Machining centre investment beats competition

To remain competitive a UK engineering company employs high technology machine tools and its most recently acquired machining centre has realised a productivity gain of almost 25%.

The global automotive arena is potentially one of the most difficult challenges any company could face.

OEMs have the influence and capability to drive suppliers' prices down year on year.

To remain competitive, productive and above all profitable, manufacturers must continually invest in new technology.

Working in this sector, Bradford based Automatic Components Limited (ACL) processes large castings that produce high horsepower units for commercial vehicles.

ACL boasts Borg Warner, Holset, Metaldyne, Ifor Williams and Vibracoustic UK among its client list.

The company produces 40,000 components a week that includes crankshaft products, inertia rings, damper cases and turbine components.

To remain competitive, the company employs high technology machine tools and its most recent acquisition was a Kitamura Mycenter M-3Xi APC machining centre with twin automatic pallet change.

Purchased specifically for the machining of turbine housings, the extremely rigid machine has made an immediate impact at ACL.

As ACL Works Manager, Peter Ratcliffe comments: "With the current housing running on the machine, the Kitamura can produce 16 turbine housings per hour and our previous machine was producing 12.2 housings per hour".

"The productivity gain of almost 25% on this particular job is considerable because in the near future we hope to be producing over 3,000 of these housings per week." The productivity gain is partially credit to the quick change pallet change systems on Kitamura Mycenters, available with either shuttle pallet changers or 180 degree rotating systems.

ACL selected a shuttle system with the slightly larger table that enables ACL to load three cast iron turbine housings while a further three are enclosed and machined on an alternate pallet.

Once on the pallet, the various turbine housing derivatives undergo a series of milling, drilling and tapping operations that will vary depending upon the housing type.

"We design all our pallet systems and fixtures in-house and they are incorporated into the machine".

"We worked closely with the Leader CNC team to ensure the changeover process would run smoothly and efficiently," continues Ratcliffe.

With regard to the selection of pallet change and fixture system, Leader CNC sales director Mike Serzeniewski comments: "Kitamura pallet changers are regarded as one of the fastest in the industry".

"On jobs that require little processing, ACL may need to add more parts to each pallet to give the operator more load/unload time to keep up with the processing speed of the machine." The productivity gains of 25-35% on numerous turbine components compared to the previous machine can be attributed to the Mycenter's 15,000rpm gear driven spindle combined with a rapid feedrate of 50m/min using solid box slide technology, guaranteed for 5 years.

This design, combined with a comprehensive list of standard features, has enabled the Mycenter M-3Xi APC to shave valuable seconds off the machining time of each part, essential in volume production.

"The Mycenter has proven to be a very fast machine with extremely fast rapids and this has boosted our production considerably".

"Another major factor is the 40 taper spindle on the machine".

"This capability to accept larger cutters than our other machines allows us to go straight across most jobs with a 125mm face mill cutter as opposed to cutting with a circular interpolation movement as we do on our other machines".

"Obviously reducing the number of cutter passes on a workpiece reduces the machining time," continues Ratcliffe.

The capability to accept 40 taper spindle tooling and ability to machine with large cutters on the Mycenter machine is credit to the exceptional rigidity of this machine, weighing in at 7.5 tonnes.

The rigid Meehanite casting construction of the Mycenter enables ACL to take larger cuts whilst ensuring they will easily meet any surface finish requirements and maintain the standard accuracy of +/-0.003mm over a long period of time.

The rigidity of the machine combined with its impressive speed will undoubtedly enhance our production further in the future." Ratcliffe said: "We are very pleased with the machine purchase and when we eventually move from our current two shift pattern to three we will really be able to maximise the machine output.".

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