Workholding 'centre of excellence' established

600 Group is establishing a centre of excellence for the design and manufacture of tool and workholding systems, combining Crawford Collets and Pratt Burnerd production on one site.

600 Group is establishing a centre of excellence for the design and manufacture of tool and workholding systems at a prestigious site in Halifax, West Yorkshire.

Probably the largest such centre of its kind in Europe, it is expected to become a world leader in tool and workholding manufacture.

A substantial investment has been made in the new development, including new machines and an additional building as well as the introduction of superior customer support systems and state-of-the art production control and manufacturing processes.

Premier manufacturer of tool and workholding equipment Crawford Collets (a 600 Group company) is moving machines, men and expertise to Halifax as part of the new development.

Production of Crawford's products at Halifax started over two years ago, when the plan to become a world leader in tool and workholding equipment was first conceived.

The move of Crawford's resources will be completed by 31st March this year, by which time production of its proven range of standard collets and workholding systems will be fully integrated into the facilities at Halifax.

The development is taking place at Pratt Burnerd's existing site.

Already a 600 Group company, Pratt's have been designing and manufacturing chucks and workholding systems for over 150 years.

It started manufacturing on behalf of Crawfords two years ago, most recently taking over the manufacture of the popular Dicksons Toolpost in April last year.

The machine shop has been reorganised into dedicated cells, arranged to give the most efficient production flow.

The 675m2 new building, which will be fully operational on 1st April, will house the grinding facility.

Specialist machines have been moved from Crawford's plant in Witney into Halifax and are already in production.

A sophisticated, computerised manufacturing control system, installed recently by Pratts, has been extended to accommodate the additional resources and workload.

Customer support services are also computerised.

Key members of Crawford's expert workforce will be working out of Halifax from 1st April and an additional 30 skilled men will be taken on in the immediate future.

In addition, Crawford's customers will be able to order direct through the web site.

Customers of Pratt's already have this facility.

Commenting, General Manager of Pratt Burnerd and the new centre of excellence Peter Simms, said "This is an outstanding opportunity to move forward, to further develop and refine our products, and become the world leader.

There has always been great synergy between Crawfords and Pratts, and now we have the opportunity to take advantage of that to produce the best and most appropriate tool and workholding systems in the world.

However good machines are, efficient production depends upon the tool and workholding systems to deliver the machine's full performance.

We will use the economies of scale which we have achieved by integrating the design and manufacture of Crawford's and Pratt's systems to advance our products in response to customer demand.

The investment in the centre of excellence will also enable us to remain as competitively priced as possible".

The range of systems sold by both Crawfords and Pratts will remain the same, and both companies will continue to offer the design and manufacturing service for specials that their customers are accustomed to.

Crawford Collets and Pratt Burnerd are renowned both for its comprehensive range of high quality tool and workholding parts and for its ability to produce innovative solutions to production problems by designing and manufacturing specials quickly and cost effectively for any application.

Pratt Burnerd has established an enviable reputation for designing and manufacturing high quality, innovative workholding systems for the engineering industry world-wide.

Founded in the 1850s to serve the mechanised woollen trade in Yorkshire by William Jackman Pratt, Pratt Burnerd has a history of designing and manufacturing equipment to support the machine tool industry, including sets of chuck jaws.

During the first world war it was commissioned by the Ministry of Munitions to extend its range of chucks and this set the pattern for the company's future development.

After the war, it concentrated its efforts on developing a range of chucks to meet the demands exercised by the introduction of more advanced materials, faster running speeds and, perhaps most significantly, the requirement for pneumatic and hydraulic power chucking.

After a series of acquisitions, it became Pratt Burnerd International in 1967 and in 1985 became part of the 600 Group.

The company prides itself on being able to meet the needs of any application, offering an extensive range of manual and power chucks as well as a design and manufacturing service to provide chucks for special applications.

The manual range includes 3 and 6 jaw scroll chucks for a wide variety of applications, lever operated scroll chucks, light duty self-centring chucks, 4 jaw independent chucks , the high accuracy KC key-operated chuck and collet chucks.

It supplies collets for KC, PC and DC chucks.

The Power Chuck range includes the High Speed Quick Change power chuck designed for small batch production on CNC lathes, the International Wedge Type power chuck, the PC power collet chuck, 2 and 3 jaw pneumatic power chucks, 2 and 3 jaw Front End hydraulic power chucks, PC power collet chucks, hydraulic cylinders and a range of open centre hydraulic cylinderscomplete with integral coolant collector.

It also designs and manufactures the proven and popular Dicksons RX 48 position indexing toolpost with 1/4 turn clamp/unclamp fast indexing mechanism and through coolant.

Customers include companies in aerospace, automotive, agricultural and construction vehicles, brake and clutch components as well as general manufacturing applications.

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