycle team's plan to supply parts too.
Not only has the installation by Oakland Machine Tools of Heckmondwike at Castrol Honda of a Colchester Tornado A90 paid for itself on a single batch of components, but the machine is also now set to play a key role in the motor cycle racing team's ambitious plans to supply parts on a commercial basis Says Machine Shop Manager Mark Walker: "We ended up buying our own lathe after we contacted a number of sub-contractors and asked for quotes for a series of machined sets of four titanium nuts and bolts as well as top hat bushes and pins required for rear set foot assemblies on our motor cycles
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 5 Jul 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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Colchester has combined the stability of a solid base and an advanced control and software package into the Combi K-Series CNC lathe for one-off components or batch production.
In order to obtain economies of scale, we asked each company to tender on batches of 1,000." This quantity is an abnormally large batch at Castrol Honda, but he says: "Amazingly, the cheapest quote we received was for GBP 65,000! Our immediate reaction was that this was ridiculous, even if the material being machined is titanium." "This led to the decision to purchase the Tornado which was supplied by Oakland as a turnkey package complete with the MBF 1000 integrated bar feed and tooling - including special drills to produce through-holes in the titanium pins.
"As a result, we completed the job in-house and saved a lot of money.
Even allowing GBP 10,000 for material, the Tornado effectively paid for itself on that first job." While the incidence emphasises how certain parties react to a big-budget motor sport operation, it also illustrates the forthright manner in which a company like Castrol Honda knows exactly what it wants and, invariably, gets exactly what it wants! "We're out to achieve perfection in everything we do," says Mark Walker.
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"That extends from the race track into our machine shop." Based in a purpose-built site in Louth, Lincolnshire, the Castrol Honda facility maintains a total of 10 motor cycles for three race teams that contend the World Superbike, World Supersport and British 600 Supersport competitions.
Most of the proprietary superbike parts and spares are supplied to Louth direct from Japan by Honda - which also controls the design of the bikes.
However, other parts for the remaining bikes are mostly sourced from local sub-contractors.
As well as producing spare parts for all the teams, the machine shop at Louth also carries out urgent modifications or improvements often required on a week-by-week basis during the race season, which can involve 13 competitions at various locations across the globe.
"Like every other motor sport team we're all about continuous improvement," comments Mark Walker.
"If we need to alter a certain part, however simple a modification, it can impact a number of associated components.
"So, we have to be able to react professionally in terms of speed, and in the levels of quality and accuracy of our machining.
With that in mind we have to ensure we have the best machines to complete any tasks." Hence the installation of the Colchester Tornado, a 52mm bar capacity two-axis lathe that features a swing of 410mm and is capable of maximum turned diameters and lengths of 230mm and 450mm, respectively.
Its 11kW spindle motor produces spindle speeds of 4,000 revs/min standard (6,000 revs/min option) and has X and Z axis rapid traverse rates of 10 and 20 m/min, respectively.
Central to the machine's stability, and certainly contributing to the machining of the titanium components, is the specially-designed and patented Duo-stable base.
The base is filled with an engineered polymer concrete that improves machining consistency, allows higher metal removal with improved surface finish and tool life.
Mark Walker continues: "The foot rest components were fairly straightforward to machine.
Each part has a top hat of 22mm diameter with 20 mm sleeves reducing to 16mm.
A 25mm long pin of 8mm diameter has a 5mm diameter through hole.
But all the parts we make have to be right!" With this in mind, programs created on the machine's Fanuc 21i-T control may be tweaked several times to achieve 'exactly' the component requirements which combine the result of Mark Walker's CNC machining experience and what he describes as his "fanaticism with motor cycles".
His CNC machining career started when he began making his own bike spares because he couldn't get the parts he required.
He joined Castrol Honda two years ago to establish the machining facility after the company took the strategic decision to reduce outsourcing.
The first machine purchase was a manual/CNC combination lathe, then a machining centre before the auto bar-fed Tornado.
The MBF 1000 bar feed system will hold 12 bars of 40mm diameter and up to 10 larger 54 mm bars.
Because the system is fully integrated with the machine there are no mechanical stops to set and so changeover takes less than 15 minutes to switch, for example, in the worst case from hexagon to round bar.
Mark Walker describes how programming the system is quick at the Fanuc control due to the dialogue input.
Each bar is measured automatically and the software computes the number of pieces that can be produced from each bar.
From this information, the system automatically recalculates how many pieces are left for the Tornado to machine, then stops the cycle.
"We considered the bar feed essential," he adds.
"Even though we rarely produce batches of more than 200 or 300, we wanted to be able to hit the button and leave the machine to produce the lot." However, this small batch situation is about to change now that Honda UK has thrown its full support behind Mark Walker's plan to expand the CNC machine shop by offering spare parts on a commercial basis through the Honda UK dealer network.
The parts will be identical to those used by the Castrol Honda race teams and made out of 7075 aluminium or titanium.
Adds Mark Walker: "We believe it's the first time that any motor sport race team has established such a commercial operation.
There are many other Honda race teams in the UK and, since the design of only about 10 per cent of the components used on any motor cycle are 'secret', we now plan to offer kits of parts on a commercial basis to these other teams so they can benefit from our success and expertise." .
(This was Manufacturingtalk's Top Story on 26 June 2002).
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