Engineering Capacity July 2022 digital edition

FOR MANUFACTURERS ABOUT SUBCONTRACTORS

July 2022

TURNED PARTS | AEROSPACE | CASTING & FORGING

FORMING & FABRICATION Catch of the day

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Support UK Manufacturing The Voice of the UK Supply Chain We exist to unite manufacturing supporters, experts and business owners to create a strong and single voice for SMEs. The UK Manufacturing and Engineering contributions to the economy include: £183 billion output

2.5 million jobs

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Yet we have no voice in government?

We’re calling for a dedicated Minister for Manufacturing. Join us.

SIGN THE PETITION #SupportUKMfg

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FOR BUYERS OF CONTRACT MANUFACTURING SERVICES Visit our online edition for breaking news, jobs, events, features and searchable directory. www.engineeringcapacity.com Editor: Andy Sandford editor@engineeringcapacity.com Commercial Director: Arfan Qureshi sales@engineeringcapacity.com Tel: 0207 241 4627 Graphic Design: Dave Blake blakey@djbdesign.co.uk Printer: Holbrooks Printers Limited Norway Road, Portsmouth PO3 5HX Engineering Capacity is published six times a year in January, March, May, July, September and November SUBSCRIPTIONS Engineering Capacity is available free of charge to UK buyers and suppliers of subcontract manufacturing services.

For non-qualifying readers, annual subscription rates are as follows for 6 issues posted to addresses in: UK £60.00; Europe £80; Rest of the World £100 You can request your copy and sign up to our free weekly email newsletter on our website or contact us via subscriptions@engineeringcapacity.com www.engineeringcapacity.com Tel: 01737 270 648 Published by: Engineering Capacity Ltd Abbey House, 25 Clarendon Road Redhill, Surrey, RH1 1QZ United Kingdom Registered in England company no. 10567217 ISSN 0306-0179 COMING UP IN OUR SEPTEMBER 2022 ISSUE Machined Components, Waterjet & Laser Cutting, Automotive, Moulding, Electronics, Advanced Engineering Preview Please send editorial for consideration to editor@engineeringcapacity.com

Editor’s View Before you read the rest of this comment column (if indeed you planned to read it at all) please take a look at the page opposite.

A group of committed supporters of UK manufacturing have come together to create a strong voice for manufacturing SMEs at the heart of our government under the banner of Support UK Manufacturing (SUM).

Their call is for a dedicated Minister for Manufacturing who can advocate and act for our industry and pull together some kind of coherent manufacturing strategy for our country that takes into account the contribution and needs of SMEs. OK, so the timing isn’t good when it comes to trying to get any government action on this. The point though is to build a groundswell of support for the proposition to pressure current and future governments to address this and build it into their manifestos.

As the campaigners say, with a £183 billion output and 2.5 million jobs, where indeed is the voice of manufacturing in government?

What can you do? Well first of all you can sign the petition – the QR code on the page opposite will take you straight there. Then you can tell other people to sign the petition.

Then you can go to th SUM website www.supportukmanufacturing.co.uk and read in detail about their goals of making a difference in productivity, growth, skills, levelling up, net zero and sustainability.

So take a look and find out how you can join the campaign.

Andy Sandford, Editor

There is no charge or cost involved with having your editorial included in the magazine or on our website

Member of the Engineering Industries Association

JULY 2022

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3

Contents July 2022

19 AEROSPACE & DEFENCE

News

Features

06 Change at top of GTMA 06 Julia Moore hands over to Alan Arthur

12 Turned Parts 06 CNC graduates at Neida More turning capacity at DPC

07 Casting and machining group expands 06 Expromet acquires NC Precision 08 High precision success 06 18,000 visitors to EPHJ 09 Subcon going strong at 45 06 30% more visitors than 2021

19 Aerospace & Defence 06 Electric jet partners EDM outsourcing partnership

27 CASTING & FORGING

23 Forming & Fabrication 06 Electron beam welding breakthrough

27 Casting & Forging 06 MRT Castings wins

10 Ringing in the new 06 Aerospace wins for CCR

Queen’s Award

31 Composites 06 Making a Lamborghini faster

31 COMPOSITES 4

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32 Oil & Gas 06 Difficult duplex components JULY 2022

Engineering Capacity | INDUSTRY NEWS NTG Precision Engineering is moving to a new site, three times as big as its current facility, to create additional capacity for the manufacture of severe duty and high integrity components.

The company will move to the new factory, close to its existing base in Team Valley, Gateshead, this summer.

The new 45,000sq ft plant will produce components for industries including power generation, food production, offshore energy, defence and electric vehicles.

The expansion will enable NTG to increase its presence in these key markets, most notably the defence industry, and the production of components for the manufacture of electric vehicle batteries and electric vehicle power trains.

The new facility, which is being developed by UK Land Estates, also reflects NTG’s commitment to sustainability and will be partpowered by Solar PV and include electric vehicle charging points and air source heat pumps.

Currently employing 60, of which 10 are apprentices, the move will also create the opportunity for further recruitment as the business grows its order book.

This expansion is part of NTG’s scale-up strategy, which began with a management buyout at the start of 2021 and included a significant investment from Ignite Growth.

Building on more than 40 years of engineering heritage, which led to the business becoming an established part of the North East JULY 2022

Big move for NTG

industrial supply chain while gaining traction in national markets, the MBO sparked a £3.5m programme of capital investments in specialist precision engineering equipment and paved the way for this expansion to new premises.

Mike Hutchinson, Managing Director of NTG Precision Engineering, said: “We are always looking to invest ahead of the curve, and our new facility will provide the capacity to grow the business and our ability to serve existing and emerging markets.”

“We have maximised every square metre of our existing facility to house the latest in precision CNC capabilities and a very talented, experienced workforce.

Moving to new premises will give us the space we need for the next stage of our growth and scale our operations to serve an expanding customer base.”

He added: “Working alongside Ignite Growth we have a clear vision for the business and have ambitions to contribute to the consolidation of the precision engineering sector, be that through organic growth that we’ll achieve through our new factory, or via potential acquisitions.”

