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CNC sliding head autos to combat competition
A
Star Micronics GB product story
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk editorial team
Aug 15, 2007
UK machining subcontractor has bought two additional CNC sliding-head automatic lathes - offering faster cycle times - to combat overseas cpompetition.
To fight off the threat from overseas competitors, especially those in India and China, a UK precision turned parts subcontractor, North Somerset Reproductions (NSR), has had installed two additional Star CNC sliding-head automatics.
These machines, said NSR's director John Duerden, allow very high speed processing times and cutting cycles.
One of the machines is the first of its model to be installed in the UK - the latest Star SR-20RIII.
This machine has 35m/min rapid feeds, which at the time of delivery, in March 2007, was only the second to be installed in Europe.
The Star SR-20RIII has the latest Fanuc 300iS CNC, which coupled with Star's motion control, offers shorter cycle times.
The CNC automatic will also perform deep-hole drilling using extra front-facing tools next to the opposed spindle.
Duerden said that the RIII lathe produces components 10 to 15% faster than NSR's existing RII 20mm bar machines.
NSR also bought an SB-16D in May 2007, which also has 35m/min rapid feeds.
For NSR, these machine tools are important assets as Duerden commented: "As a result of the competitive edge that these latest lathes give us by producing parts faster in one hit, we are able to hold our prices to customers.
We can therefore compete more effectively with overseas subcontractors and still make a profit, despite rising material costs and overheads".
He was also very pleased that NSR was able to buy, fo the first time, two advanced CNC sliding head automatics without having to use extenal financing.
Originally, NSR had 20 cam-operated automatic lathes on the shop floor as recently as 1999.
All have been replaced by Multi-axis CNC sliding-head lathes from Star have since replaced all of these and work on a '24/7' (24h/7 days - Ed) basis.
Every Star machine has an opposed spindle and live tooling that provide comprehensive mill-turning capability to high accuracy.
Duerden reckoned that the output from each machine is equivalent to that of three to four cam autos.
Accuracy of the CNC automatics from Star is higher, also NSR has been able to significantly reduce its labour costs.
Duerden concluded, "What amazes me is how reliable Star lathes are.
We currently have eight machines working round-the-clock, some of them for as long as eight years, and you can count on one hand the number of times we have needed a service visit.
The SR-20RIII is a case in point.
Despite being a new model, it hit the shop floor on a Wednesday in March and has been working non-stop since the Friday without a single glitch.
It is a credit to Star that it is able to bring new machines to market that are so reliable.".
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