Product category:
Vertical machining centres (VMC)
News Release from: Hurco Europe | Subject: Hurco machining centres
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 08 August 2001
Subby diversifies to beat the telecomms
downturn
The current uncertainty in the telecommunications industry has prompted many subcontractors to diversify their customer base to compensate for a reduction in high volume production contracts.
The current uncertainty in the telecommunications industry has prompted many subcontractors to diversify their customer base to compensate for a reduction in high volume production contracts One such company is HG Engineering, Dunstable, which has weathered the storm better than most by deploying its six Hurco vertical machining centres for short to medium batch runs
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 3 Apr 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
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Hurco has introduced a larger vertical-spindle, 3- to 5-axis machining centre suited in particular to mould and die manufacture, aerospace components, job shop applications and short-run production.
Last year, a large proportion of components in the shop was produced from aluminium, predominantly for aerospace and telecoms customers.
Production level at that time may be gauged from the four tonnes of aluminium swarf generated each week by the company's 10 machining centres including high speed and horizontal-spindle models, all working 24 hours a day.
Now there is a balance between this type of work and production in smaller batches from steels including stainless with the occasional job in exotic materials.
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Five vertical machining centres carrying the prefix VMX have been introduced by Hurco, four of which have considerably upgraded specifications in terms of speed and working envelope.
The pedigree of Hurco as a low volume mouldmaking machine was therefore fortuitous.
The machines were, however, purchased for larger volume runs of aluminium components up to 200-off, and exceptionally in the 1000s.
HG Engineering's managing director, Paul James, explains the reason for his choice of Hurcos, which traditionally have been known as mould / die machines but, owing to their new specifications, are ideal for volume parts manufacture.
"The big advantage with Hurco is that the conversational Ultimax 4 control can be used to program a new part in as little as 10 minutes.
Even complicated jobs take only an hour or two.
"It means that we can set up for a new component and produce a first-off very quickly.
One of our recent contracts was for 60 or 70 different components in quantities up to 200-off, and the speed of the Hurco's was invaluable in getting parts shipped out rapidly to the customer.
The equipment cannot be beaten in this respect - they are the quickest first-off machines on the market." "Now that we have secured additional new work in lower volumes and even one-offs, notably for the production of motorsport, pneumatic, optical and medical components, the benefits of rapid programming are even greater." HG Engineering now works for around three times the number of customers compared with this time last year.
When an order is received, it is often at the last minute and firms are looking for very short delivery times.
Again, the Hurco machines help to fulfill early shipment of the first components while the main production run is being scheduled.
About four fifths of customer designs come in electronically these days, sometimes as DXF files, so the ability of the Ultimax 4 control to accept direct import of this data is useful.
Cycle times on the Hurco machines range from a few minutes to several hours, with the occasional job running continuously for several days.
General accuracy of +/-0.1mm is easily held and so too are bore tolerances down to +/-0.015mm.
HG Engineering was formed two years ago as an extension of nearby sister company, H Griffiths, which specialises in small batch subcontract work.
Despite the difficulties in telecoms, the new company's success has been rapid with staff increasing eightfold in that time.
Part of the reason for such success may be put down to buying machines like the Hurcos which can handle large volumes but which are versatile enough to turn round one-offs and small batches quickly. Request a free brochure from Hurco Europe ...
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