Tim Witty, Development Director at UK Land Estates, said: “We’ve always enjoyed working with NTG as it’s an ambitious and growing business on Tyneside. The highly skilled manufacturer first took premises on Team Valley in 1979 so it’s a pleasure for us to still be working with NTG on the next phase of its growth.

“At UK Land Estates, we strive to work closely with our tenants to help tailor make units to suit their business needs and to help them expand.”

8 ntg-ltd.co.uk www.engineeringcapacity.com

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INDUSTRY NEWS | Engineering Capacity This year marks the GTMA’s 80th Anniversary and provides an opportunity for a new and exciting chapter as the current Chief Executive Officer, Julia Moore, handed over the reins to her successor, Dr Alan Arthur, on 1 July 2022.

Julia Moore said: “I have been CEO of the GTMA for almost 25 years and I am looking forward to handing over to Alan, who joined the GTMA in January 2020 as Chief Technical Officer and brings with him a working knowledge of trade associations and a strong background in engineering which will be a great asset to the GTMA.” Initially, upon joining the GTMA all those years ago, Julia Moore was tasked with delivering six EU funded research and development projects for the tooling industry.

“Technological change has played an important part in the Association’s development programme throughout the years, and continues today with Additive Manufacture, Composite Tooling, Continuous Fibre Injection An advanced laser marking system ensures the traceability of electronic medical device sub-assemblies at Cogent Technology.

Paul Harrison-Rowe, Cogent Technology Engineering Manager said: “For a medical device manufacturer such as Cogent Technology, traceability of subassemblies is vitally important to both the Client and the internal Cogent QMS processes.

Previously serial number labels

6

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Change at top of GTMA

8 Alan Arthur

8 Julia Moore

Process and Incremental Sheet Forming. There was a change of address in 2008, when the Association relocated from Buckinghamshire to the West Midlands. “This move has been instrumental in raising the profile of the Association and strengthened our connection with the manufacturing supply chain throughout the UK,” said Julia.

She concluded: “Our achievements show what a really great team can do. So, it is with enormous pride that I leave the

GTMA, taking many fond memories of a wonderful career gathered over the past 25 years at the Association; and say a fond farewell to the terrific team and Directors at the GTMA, the members of the GTMA who are the people we are working for, and the many colleagues I have met and worked with over the years, all of whom have played such a significant part in my time with the GTMA. My good wishes to you all.”

8 gtma.co.uk

Handling PCB traceability were fitted by hand – OK for small batches but not when faced with growing demand for volume products and smaller PCBs. The new YLM Laser Marking machine can internally flip over the PCBs and mark the same serial number to both sides, as well as speeding up the application time and reducing cost. It also reduces the amount

of space on the PCB required for the serial number.

The laser marker will allow some other new features to be introduced, such as marking the work order number onto the waste material of the PCB panel or having the ability to be able to mark logos, dates, and so on, as required.

8 cogent-technology.co.uk

JULY 2022

Engineering Capacity | INDUSTRY NEWS

forward to collaborating with Ian, Mandy and the wider NC Precision team as we continue to develop the business within the Expromet group.”

Ian Gaskell, Managing Director of NC Precision, commented: “Expromet is the right fit for us, as it is a part of a progressive engineering group that shares our ethos and commitment to our valued customers and employees.

I am confident that, as part of Expromet, NC Precision will continue to thrive and will further strengthen its position as the leading specialist in sliding head machining. Mandy and I very much look forward to working with Alistair, Andy and their wider teams in the near future.”

8 expromet.com

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of Metaltech Precision, added: “I would like to thank owners Ian and Mandy Gaskell for working closely with us on this transaction.

The acquisition increases our portfolio of sliding head machines to 13 and extends our capacity to offer micro machining of miniature components. I look

lu

JULY 2022

Casting and machining group expands

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UK precision casting and machining group Expromet Technologies Group has acquired NC Precision, which specialises in CNC sliding head machining and miniature machining for a wide range of industry sectors.

NC Precision is based in Chard, Somerset, just a few miles from Expromet group company Metaltech Precision, which manufactures high precision CNC turned, CNC milled and fabricated assemblies, and was acquired by the group in 2021.

Expromet also owns investment casting, diecasting and forging company Investacast, and Haworth Castings, which produces machined sand and gravity die castings The company says the acquisition represents a further step in the development of Expromet as a leading group of advanced precision casting and machining businesses, delivering engineering solutions for performance-critical applications.

Alistair Schofield, CEO of Expromet, said: “We are delighted to welcome NC Precision to the group, and to further extend the substantial range of precision engineered solutions that we are able to offer our diverse customer base. As a specialist in sliding head machining, NC Precision is a logical fit for the group and there are strong synergies between NC and our existing business Metaltech Precision.”

Andy Riste, Managing Director

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INDUSTRY NEWS | Engineering Capacity The 20th edition of the international high precision trade show EPHJ featured over 700 exhibitors and over 18,000 visitors.

The show, which covers high precision, watchmaking, jewellery, microtechnology and medicine was held last month at Palexpo, Geneva.

“We knew that visitor numbers would be higher than in September 2021, when the health crisis ended," explains Alexandre Catton, EPHJ director, “however, this has exceeded our expectations. This development reflects the market trend, particularly in the watch industry, in which the order books tend to be quite full."

The 700 exhibitors came from 14 countries, and the 18,000 visitors were a 33% increase on the 2021 show.

Mr Catton continued: "We are gradually witnessing the

High precision success

return of foreign visitors, who will certainly be even more numerous in 2023.”

In the opinion of the exhibitors, the quality of the visitors made the difference.

Several highlights marked this 20th edition, including the last day being dedicated to Job Dating

LMS

Precision Engineering

High quality cost effective CNC subcontracting.

Produced on state of the art machines EN 9100:2018 ISO 9001: 2015 Approved Telephone: 01905 779783 Email: sales@lmsprecision.co.uk www.lmsprecision.co.uk

High Quality Subcontract Machining 8

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to attempt to fill the 300 vacant positions in these companies. At the inauguration of the EPHJ, the results of a survey performed among young Swiss people to better assess their relationship with watches revealed their attachment to fine mechanical watches, despite the notable progression of smartwatches.

