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News Release from: Colchester-Harrison
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 10 November 2003
College invests in advanced CNC machine
tools
Llandrillo College in Central North Wales has ordered five machines from 600 Group companies in a combined package worth over GBP 200,000.
Llandrillo College in Central North Wales has ordered five machines from 600 Group companies in a combined package worth over 200,000 (pounds sterling) The order, taken and co-ordinated by Colchester Sales' new Northern Technical Centre at Heckmondwike, is to form the hub of a new technical innovation centre within the college's existing School of Technology
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 5 Jul 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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As Colchester Sales director Mike Dawes explains: "This contract is a perfect example of how different machines and technologies from within the 600 Group can be brought together to provide a single package or turnkey solution for customers." To which Gary Spillane, lecturer at the college, adds: "The whole package seemed very easy to pull together with one point of reference and the other divisions in the group providing help such as training when needed." Central to the package is a three-axis Colchester Tornado 120M CNC lathe featuring driven tooling, a Fanuc Alpha OiA wire EDM and Fanuc Alpha T14i Robodrill vertical machining centre from 600 Centre of Shepshed near Loughborough and two Alpha T touch screen lathes from Harrison in Heckmondwike.
Says Spillane: "When we investigated the type of machines available that met our requirements we found the 600 Group equipment was of a very high standard and had all the facets we were looking for such as live tooling and Renishaw probing.
Also most important, the price as a single package was right.
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As an educational establishment, we have to be very price conscious - we have no product generating income to help us and have to work to a fixed budget which Colchester Sales was able to accommodate across the different operations of its Group." Spillane used the recent Productivity in the North exhibition held at the Colchester Sales Technical Centre in Heckmondwike, which drew more that 90 people from 50 companies, to finalise the details of the order.
"The event was ideal to look at the different products on show and discuss around the machines all the technical aspects," he said.
Spillane explains how the new equipment is extremely important to the infrastructure of Llandrillo College.
"It will be used to coach our HNC/HND students as well as provide training support to local industry.
In fact we will be holding a series of seminars at the college that are intended to show local engineering companies just what can be achieved with a reasonably modest outlay which fits into one of the key goals identified by ELWa, to develop essential, employable skills in the workforce.
Another factor governing the college's decision to purchase the 600 Group equipment was the reputation of longevity that it enjoys, as Gary Spillane can testify: "One of the machines replaced is a Colchester 2000 centre lathe I had used when I was an apprentice - and I'm now 44.".
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