Product category:
Diecasting materials
News Release from: Frech | Subject: DAW 125S with DataVario controls
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 30 January 2004
Moulder offers plastics and zinc
components
Companies that offer zinc diecasting and plastics injection moulding are not unknown, but there can not be many whose diecasting operation is at first floor level.
Companies that offer zinc diecasting and plastics injection moulding are not unknown (the manufacturing processes have a lot in common, after all); but there can't be many whose diecasting operation is at first floor level One that can claim that distinction is British company Lesney Industries; and the unconventional arrangement posed an interesting challenge recently when Frech UK delivered and installed one of its machines - a DAW 125S with DataVario controls - at the factory in Hackney, Greater London
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 26 Mar 2002 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
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.
Magnesium diecasting success is in the chamber
For the diecaster producing components in magnesium alloy, making the right choice between hot and cold chamber manufacturing routes is fundamental.
It took around four hours for two cranes to get the machine where it needed to be.
The first lifted it from the truck on which it had travelled from Germany; and the second raised it onto a temporary platform supported on hydraulic jacks, from which it was edged forward into the building.
The DAW 125S was the first Lesney had purchased from Frech - or any other diecasting machine builder - in the fifty years and more it has been in business.
Further reading
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.
Hardware maker brings die-casting in-house
Bringing diecasting in-house has been a success for a window and door hardware manufacturer so much so that it has added another diecaster to the three existing ones.
Toolmaker invests deeper into diecasting capacity
Adding further to its diversification policy, a toolmaker has invested in more diecasting machine capacity, this time to enter the LM5 diecastings market.
"The company started in the days of austerity just after the Second World War, when making your own equipment for the products you wanted to manufacture was often the quickest way of getting a business up and running," explains present-day managing director Mike James.
What began as a pioneering necessity became a fully developed engineering philosophy for Lesney, and the company continued to design and build its own machines right through to the 1990s.
The building that it occupies today was similarly purpose-built - in 1969, when industrial land in London was fetching astronomical prices (which explains the need to rise to four floors rather than spreading out sideways in the conventional way).
With its own equipment in its own factory, Lesney has been able to lay out the production floors exactly as it wants, and not a single square metre goes to waste.
Plastics injection moulding and the tool room are at ground level, and administration offices take the top two floors.
Sandwiched between is the diecasting operation - 25 diecasting machines (and the Frech) complemented by alloy reprocessing and secondary operations such as hand-fettling and machining.
Asked why Lesney had decided to buy its first proprietary machine at this point in its history, James points to the potential to keep ahead of the game that increasing specialisation brings.
"Frech's market-leading position is partly down to the fact that they are quick to embrace the latest technology that helps their customers to become more efficient," he says.
"One example that springs immediately to mind with the Frech machine is the totally enclosed electric furnace.
It will eliminate the energy losses we experience with the open-bath gas furnaces on our own machines, which the introduction of the Climate Change Levy has made more unacceptable than ever." With its greater locking force and a 500kg furnace capacity, the DAW 125S will also allow larger shots to be delivered, boosting maximum casting weight from 900g to around 1.2kg and creating opportunities to add to the 1,200 tonnes of zinc alloy the company casts every year.
It's a far cry from the miniaturised Matchbox toys with which many will instantly associate the name of Lesney.
Perfect specimens of those diecast 'pocket money' toys are highly treasured and can fetch three-figure sums amongst collectors today, but it's more than twenty years since the last London bus rolled off the Hackney 'production line'.
In the intervening years, the company has built itself a solid reputation as a versatile trade diecaster, meeting the needs of customers in many key market areas - domestic hardware, window furniture, white goods, automotive and specialist industrial products.
"Today our customers expect a comprehensive service that includes technical support, guaranteed quality, reliable supply and a philosophy of ever improving performance," says James.
In response, Lesney controls and monitors every one of its activities, from tooling design and manufacture through materials procurement and process control to finishing, documentation and despatch.
This attention to detail has won it a double status - as a Registered Firm of Assessed Capability to BSEN ISO 9002 1994, and a Licensed Producer of zinc alloy diecastings under the Kitemark scheme BS EN 12844 (BS1004).
The company is now in the transition stages to convert all its quality systems to BS EN ISO 9001 2000.
• Frech: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Manufacturingtalk email newsletter
• Manufacturingtalk Home Page
Search the Pro-Talk network of sites
