Product category:
Diecasting machines and equipment
News Release from: Frech | Subject: DAW 200 zinc diecaster
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 04 November 2002
Diecasting newcomer expands CNC
capability
Although it has been in business for half a century, Eurotech Industries is a relative newcomer to diecasting; but a timetable of investment shows that it is catching up.
Although it has been in business for half a century, the British company Eurotech Industries is a relative newcomer to diecasting; but its busy timetable of investment in the technology shows that it is determined to make up for lost time The company first took the plunge in 1998 with two high pressure cold chamber machines for aluminium - a natural progression from its origins in subcontract polishing for automotive and related parts, very often working with bought-in diecastings
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 26 Mar 2002 at 8.00am (UK)
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It followed up with a third machine in 2001, picking up a Business Award along the way from the Birmingham Post, regional newspaper for the West Midlands manufacturing heartland where Eurotech is based.
With locking forces up to 750t, all three machines operate on a cellular basis under CNC control.
A pick-and-place robot delivers castings into the quench tank, and then onto a conveyor en route to clipping - a level of automation Eurotech considers essential to meet the standards set out in its QCD (Quality/Cost/Delivery) philosophy.
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Adding further to its diversification policy, a toolmaker has invested in more diecasting machine capacity, this time to enter the LM5 diecastings market.
Now the company has broadened its scope into zinc, with a Frech DAW 200; and once again it was the polishing side of the business that set the ball rolling, as assistant foundry manager Alan Walker explains.
"One of our customers asked us to polish a zinc casting sourced from outside the UK, but the quality of the part created such problems that in the end we suggested it would be more cost-effective for us to make it here," he says.
"I'd previously worked with Frech hot chamber machines at another company, so I was confident that they would be able to provide the resource we needed for the zinc project." The first customer for the new service has already been followed by another, with the result that the DAW 200 is already putting in 15 hours for five days of the week.
"We're about to put another two dies onto the machine, which will take usage up to 60% - and when we reach the 80% mark we'll be looking for a second machine," says Alan Walker.
With a four-year head start, the aluminium section is already busy turning out all manner of castings up to a maximum 7kg shot weight.
Currently, the largest are roof rail parts for the Ford Mondeo (not to mention Opel, Mercedes and Saab).
Automotive components (and customers) inevitably predominate, but 'general castings' are also highly varied - for everything from toasters, light switches, taps and letterboxes through to yacht turnbuckles, heating elements and airport seating.
It's all a far cry from the company's first order - polishing the outer trim for the front grille of the Mark 1 Ford Cortina (older readers will remember it well!).
(This was Manufacturingtalk's Top Story on 1 November 2002).
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