Reliability wins diecasting machine orders

"t's clear that Frech will be building machines for a long time to come, and we're just as committed to the business of making diecastings," said a leading diecasting foundry.

It's clear that Frech will be building machines for a long time to come, and we're just as committed to the business of making diecastings.

That's one of the reasons why we decided to buy from them.

So says Ray Pateman, managing director of Britain's RD Castings, which took delivery of its first Frech - a DAW 80S with Realtime Control - this spring.

"Anyone with Frech machines will tell you how reliable they are, and we needed to make sure ours stays that way in the long term, so having spares and technical support immediately available in the UK is important for us.

We can't afford to have machines standing idle - it's as simple as that.

Ray's sense of urgency is explained by the company's chosen niche - mainly short runs for a very wide range of customers with the emphasis on engineered castings, many needing sophisticated CNC machining.

Early in its 26-year history, the family-owned company made a conscious decision to stay away from volume business, concentrating instead on forming close relationships with customers needing short and medium runs in pursuit of steady rather than spectacular growth.

Today, around 50 people are gainfully employed at RD's plant in Mildenhall, Suffolk - a dozen 'at the die face' and the remainder providing the full spectrum of pre- and post-casting services, such as CAD/CAM tool design, trimming, machining, assembly and BS EN ISO 9002 quality management.

The bulk of output is in aluminium, often for gas and marine applications, and France, Germany, Sweden and the USA are among the export destinations.

"Until now most of our zinc work has been at the request of aluminium customers, but the Frech machine will increase our versatility to match what we're already doing on the hot chamber side and strengthen our ability to win business in new areas," says Ray.

Perhaps surprisingly, the Frech will also be the first brand-new machine in RD's plant, which has relied on a mix of SMTs and Buhlers (eight for aluminium and three for zinc) - all of them acquired second-hand and rebuilt in-house.

"Used machines have suited us until now because of the faster payback, and we've been able to engineer them to match our needs exactly," Ray explains.

"But present-day technology is progressing so fast that I doubt whether we' ll be going down that road in future.

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