The 2022 Exhibitors' Grand Prix was awarded to Polycrystal for its transparent ceramics.

Altimet, which has technology to predict the wear and tear of implants, won the Watch Medtech Challenge.

The next EPHJ will be at Palexpo, Geneva, from 6 to 9 June 2023.

8 ephj.ch JULY 2022

Engineering Capacity | INDUSTRY NEWS

Subcon going strong at 45 Returning to the NEC, Birmingham on 7 to 9 June, the Subcon show showed it is still going strong in its 45th year with a 30% increase in visitors compared with 2021.

As well as busy stands and conference sessions, the event also offered free cream teas in celebration of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

The co-location with The Engineer Expo and Manufacturing Management Show ensured visitors had plenty to discover, with over 200 international and British exhibitors for visitors.

Exhibitors gave their endorsement with 50% already rebooking their stand for next year, and 10% upgrading their stand size.

A spokesperson from exhibitor Ash Technologies said: “We’ve generated lots of new leads from companies we haven’t seen JULY 2022

before, or companies we’ve tried to get into in the past but haven’t managed to.”

Fellow exhibitor DVR added: “Subcon is always the highlight of our year because of the quality of leads we get and the team here really looks after you. I’m looking forward to next year already!”

The Engineer Expo and Manufacturing Management Show Theatre presented speakers including Rhys Herbert, Senior Economist at Lloyds Bank and Dave Swan, Chief Technology Officer at Tharsus Group, and offered visitors insight into the key issues and trends that are driving innovation and shaping the UK’s industrial landscape in 2022.

New for 2022, the Supply Chain Theatre provided on-thespot usable and workable solutions on everything from

smart tech implementation and security to workforce development and hitting netzero. With speakers from IBM, Alliance Procurement Solutions and Vendigital, there was something for everyone.

Sponsors for Subcon 2022 included manufacturing services provider Omnidex, green utilities adviser Inenco, and sourcing specialist Qimtek.

Event Director, Jason Dante, commented: “Subcon 2022 has been an exceptional show and we’ve been so pleased to see visitor numbers returning to prepandemic levels. The diversity of companies at the show brought together the full manufacturing ecosystem to do business in a lively environment.”

Subcon returns to the NEC on 7 and June 2023.

8 subconshow.co.uk www.engineeringcapacity.com

9

INDUSTRY NEWS | Engineering Capacity CCR Forming which produces precision cold roll formed metal rings, won orders to supply engine components to a number of global primes and tier one companies that has pushed sales towards £1m by the end of 2022.

These contract wins mark the start of a concerted strategy from the Tipton-based company to target opportunities in the sector as aerospace customers look for greater security of supply and shorter lead times.

“Our technical expertise is really in demand by the big aero manufacturers, and this has seen our sales accelerate from £700,000 per annum to an expected £1m turnover this year,” explained Paul Harper, Managing Director of CCR Forming Ltd. “That’s just the start for us. We believe there are lots of new opportunities out there and we are investing heavily to ensure we can attract them by delivering world class quality, precision parts, short lead teams and ontime delivery performance.”

He continued: “The new branding and rename to CCR

Ringing in the new

Forming Ltd reflects a more modern approach and we are just about to press the button on a £100,000 investment in an inhouse welding shop. This will give us more capacity and the agility to turnaround emergency jobs.”

CCR Forming Ltd, which is AS9100 accredited and holds supplier approvals with Leonardo, Rolls-Royce, and ITP, took its new-look and range of critical

Aerospace Oil & Gas Nuclear Defence

PRECISION ENGINEERING www.thomas-brown-engineering.co.uk Tel: 01484 548903

10

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Automotive Electronics Hi Fi

Industrial & High Volume Machining

components to Farnborough International Airshow this month as part of the Midlands Aerospace Alliance Cluster.

The company’s roll forming capabilities over material thicknesses ranging from 0.20mm up to 4mm.

It can also manufacture in all grades of alloys, carbon steels, stainless steels, aluminium and titanium, with the roll forming and circling methods comparing favourably with more expensive techniques including machined forgings and spinning.

Employing 13 people at its Railway Street factory in the Black Country, CCR Forming also supplies into heating and ventilation, telecoms, rail, renewables and its traditional market of couplers for chimney flue manufacturers.

8 ccr-forming.co.uk JULY 2022

Engineering Capacity | INDUSTRY NEWS Injection moulding and chrome-plating specialist Borough Ltd has invested new ‘2-shot’ presses and staff training to allow it to offer selectively chrome-plated plastic components.

The technically advanced Engel machines, allow Southend-based Borough to supply chromeplated plastic trim with complex ‘B’ surfaces, where chrome is only applied to specific areas when it is electroplated – a process that requires careful management by expert technicians.

Most recent to undertake intensive residential training with Engel were moulding operatives, Finlay Clift and Akwasi Asamoa, who both joined recently to help Borough increase the output of moulded and plated components to the automotive, sign-making and packaging sectors.

Aamir Chaudhry, Borough General Manager, explained: “Investing constantly in new machine technology to efficiently deliver high-quality moulded parts is a challenge, but ensuring we have the expertise within our business to exploit this cutting-edge technology is another altogether.

“Engel provide the training courses to complement their machine technology and helping our people get to grips with the injection moulding process is important, given the growing number of projects in our pipeline as re-shoring begins to take hold.

“Besides theoretical explanations, Finlay and Akwasi JULY 2022

Selective chrome plating for mouldings

were introduced to the world of plastics and injection moulding technology, through comprehensive practical exercises that have helped prepare them thoroughly for working in our busy plastic components moulding facility.

“Increasing demand, not just for chrome-plating, but for undertaking our own moulding has required significant investment in Engel machines.

“Now it is just as important that Borough invests in its people to meet the demand we are witnessing for noble chrome and satin finish components, from sectors outside automotive, such as luxury packaging and sign-making.

