Product category:
Horizontal machining centres (HMC)
News Release from: Heller Machine Tools | Subject: Heller MCH 250 horizontal machining centre
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 14 November 2006
Turnkey service aided HMC choice for
subcontractor
Choice of a horizontal machining centre to machine diesel engine cylinder heads was for a supplier, which could provide a full turnkey system and the back-up and support.
Choice of a horizontal machining centre to machine diesel engine cylinder heads was for a supplier, which could provide a full turnkey system and the back-up and support Sited in the tranquil and ancient town of Stroud, Springfield Engineering is a small, very successful subcontractor
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 27 Feb 2002 at 8.00am (UK)
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Established by Eddie Reed and his partner Alan Pearce in 1975, it has comfortably weathered the storms which afflict the engineering industry to be, thirty years later, a specialist sub-contractor providing precision machining of volume parts to the most demanding of customers, including those in the automotive, heavy engineering, sheet metal machine and compressors industry.
"The business has flourished despite the general ups and downs of the engineering industry because we are focused on doing what we do properly.
Over the years, the business has changed in response to the markets and we have moved from primarily supplying heavy engineering to the volume production of parts.
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We get the job right first time, every time.
To achieve that, we have invested heavily in the best quality machine tools and equipment and have not hesitated to make use of specialist, expert assistance when we have needed to," Reed said.
It is the company's philosophy of seeking expert guidance and only buying the most appropriate machines which has lead it to invest in a Heller MCH 250 horizontal machining centre.
It has recently won the order for the volume production of diesel engine cylinder heads from one of the leading German manufacturers, its first major contract for an overseas automotive manufacturer.
"Heller was the obvious choice," Reed said.
"I have known Heller for a long time.
There is nothing the company does not know about the automotive industry, and it provides a second-to-none engineering support service.
That said, of course we looked at a number of alternatives before confirming to ourselves that Heller was the right partner for us in this project." The Heller was selected after reviewing the possible machines because it is the only one which meets all the parameters of the project.
More importantly Heller has the capability to provide a full turnkey system and the back-up and support Springfield wanted throughout the installation and commissioning of the machine and into the future, whatever that future might be.
"It is not an effective use of our own engineers to undertake the fixture design and development of the tooling package," Reed said.
"They are better employed working on our own projects and leaving the engineering of the machine to the specialists." Working with Springfield's project engineers, Heller designed and manufactured the fixtures and supplied a complete tooling package at its plant in Redditch, Worcestershire.
All the programming was completed by Heller's engineers.
The MCH250 was selected from the Heller range because, in Reed's words, "They are built to do the job we have to do." Built at Heller's UK Redditch factory, the MCH machines have the high build quality which provides the rigidity, robustness and precision needed for efficient and profitable production by giving greater productivity, faster chip to chip times, bigger axes and greater tool capacity with a reduced footprint.
The MCH 250 has the Heller SK50spindle and provides a large working envelope of 800mm (X) x 800mm (Y) x 800mm (Z).
Spindle speed is 45-6,000 rev/min with an rapid traverse of 50,000mm/min and acceleration of 4m/s2.
Pallet size is 630mm square.
Control is by Siemens Sinumerik 840D.
The chain magazine has been designed to provide extremely short tool-to-tool times because of its high travel rate.
Tools are accepted in a 100 pocket chain magazine.
Chip to chip time is 3.8s to VDI.
Reed concluded: "We selected Heller because we are specialist subcontractors, not specialist machine tool builders.
To perform at the levels of quality, productivity and efficiency which we demand of ourselves we wanted effective, knowledgeable support and a machine we could trust to perform reliably to the highest standards.
We also needed to know that, should the contract grow and a ramp up be required of us, that the machine tool builder we chose would be at our side throughout the ramp up and consequent production. Request a free brochure from Heller Machine Tools ...
We have just won the additional work, and know that Heller are in a position to provide whatever assistance we need, when we need it.".
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