New lathes key to machining company's strategy

A leading Sheffield engineering and machining company has staked its future strategy for supplying high-accuracy, quality-finished turned components on Harrison's lathe technology.

A leading Sheffield engineering and machining company has staked its future strategy for supplying high-accuracy, quality-finished turned components - mainly to the city's world-famous steel industry - on Harrison's lathe technology.

The company, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2005, has invested in its fourth Harrison Alpha machine, the newest acquisition being an Alpha 1550S x3 metre cts manual/CNC lathe.

F A Morris has just moved from Sheffield city centre to new premises with 7,500 square feet of dedicated workshop space at Dore House Industrial Estate, Handsworth.

The company based its decision to acquire the Alpha 1550S on the continuing reliability and performance of its two Alpha 330 Plus lathes and its Alpha 550 lathe, plus a requirement for even further turning capability, which comes with a large manual and CNC lathe.

Morris's managing director, Glynn Morris, said: "Once we had our first two machines, it became obvious that we should source our new machines from the same range.

The Alpha 1550S has expanded our capacity and we are now able to produce turned items up to approximately three metres long and with diameters anywhere between 15mm up to 550mm.

With its full CNC capability it enables us to produce larger volumes, but most of our work is in small batches or single items.

Our machines are bought primarily for their accuracy.

We do not mass produce, but we want to be confident that when we make low-volume parts or one-offs for our customers the accuracy is spot on." He added that whilst the Sheffield steel industry is now much smaller than in former times, there are still major steel producers in the region.

Specialist independent companies, including F A Morris, have taken the place of the steelworks' own engineering workshops to produce spares for rolling mills and other equipment.

They are also called on to make parts for a range of other customers in the automotive, public transport and food sectors.

Glynn Morris continued: "Most of our work involves turning parts in a range of steels but these days we also need to be able to produce accurate, high-quality items in other materials including aluminium and stainless steel.

The new machines simplify and speed up complex forms such as threads, radii and tapers." His son, Richard Morris, who is technical director of the company and oversees the use of programmes run on the Alpha lathes in the workshop, said that compatibility was another important reason for investing in further Harrison Alpha machines.

He added: "Once we have created a programme we can download it to any of the Alpha lathes, which means extra flexibility.

We also use a CAD programme to design parts, which can be sent to the machine.

That is slowly becoming more of a customer requirement and the lathe operators can view the complete design, which helps them to set the machines up for turning." He said that all the company's lathe operators are also very comfortable with all the machines in the Alpha range and, while new machines such as the Alpha 1550s require operators to assimilate new skills, once learned they are able to switch easily between the various machines in the workshop.

In his opinion, the Alpha 1550S's optional eight-station bi-directional indexing disc turret, which was supplied on Morris's machine, significantly improves the lathe's operation by providing maximum cutting accuracy and saving time over tool changing.

The company's Alpha 1550S lathe was supplied by Harrison's main regional distributor, Datamach of Canley, Coventry.

David Smith, the sales director of Harrison Lathes, said: "We are naturally delighted that such a well-established and forward-looking company as F A Morris is continuing to base the turning part of its business on its Alpha lathes.

The advanced machines have been expertly designed, engineered and manufactured to meet the requirements of such specialist companies, with particular importance placed on the accuracy and quality of finished items.

We are confident they will enable them to continue to succeed as the demand for high quality turned parts becomes even stronger in the future.".

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