“Ensuring we have a skilled and engaged workforce, will help us get the most from our investments in technology and keep Borough at the forefront of moulding and plating, competing

8 Finlay Clift and Akwasi Asamoa with their training certificates flanked by Borough directors Nick Coombes and David Brereton

for contracts requiring more technically challenging mouldings or high-volume, highquality components.

“Finlay and Akwasi both showed a great aptitude for the process and have come away from the training with a better understanding of the design and functions of Engel injection moulding machines, similar to those in our mould shop.

“The hands-on exercises proved particularly useful, given the typical heavy workload they face in our busy moulding facility.

We believe a skilled workforce is the best solution to address the challenges of growing demand as more manufacturers look for moulding and plating partners closer to home.”

8 borough.co.uk www.engineeringcapacity.com

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TURNED PARTS | Engineering Capacity

CNC graduates at Neida Two recently graduated machining apprentices at Neida have secured full time positions with the company as CNC sliding head setters.

As a manufacturer of precision turned and milled components, Neida runs a successful apprenticeship scheme from manufacturing locations in Stoke-on-Trent and the Isle of Wight and believes that the key to closing the everincreasing Skills Gap is getting the next generation interested in engineering.

The latest two apprentices to graduate are Ethan Rotherham and Adam Thompson.

Adam says: "After achieving 12 GCSE grades A-C, I preferred a practical approach to education; I chose an apprenticeship to gain the fundamental skills and knowledge to work in the engineering industry.”

After a week of work experience at Neida’s Head Office, Stoke-on -Trent, Ethan and Adam were offered advanced manufacturing engineering machining apprenticeships within the CNC Sliding Head Section.

"The opportunity of work experience at Neida confirmed that the ideal route for me was to achieve an industry-recognised qualification by continuing my learning and starting a career in engineering,” says Ethan.

Like the majority of students 12

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during the last few years, the course has been interrupted by COVID-19. As a result, the assessment and learning methods changed drastically especially with the distinctive rise of e-learning, whereby tutoring was undertaken remotely and on digital platforms. Regular planned contact with college assessors and on the job training delivered by mentors at Neida helped both Ethan and Adam achieve their targets and complete set coursework.

"My Neida Mentors have been great! Since my induction at Neida, they structured one to one training – enabling me to

8 Ethan Rotherham and Adam Thompson have graduated from the Neida apprenticeship scheme and moved into full-time positions

learn specialist skills which can’t be taught in a classroom," explained Ethan.

The opportunity of on and off-site machine training and the support of mentors and team leaders at Neida have been invaluable in promoting the utilisation of newly learned skills within the workplace.

Support and career development will continue and is imperative to help Neida grow.

Adam says: "I have received enormous support from my JULY 2022

Engineering Capacity | TURNED PARTS mentors at Neida; they have provided me with all the skills and knowledge to be a competent machine setter.

Alongside this, I was given the opportunity of additional training on-site at the machine manufacturer, Star."

A personal achievement for both employees during their apprenticeship was the opportunity to program, set and produce turned parts required for ventilators during Covid-19.

During the pandemic in March 2020, Neida was tasked with producing 12 components, a total of 90,000 parts, to be delivered in seven days. The entire workforce embraced the challenge, and both students' dedication to the project ensured Neida achieved these deadlines.

Both employees have supplemented their study by completing a St John's Ambulance training course and are now qualified to perform first aid in the workplace.

With a diverse range of CNC, multi-spindle and cam machines, Neida’s UK manufacturing locations produce turned parts for various sectors, including Automotive, Access & Security, Medical, Electronics, and Interconnect. With a total machine count of 106, 32 are CNC sliding head technology, producing turned parts up to 38mm in diameter.

As Level 3 qualified machinists Adam and Ethan are employed at Neida’s Stoke-on-Trent head office CNC sliding head section.

Responsibilities include JULY 2022

programming, setting, and operating CNC Sliding Head machines. Quality is paramount at Neida; All Machine Setters and Operators adhere to Neida’s quality standards, ensuring components and features are within specification.

Ethan said: "I am looking forward to continuing to progress within the growing CNC Sliding Head section at Neida,” and Adam added: "I would like to continue to progress at Neida and develop my machining skills.”

Gareth Griffiths, Production Manager, NEIDA Head Office, Stoke-on-Trent, congratulated Adam and Ethan on their graduation.

He said: They have grown

8 Training on a Star sliding head machine

both personally and professionally – I am looking forward to the next stage of their development and contribution to the company's growth."

Neida is a UK contract manufacturer of precision turned and milled components.

Producing over 250,000,000 components per year from 0.3mm to 250mm diameter in ferrous, non-ferrous and exotic materials.

Accredited to ISO9001:2015, ISO14001:2015 and IATF16949:2016, Neida provides a complete service for turned and milled components.

8 neida.co.uk www.engineeringcapacity.com

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TURNED PARTS | Engineering Capacity

Turning on new capabilities Goodman Precision Engineering Ltd, a motorsport subcontracting specialist, has invested in a new multi-tasking machine to boost its turning capabilities.

The machine, a compact 6” chuck Lynx 2100LY lathe with a servo-driven turret, driven tooling and integrated Y-axis has so far been used to machine complex, high precision parts, primarily for a range of motorsport customers that includes many F1 Teams and Tier One suppliers.

It has also produced components for automotive customers involved, for example, in re-imagining ‘Classic Cars’ for the electric era.

The Lynx 2100LY is the first Doosan machine to be acquired by the company and is part of Goodman’s decision to significantly grow and strengthen its in-house turning capacity and capabilities.

Since being established Goodman Precision Engineering (GPE) has grown and strengthened its position in the motorsport supply chain and developed close, long-term relationships with many motorsport companies.

The company is known for machining high accuracy parts – from powertrain and manifold components to parts for cylinder heads and air jacks – with a high quality finish.

“Machining components to exacting tolerances and superior surface finishes to Ra. 0.4μm from 14

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solid or castings is our forte,” said GPE Director, Stephen Reynolds.

“We are milling-led company and regularly invest in advanced 3- and 5-axis machining centres to increase our productivity, improve our performance and win new business in the ultracompetitive motorsport sector.

“Whilst milling still remains the company’s primary focus, we recently made the strategic decision to augment our machining capabilities to include turning, and to provide this as an in-house specialism to existing and new customers.”

