Product category:
Horizontal machining centres (HMC)
News Release from: Heller Machine Tools | Subject: MC range of horizontal machining centres
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 07 August 2003
HMCs save time, up quality on the
difficult jobs
Seeking difficult work with high added value, which the majority of its competitors shy away from, a subcontractor uses modern HMCs to realise high quality and 25% cycle time cuts.
Seeking difficult work with high added value, which the majority of its competitors shy away from, a subcontractor uses modern HMCs to realise high quality and 25% cycle time cuts A small family-owned business, APL in Chard Somerset is quite exceptional, not only because it bucked the trend in manufacturing last year and will increase its turnover by 35.2% this year
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 27 Feb 2002 at 8.00am (UK)
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A small family-owned business will increase its turnover by 35.2% this year and, on new M-Cs, consistently machines to tolerances which would frighten the majority of engineers.
It has earned an enviable list of accreditations, has a substantial, blue-chip customer base which includes customers in the Unites States of America, Canada, Hong Kong, Sweden and Germany as well as the UK, has a training programme which even the ISO 9000 assessor said was the best he had ever come across, and it consistently machines to tolerances which would frighten the majority of engineers - on one job alone it achieves a surface finish of 0.22 micron CLA.
The Somerset and Dorset Manufacturing Network asked APL, as a forward thinking company in Somerset, to host a workshop on the Vision 20-20 programme, a DTI initiative operated by Plymouth University in APL's area.
Run by Paul Adams and sister Julie, the company has set out to become a Model of Excellence.
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It is working with management gurus at Exeter University to develop a Business Improvement Programme which includes a workable mission statement divided into measurable projects, each lead and monitored by a project leader within the business.
The company's success so far can be attributed to its careful identification of its markets and a determination to provide what those markets need alongside a carefully controlled diversification programme.
Paul Adams said "We seek difficult work, which the majority of our competitors shy away from.
We look for, and obtain, high featured jobs with high added value, often critical parts or safety related parts in the defence, aerospace, medical, and fibre optics industries.
We are prepared to work to exceptionally tight tolerances, in difficult materials, on complex machining tasks.
"We also provide a sophisticated product design service, working with the customer to improve the production of a component and/or to improve its performance.
For instance, we recently took on a part which had been soft turned, heat treated and then ground to meet the tight tolerances required.
We are able to soft turn, heat treat, then hard turn the component and have improved the tolerance so as to achieve less than 1 micron roundness and a surface finish of 0.07 micron CLA.".
One example of the company's imaginative and innovative management approach is the purchase of two horizontal machining centres from the Heller MC range, manufactured in Redditch.
The first machine was bought early in 2001, the second some seven months later.
The first Heller was purchased strictly in order to cope efficiently with an ever-increasing workload.
Paul Adams assessed the machines available and selected the Heller because "We were very impressed with the company's systems and the design and quality of the machine.
A team of people, including setters, supervisors, and production engineers, made the assessment over several weeks and we unanimously agreed that Heller was the best.
We had a great deal of advice and assistance from Heller throughout our selection process, and once the decision was made.
Back up and support was - and remains - excellent.
"We believe we stand apart from our competitors because we provide exceptional quality.
We machine materials and features which most other companies cannot, to tolerances which few companies can achieve, so we choose to invest only in good quality machines.
We also expect at least five years of heavy use from a machine tool - the machines run 106 hours every week.
We identified Heller as offering the best machine to meet those criteria, and also the right back up".
Paul reconsidered the machines the company was using because they were not holding tolerance, despite sophisticated compensation software.
Heller was the only manufacturer which was prepared to take the problem seriously, and to substantiate its claims with technical data and test results.
Paul commented "We were bowled over with the attention which we received, and especially the written guarantee of tolerance.
That has since been substantiated.
We have now been operating the machine for a year and, where we used to make offset changes continually during a shift, now we only have to make offset changes with a tool change.
A Cpk of 2.25 is consistently being achieved".
Clearly holding tolerance much better even than Paul had hoped, the Heller has also proved to be significantly faster.
Initially, the programme was converted from the existing machine to the Heller, using the same cutting data.
Cycle time was immediately reduced by 11%.
Once the operators had the confidence to exploit the power and rigidity of the Heller, cycle time was reduced by a further 16%, an overall reduction in cycle time of 25%.
"We have been able to double the feed rate and reduce the number of passes we make" Paul commented.
"Primarily, we use the Heller for aluminium alloys, but the reduced cycle time has released enough capacity to move a steel component onto it.
The Heller has proved to have all the torque needed for taking quite heavy cuts, so we have found a great deal of versatility in the machine as well as accuracy - our main concern - and speed.
"We purchased a second machine because the first has proved to be the most profitable machine in the shop.
The second, an MC 16.1, is a faster machine (60m/min rather than 40m/min) and that has reduced cycle time by another 7%". Request a free brochure from Heller Machine Tools ...
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