Product category:
CNC turning centres, mill/turning, multi-tasking centres, horizontal and VTLs.
News Release from: Tornos Technologies | Subject: Tornos turning centres
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 14 July 2004
Investment in advanced machining
broadens scope
Investment in advanced turning centres gave flexibility to machine drinks dispensers and plumbing and heating fittings as well as numerous parts for automotive and medical industries.
Machined Component Systems (MCS) of Redditch opened its doors for business in 1986 as a traditional subcontract machine shop The company started its operation with 15 single spindle turning centres servicing the automotive industry
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 11 Jun 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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The ISO 9000/2000 accredited company naturally progressed to multi spindle turning centres to produce higher volumes of work for MG Rover.
This growth led to the introduction of its first CNC machine in 1993, a Tornos 162 16mm 2 axis turning centre.
The Tornos was specifically bought to produce parts for a gear selector unit for MG Rover.
Further reading
Turnkey, multi-spindle lathe has own bar-feeder
At the EMO in Hanover during September of this year, Tornos will unveil as a first throughout the world, its new multi-spindle lathe working on the DECO concept: - the MULTIDECO 32/6 i.
Advanced CNC automatic enhanced further
Since its first appearance at the EMO, Hannover, last year, the Tornos 20a has been further improved aesthetically and the counter spindle increased in diameter.
Modular set-up autos expand subby's business
Needing to increase its flexibility, remain competitive and widen its market opportunities a subcontractor purchased three sliding head turning centres that could be updated as business grew.
The selector consists of five turned parts and the mass production of cars at Rover through the 1990's provided MCS with an abundance of work.
The company also provides brake and clutch cable components in a 2nd tier capacity to a host of manufacturers including Nissan and Toyota.
As time progressed the benefits of CNC were realised and another Tornos 162 and a Tornos 264 followed.
In 1998 MCS purchased a Tornos Deco machine, the company continued its growth and now has 10 Tornos machines in total.
These include a Deco 13bi, two Deco 13, and two Deco 20, a Deco 26 plus two ENC 162 and an ENC 264 machine.
The machines range from 16 to 32mm diameter bar capacity with a length of 160 to 600mm, providing the company with the capability to produce a vast array of components.
The GBP 2.7m turnover company has spent over GBP 2m since 1999 on capital investment.
The investment has afforded MCS the flexibility to manufacture drinks dispensers and plumbing and heating fittings for Baxi as well as numerous parts for the automotive and medical industries.
This vast array of industries sees the company machine a wide range of materials from 316 and 304 stainless steel, brass tubing, nylon, Inconel, titanium plus a host of other exotic alloys.
Sales Director Warren Gray comments: "This strategy has proven unbelievably successful.
We were 85% committed to the automotive market until Rover stopped mass production.
We realised we couldn't rely on the automotive sector and with margins continually being eaten into with cost pressure we started looking at other industries.
The Tornos machines have the flexibility to enable us to seek work in any market and this brought us to diversify into other industry sectors." Company diversification - MCS made its new priority the healthcare and medical sector and immediately started working with Stannah stair lifts.
The capabilities of the Tornos machines enabled MCS to reduce Stannah's supplier base for turned parts be reduced from six to one.
Once in place, MCS transferred philosophies such as Kanban and FMEA as well as offering impeccable quality and high service levels.
Gray continues: "It isn't just about making the parts; you have to be able to provide excellent quality and service.
The introduction of the Tornos Deco's eradicates the need for 2nd operations and significantly improves quality." MCS is currently producing 50 different components for Stannah at quantities ranging from 2,000 to 50,000 per annum.
At the other end of the scale, the company produces pharmaceutical pumps in 100 to 200 batches for ITT, hip components for Judd Medical in quantities of 20 per month plus a range of dental and surgical bone screws.
"The Tornos machines are competitive for use on high volume as well as low volume work.
The Deco is easy to set up with its off-line programming and when producing a family of parts, changing from one program to the next is a case of copy and paste which saves a lot of time.
The pre-set tooling also significantly reduces changeover times and the ability to go from one diameter machine to another is also very simple," comments Gray.
The next step for MCS will be to visit Tornos experts in Switzerland to learn new techniques.
The company has no hesitations about buying another machine in the near future.
Managing Director, Jim Gray comments: "The Tornos machines have been excellent.
The offline programming is a huge plus point because programs do not need to be changed and operators can sometimes interfere.
The software is also updated by Tornos when a new version is released, ensuring our machines are as competitive as the day they were bought.
Following our next purchase, the next step will be to adapt a current machine to accept diameters less than 1mm and then integrate thread whirling attachments, high pressure coolant and new barfeeders throughout the workshop.
We will continue to buy Tornos machines as the support has been phenomenal.
We're 1.5 hours away from Tornos, if I called them now I would have an engineer here within 2 hours without fail.
The service we get is superb.".
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