This has seen GPE, in recent years, invest in new advanced ‘turning’ technologies. The acquisition of the Lynx 2100LY is the latest evidence of the strategy in action.

Back in 2019, the company made the decision, partly to offset the seasonal ‘feast or famine’ dynamic of working in F1, to expand the scope and scale of

its machining operations and services by creating an in-house turning resource.

Up until that point GPE was focused, almost exclusively, on providing high-quality milling services to its motorsport customers, and supplementing them with a range of secondary finishing services, such as anodising, coating, painting, and so on, subcontracted-out to its preferred suppliers.

Stephen Reynolds said: “We knew, from experience and via our contacts, that significant organic growth and new business opportunities existed in the motorsport sector if we could offer both existing and new customers a high-quality turning service.”

This focus on growth resulted in GPE acquiring its first lathe in 2019 as well as recruiting an experienced turner to operate it. Things were progressing as planned – then JULY 2022

Engineering Capacity | TURNED PARTS Covid-19 happened and accelerated the plan.

Explains Stephen Reynolds: “The pandemic caused significant disruption to motorsport across the world with events and competitions being cancelled and postponed throughout 2020… and during 2021 for that matter.

“The turmoil created by the pandemic, within our core markets and throughout our customer base, was a real watershed for us and resulted in

us forensically re-evaluating the business and making strategic decisions about the company’s future direction.”

It was against this backdrop of uncertainty that GPE determined that its previous decision to invest and strengthen its recently introduced in-house turning resource would be given extra impetus. The aim was to secure even more work for machining high-precision turned parts from existing, and new, motorsport

customers, and lessen the overall dependence on the motorsport sector by reaching out to other sectors and industries.

Mr Reynolds added: “In short, we decided, from both a survival and growth perspective, to provide existing customers with new services, as well as diversifying into completely new markets.”

The investment focus was on compact machines and multitasking machines.

8 goodmanpe.co.uk

Wealdpark Limited Stand number 5126

Subcontract Capacity #.# MILL TURN FACILITIES USING SLIDING AND FIXED HEAD LATHES WITH BAR CAPACITY UP TO MM DIAMETER -IYANO FIXED HEAD LATHES WITH BAR CAPACITY UP TO MM DIAMETER (URCO VERTICAL MACHING CENTRE 03, $ATATRACK MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

BS EN ISO 9001:2008. Approved by BSI since 1991.

Company Contact Details Phil Smith, Director, Wealdpark Limited Sutton Road, St. Helens, Merseyside, WA9 3DJ Tel. 01744 22567 / 732083 Fax. 01744 451339 E: sales@wealdpark.co.uk www.wealdpark.co.uk

JULY 2022

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TURNED PARTS | Engineering Capacity

Turning capacity boosted at DP New sliding head machines at Redruth subcontractor DP Engineering have increased capacity, allow more complex parts to be produced and have cut cycle times.

The company is known for being a low-to-medium volume shop, producing parts typically from 10- to 50,000-off from prototypes through to batch work, with over 500 kanban items that can be produced for next day delivery.

The three new Cincom lathes from Citizen Machinery UK include a an L20-XLFV installed three years ago, an identical machine that arrived in autumn 2021 and an M32-VIIILFV bought at the end of last year.

Philip Anthony, DP Engineering's Sales and Marketing Director commented, "The faster rapid traverses and higher power and speed of the main and sub spindles as well as of the driven tools on the new lathes have increased our capacity considerably. One stainless steel aerospace part we previously turn-milled in one hit on an L20 that is 20-plus years old now takes half that time to produce on its modern replacement.

"It is a similar story on the 32 mm machine, which is more userfriendly than the former generation lathe and has better access and visibility into the machining area. Moreover, the addition of a rotary B-axis on the 16

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gang tool post enables us to machine more complex parts than was previously possible on our sliders."

A notable technological advance on DP’s earlier Citizen Cincom machines is LFV (low frequency vibration) chip breaking software which gives a significant increase in productivity when machining malleable materials such as titanium and stainless steel.

It is particularly beneficial for the subcontractor, as one-third of its turnover is derived from the aerospace sector in which the use of such materials is commonplace, as it is in the medical industry, which has also generated more work since the start of the pandemic. Normally during machining, stringy swarf often entangles itself around the tool and component, risking damage to both and necessitating lathe stoppage to clear it from the machining area.

Mr Anthony explained: "For certain parts of cycles, it is very effective at ensuring that what usually becomes a bird's nest of swarf is broken up into shorter chips, avoiding having to stop the machine to remove it and the consequent loss of production.”

He added that, in practice, LFV is particularly effective at controlling swarf on the L20s during turning and drilling operations, while on the M32 it speeds roughing and also plays a role when thread cutting.

Other capital investments made by the subcontractor within the past 12 months include a Matsuura 5-axis, 10pallet cell for automated machining of prismatic components, an Aberlink coordinate measuring machine to inspect them, and a ViciVision optical, non-contact measuring machine for quality control of rotational parts.

8 dpengineeringltd.co.uk JULY 2022

Engineering Capacity | TURNED PARTS Dawson Precision Components (DPC) has invested in two new sliding head turning centres following an unprecedented level of order intake and open order book value.

The new machines are a Citizen M32 Type VIII with Low Frequency Vibration (LFV) chip breaking technology and a Star SR20R IV Type B with SCP. The Greater Manchester, family owned company says that it chose the Citizen machine based on it past experience and the Star machine as its layout is in the opposite hand to the Citizen, which allowed it to fit in a space in the workshop. It was also available on a much shorter delivery time.

The Star machine will be used on a lot of Kanban contract parts, whereas the Citizen will generally be used for more complex parts because of the greater number of tools available.

A contributing factor to the unprecedented levels of demand for DPC was a large influx of new work from an existing customer in the defence sector. The company had lost one of its suppliers last year and needed to re-source the work.

DPC provides a wide-ranging subcontract and precision engineering services to clients in the UK, Europe and beyond.

Sectors served include aerospace, aviation, defence, energy, environmental, marine, medical, motorsport and rail transport.

