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News Release from: Colchester-Harrison
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 18 May 2006
Multi-machine tool order placed by
subcontractor
In order to meet a rapid growth in high precision subcontract services orders, Ultimate Precision Engineering placed a multi-machine order on Colchestersales (UK) worth over GBP 150,000.
In order to meet a rapid growth in its high precision subcontract services order book, Ultimate Precision Engineering of Newcastle, UK, has placed a multi-machine order on Colchestersales (UK) of Heckmondwike for two CNC lathes and a vertical machining centre worth over GBP 150,000 "We needed to increase capacity to meet our existing and new customer requirements and, having received excellent service and machine reliability during our six year relationship with Colchester Lathe, decided that the very attractive package of a Tornado T8 slant bed lathe, a MultiTurn 4000 flat bed combination lathe and a Richmond 1300 vertical machining centre that they put forward would meet our needs perfectly," said Ken Davidson, managing director
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 23 Mar 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
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CNC lathe company includes VMCs in packages
Colchestersales (UK) is to market the Richmond vertical machining centres as part of its high technology mill/turn machining packages involving the Tornado, Combi and MultiTurn.
Combination lathe chosen on return on investment
Hotchkiss evaluated the Colchester Combi 6000 from the Colchestersales (UK) Southern Technical Centre at RK International in Erith, Kent, to represent the best return on investment.
He maintained: "Business is increasing rapidly for our company, and our turnover is already 50% ahead of last year even without the capacity we will create from the three new machines we have on order." Established in 1997 the customer base spans off-shore, sub-sea, automotive, filtration and now medical.
Ultimate Precision is investing to increase its capacity across the board from small hand-size components to large heavy duty pieces in exotics, Inconel, Super Duplex, stainless and tool steels.
Such is the level of work in progress that the machine shop that houses 11 machining centres and CNC lathes is currently working 24h shifts from Monday to Friday.
Further reading
Improved lathe at even more attractive price
The Tornado 220 two-axis CNC lathe range is faster, heavier by almost 20 per cent and more rigid, to provide a consistent turning operation from part to part
Solid base on which to turn one-offs
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.
Toolroom made thorough evaluation of 3-axis lathes
An extensive search of three-axis lathes led to three UK suppliers of CNC mill/turn centres facing in-depth evaluation of machine, control, software and running economics before a choice was made.
The company is working to tolerances as precise as 0.01mm on parts that can even require cycle times of less than a minute, to multiple operations taking over 10h per part, which helps define Ultimate's capability that spans the whole realm of subcontract machining.
At the moment 21 people are employed, however, it is projected to increase the headcount to 26 in the next quarter and to be in production through 24h, seven days a week.
This massive increase in the company's order book started in August 2005 and with the appointment of a sales manager in December, Ultimate is now successfully branching into new areas such as the medical sector.
Ultimate Precision offers a complete turnkey service and outsources, heat treatment, plating, painting and even electro-polishing for its filtration customers.
Programming is performed both on and off-machine depending on the complexity of the component.
Currently working to ISO 9001:2000 Ultimate is looking to increase its accreditations to satisfy its database of 1st and 2nd tier customers and the level of quality they now demand.
The Colchester Tornado T8 has a 510mm swing by 540mm turning length with 66mm bar capacity and 22kW spindle power.
The latest MultiTurn combination lathe has 554mm swing by 3000mm between centres with 11kW drive and features an eight-station turret with Manual Guidei programming software, ideal for single cycle or repeat from memory batch machining.
Meanwhile, the Richmond 1300 VMC has a 1400mm by 600mm table with axis strokes of 1300mm by 650mm by 710mm and a 15kW 8,000 rev/min spindle.
Hardened and ground solid ways are part of the specification that is developed for heavy duty milling cycles.
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