The company, which was founded in 1965, has a programme of continuous JULY 2022

More turning capacity at DPC

investment in the latest machine tools. Together with the latest production control software and inspection facilities this ensures it can offer a premium service to its customers.

Its production facility houses CNC turning and milling machining tools, inspection facilities and bespoke finishing

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and packaging services.

Approved subcontractors provide heat treatment and plating services to complement these in-house services.

DPC is a member of the BTMA, accredited to ISO 9001:2015 and can supply FAIR Certification in accordance with AS9102.

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Manufacturers of High Quality Mill-Turned Parts

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TURNED PARTS | Engineering Capacity

Triple turret capabilities Velden Engineering (UK) Ltd has taken delivery of a Nakamura-Tome NTY3-150 twin spindle 3-turret turning centre from the Engineering Technology Group (ETG).

Delivered in March, the new addition has been purchased to produce high-volume components beyond the size capacity of the company’s sliding head turning centres.

Based in Bolton, Velden offers a complete range of services including CNC machining, laser cutting, waterjet machining, sheet metalwork, assembly, design and development and more. The company now serves clients in sectors as diverse as nuclear, offshore, rail, motorsport, aerospace, automotive, environmental, medical and pharmaceutical.

In 2012, the manufacturer acquired its first Nakamura-Tome turning centre, a compact WT100 twin-spindle twin turret machine. This formed part of a

Visit our website or contact us for a quote or advice

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strategy to replace older machines with modern multitasking machines to reduce the number of operations and improve efficiency.

A decade later that first WT100 machine was replaced by a brand new WT150II that arrived in November. This has now been followed by the new Nakamura-Tome NTY3-150.

Lee said: “Many of our enquiries are now for parts in higher volumes with increased complexity that are above the size parameters for our slidinghead machines. As a 3-turret machine all with Y-axis, the Nakamura NTY3-150 machine opens up a greater opportunity to do even more simultaneous machining and it will deliver even

faster cycle times. This will be possible through the use of special tooling on what will be very price-sensitive parts. The additional cost of the Nakamura NTY3-150 will be offset by allowing us to be even more competitive on certain packages of work and it will therefore enable us to win a lot of new business off the back of it.”

He says: “Just on one specific part that we have transferred to the NTY3-150, we have seen a reduced cycle time of 40%. That has taken the cycle time from 2 minutes 30 seconds to less than 1 minute 30 seconds. The cost implications are therefore huge.

We already had very productive machines, but the new Nakamura-Tome NTY3-150 means we can be competitive on parts where we used to struggle to compete previously. This will obviously open up new markets, industries and production opportunities for us.”

“The capability of simultaneous machining and three turrets with Y-axis is now allowing us to machine parts of even greater complexity that we could either not have done or done competitively previously.

“The new NTY3-150 offers extra capacity, improved productivity, flexibility and capability and it extends the life of our range of fully reliable turning machines.”

8 veldenengineering.co.uk JULY 2022

Engineering Capacity | AEROSPACE & DEFENCE Electric VTOL jet maker Lilium has partnered with Honeywell and DENSO to co-develop and manufacture the electric motor that will power its engines.

Honeywell is already developing the Lilium Jet’s avionics and flight control systems and invested in Lilium in 2021. A leader in aerospace technologies with over 100 years of experience, Honeywell also has an alliance with automotive giant DENSO to develop aerospace electric propulsion solutions. Through this collaboration, the Lilium Jet’s emotor will benefit from Honeywell’s aerospace expertise as well as DENSO’s experience in high-quality volume production.

The Lilium e-motor is a proprietary, high-performance system, on which Lilium, DENSO and Honeywell teams have been working for nearly two years. It is expected to bring exceptional performance and reliability with zero operating emissions typically associated with commercial jet engines.

An air-cooled design offers structural simplicity and ease of maintenance compared with traditional liquid cooling systems, and therefore has the potential to significantly reduce aircraft operating costs.

The e-motor has its rotor and stator in a centrifugal or ‘radial’ configuration, compared to traditional axial designs. This lowers the component’s weight, manufacturing costs and susceptibility to foreign object damage. It also boasts industryJULY 2022

Electric jet partners

leading power density, with the first prototypes designed to extract over 100kW of power from a system weighing just over 4kg.

Yves Yemsi, Chief Operating Officer of Lilium said: “Lilium’s Procurement strategy is to engage with the technology providers with the most suitable expertise. We are already making great progress with Honeywell on its Honeywell Anthem integrated flight deck and flight control computers, and we are delighted to deepen our relationship by also partnering with Honeywell and DENSO on our e-motor. The collaboration with these two powerhouses takes us further along the path to revolutionizing regional air mobility.”

Stéphane Fymat, vice president and general manager of Urban Air Mobility, Honeywell Aerospace said: “Honeywell has

been at the forefront of innovation in aviation for a century, and we are proud to closely collaborate with DENSO and help usher in the age of electric flight. Lilium’s innovation, combined with our experience in aerospace, will help to bring about cleaner, more sustainable ways for people to travel for centuries to come.”

Koji Ishizuka, senior director of the Electric Sora-Mobi Business Promotion Department at DENSO, said: “DENSO’s focus is powering the shift to a green, safe and seamless mobility future for all. We’re grateful to work with Honeywell and Lilium on making air travel cleaner and more efficient, and in doing so, we have the opportunity to apply our electrification expertise to vehicles on land and in the sky.”

8 lilium.com www.engineeringcapacity.com

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AEROSPACE & DEFENCE | Engineering Capacity

Strategic data partnership The trade body representing the UK’s aerospace, defence, security and space sectors, ADS, has appointed management consultancy, Vendigital, as its strategic data partner.

As part of the collaboration, Vendigital will be working with ADS to extend support to its more than 1,100 members; providing access to reliable industry and market data, combined with robust analysis and supply chain intelligence.

In particular, Vendigital is supporting a number of ADS’s aerospace manufacturing members in responding to the industry ramp up with data-

based insights to assist them in areas such as capacity planning, supply chain management and labour strategies.

For ADS, the decision to appoint Vendigital as its strategic data partner has come at an important moment for its members who work across the aerospace, defence, security and space sectors.

Kevin Craven, CEO, ADS, explained: “The current operating environment is very challenging, and it is important that businesses harness the power of data and understand the strategic benefits it can bring in supporting organisation

8 Roy Williams of Vendigital and Kevin Craven of ADS

reach and develop their business objectives.

“Vendigital’s experience in the delivery of data-based insights to support businesses and industries through time of change can provide valuable support to ADS members.”

Roy Williams, CEO at Vendigital, added: “Using accurate data to guide decision making is critical and could help businesses to direct their own digital and cost transformations, while greening operations and thriving as a result.”

8 Adsgroup.org.uk

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JULY 2022

Engineering Capacity | AEROSPACE & DEFENCE Kilkeel, Northern Ireland aircraft seating manufacturer, Collins Aerospace has been recognised in three separate industry awards for its innovative products, processes and excellence.

The company was awarded the Automotive, Aerospace and Rail award at the recent Insider Media Made in Northern Ireland Awards, where it was shortlisted in four categories. The judges noted Collins’ commitment to using the local Northern Ireland supply chain as being an important part of its success.

The Made in Northern Ireland Awards, which were held at Titanic Hotel in Belfast, showcased the high quality and excellence of the region’s manufacturing and engineering businesses, and recognised the resilience of the companies operating within the sectors.

The company has also been announced as a finalist in the respected Crystal Cabin Awards for 2022, which recognise and award excellence in aircraft interior innovation. It has been shortlisted in the ‘New Cabin Concepts’ Jaltek has increased its manufacturing space by 50% and is recruiting in production, engineering and account management, to meet increased demand for electronic assembly.

The additional facility is next to the original factory near Luton, and will be ready to start production of electronic

JULY 2022

Triple award for Collins

category for the innovation shown in the design and manufacture of the Finnair AirLounge seat, which was one of this year’s most widely discussed entries.

Manufactured by the team in Kilkeel, the AirLounge business class seat was created in cooperation with Finnair, PriestmanGoode and Tangerine. It has been described as “more like a piece of classic Nordic furniture than a simple airline seat” for its features, which include a contoured shell design that provides passengers with more living space and freedom to relax,

as well as offering added privacy.

Collins Aerospace in Kilkeel, part of Raytheon Technologies (RTX), which has over 300 sites globally, was also recently announced as the winner of the RTX/Collins Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) Award for Large Site Excellence.

The award recognised the Kilkeel facility for demonstrating excellence in EH&S management over the preceding two-year period through significant performance improvement or long-term sustained performance excellence.

8 collinsaerospace.com

Meeting electronics demand system assembly and test in the coming months.

Jaltek’s Steve Blythe said, “We continue to see sustained growth in a number of sectors including in Aerospace, Medical and EV related products. More clients require full system assembly and test which has led

to some great opportunities.”

Steve Pittom, Managing Director added, “Essentially this investment enables us to continue delivering our vision towards world class competitiveness and productivity for our customers.”

8 jaltek.com

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AEROSPACE & DEFENCE | Engineering Capacity

EDM outsourcing partnership Strategic manufacturing outsourcing specialist PP Control & Automation has signed a new deal to support the development of what is said to be the world’s most productive EDM drilling machine.

The West Midlands-based company will assemble the EDM generator module that is at the heart of Winbro Group Technologies’ new HSD-351 model.

A new production cell has been set-up to complete the build, with work on the first 25 units set to begin shortly.

These machines will be used for drilling holes in complex aero and industrial gas turbine blades and nozzle guide vanes.

The relationship has spanned a decade and ten different model variants, with the decision to outsource continuing to provide production ‘flex’, reduced assembly time and improved supply chain management for Winbro.

Tony Hague, CEO of PP C&A, commented: “If you are going to write a book about strategic manufacturing outsourcing and how it can work, I’d like to think this relationship would be in the case study section.

“To work with a company that operates in such a demanding field for ten years is some achievement and we are delighted to be entering our ‘testimonial year’ with a new machine tool to help them build.”

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He continued: “The HSD-351 is an EDM machine that packs so much power in so little space and we have been instrumental in helping produce the heartbeat of the model – the EDM generator module.”

Manufacturers are increasingly looking to deliver more productivity per square metre of shopfloor space, and this drove Winbro Group Technologies’ decision to develop and launch the HSD-351 system.

With a footprint of just 2.5m2, Winbro says it is the world’s most productive EDM drilling

machine and boasts a capacity of almost 700 electrodes, across a range of diameters giving unprecedented lights-out machining capability.

Gary Robinson, Vice President of Sourcing at Winbro, said: “The HSD-351 is proving that a small footprint can also be powerful, delivering more performance than our previous best-in-class model.

“At the heart of this capability is the EDM Generator module, which is assembled and built at PP Control & Automation to ensure we get the same repeatable quality in every unit.

“This machine really illustrates the strength of our relationship… it’s business critical. Together, we sat down and looked at the design for manufacture for the generator and, using the expertise of both firms, we were able to come up with an assembly process that is faster and more efficient.”

He continued: “It also has the benefit of being fully UL 508A approved for the American market, something we now take for granted after working with PP Control & Automation for so long.”

Engineers at PP C&A’s world class manufacturing and assembly plant are just getting started on the first of 25 units over the course of the next twelve months, with design for manufacturing contributing to an assembly time reduction.

8 ppcanda.com JULY 2022

Engineering Capacity | FORMING & FABRICATION Lesjöfors has developed a new wire form for fishing lure manufacturer Salta Lure.

The component is for a newly developed trolling product line, MagPower, that includes a quick release system that allows lures to be changed over very quickly.

The new part is a stainless steel component for the lure’s locking system.

From the very beginning, the customer had a clear picture of what the component would look like and what specifications it needed to meet. After internal discussions, it was clear that the Lesjöfors company in Nordmarkshyttan was best equipped to help out with designing and producing the wire form.

To begin with, the customer's representative Georgios Toris received samples of how the wire form could be designed. When he was content with the dimension, the technicians at Lesjöfors continued with the requirements for strength, the component needed to withstand a weight of remarkable 136 kilos. Lesjöfors' technical expert Mattias Hartvigsson performed a FE analysis on the ring diameter in question and it turned out to work excellently.

The choice of wire material was the stainless steel Duplex EN10270-3-1.4462 as it is hard and can withstand a lot of load.

"Unfortunately, the wire form will probably never break so the JULY 2022

New customer hooked

only way we will have the opportunity to sell more is if the fishermen drop the fishing box in the lake," says Christian Larsson,

technical sales at Lesjöfors Industrifjädrar in Nordmarkshyttan.

8 lesjoforsab.com

From design, sampling and technical support to manufacture, Simpson Springs & Pressings Ltd provide the complete service.

Tel: 0118 978 6573 Email: sales@simpsonsprings.co.uk

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23

FORMING & FABRICATION | Engineering Capacity

Electron beam welding breakthrough Sheffield Forgemasters says it has achieved a breakthrough in the industrialisation of Electron Beam Welding (EBW) for thick-section materials.

Using EBW, the company weldjoined two 200 mm thick, threemeter diameter vessel sections in UK-SMR nuclear grade steel. The weld, equivalent to approximately 10m of length, was completed in a single pass and in a dramatically short timeframe.

Completed in 140 minutes, with no reportable defects shown in preliminary non-destructive testing (NDT), a weld of this kind would typically take months and include numerous stages of NDT as well as heat-treatment.

Research, Design and Technology Director, Professor Jesus Talamantes-Silva, said: “This is the most critical milestone in our project to industrialise EBW and to eliminate the requirement for large vacuum chambers typically used in this technology, we have pioneered the use of local vacuum EBW alongside our project partners, Cambridge Vacuum Engineering (CVE).”

“This follows a body of work started in 2015 with support from Innovate UK to establish the basic science for local vacuum EBW, which was successful, producing welds with very favourable mechanical properties.”

The company initiated a subsequent 2019 project: ‘Industrialisation of large-scale 24

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electron beam welding for nuclear industry applications’ to further prove the technology, supported by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) as part of its £505m Energy Innovation Portfolio.

Sheffield Forgemasters’ aim is to incorporate advanced fabrication techniques, offering significant savings on both processing time and cost through the potential of electron beam welding over the more traditional method of Tungsten Inert Gas welding for thick-section pressure vessels.

The EBW process uses local vacuum and a high power electron gun which penetrates the vessel material with an electron beam, to melt and fuse the two components together in one pass, rather than building up of multiple layers of weld filler wire.

Senior Development Engineer & Project Lead, Dr Michael Blackmore, added: “We completed the weld and carried out the factory acceptance testing of the machine tool, a

process that verifies that the equipment is built and operating in accordance with design specifications at CVE's site in Cambridge.

The project, led by Sheffield Forgemasters, underpins the company’s ambitious commitment to the UK’s civil nuclear ambitions as demonstrated through its supply of complex, nuclear-grade demonstrator forgings to the Rolls-Royce SMR programme.

To ensure successful dissemination and awareness of the EBW technology, an industry steering committee including the Ministry of Defence, Rolls-Royce submarines and SMR divisions, The UK Atomic Energy Authority and Cavendish Nuclear, was formed. Engagement with the Office for Nuclear Regulation and Environment Agency was also instigated by BEIS as the project progressed.

Michael concluded: “We are due to start building an X-Ray enclosure to house the EBW equipment, and it will be ready JULY 2022

Engineering Capacity | FORMING & FABRICATION during Q2 2022. We are also planning to fully demonstrate the welding capabilities by fabricating a full-scale nuclear pressure vessel which will consist of five main components, four shells and a nuclear head, to ensure a reliable and repetitive process.”

The project benefits from partner contributions and support from CVE, Arc Energy Resources, The Welding Institute, the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre at the University of Sheffield, and the Universities of Cambridge and Manchester.

JULY 2022

Managing Director of CVE, Bob Nicolson, said; “We have been proud to host the ONR, EA and BEIS representatives during visits to our Cambridge factory to officially present progress and hardware capabilities to be utilised at Sheffield Forgemasters.”

Sheffield Forgemasters actively supports the development of materials and processes for the nuclear sector. Safety-critical components, i.e. castings and forgings, have been produced using conventional methods.

More advanced manufacturing techniques such as Hot-Isostatic

Pressing and advanced metalforming have also been successfully implemented at its Brightside Lane facilities.

Although the main core activity of the EBW project is welding, other work packages within the project will also advance Sheffield Forgemasters’ technical expertise in areas such as fracture mechanics and cladding.

The project was part funded under the £26m Advanced Manufacturing and Materials Programme within the BEIS Energy Innovation Programme.

8 sheffieldforgemasters.com

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25

FORMING & FABRICATION | Engineering Capacity

Welded wire success story William Hughes has become leading supplier of welded wire assemblies, primarily for the automotive industry.

The Company’s expertise in MIG, MAG, TIG, spot/resistance and butt welding processes has led to it establishing a total of 33 welding cells across its three factories in the UK, Poland and Bulgaria.

In the UK, William Hughes Ltd is the only supplier of large volume automotive welded assemblies, a skill it has spent the last twenty years perfecting, still trading.

William Hughes has always been a large volume producer of wires, springs and small welded assemblies for the automotive industry. Twenty years ago, welding was carried out manually or by simple semi-automated machines but Engineering Director Emma Burgon had the foresight to focus on acquiring a contract for 100% rear seat welded assemblies, having correctly recognised a potential gap in the market at the Company’s low cost facility in Bulgaria. The William Hughes engineering department was tasked with understanding the specific tooling required to manufacture this type of product and the investment necessary to bring such tooling manufacture in-house.

After several years of honing their knowledge and developing 26

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their expertise, the team in Bulgaria was successful in securing two major contracts.

Typically these rear seat welded assemblies have approximately 50-60 welds; however for one of the newly secured projects, each frame had a total of 120 welds!

Despite the complexity and difficulty involved, William Hughes rose to the challenge.

Using a mixture of in-house design with support from subcontract tool makers, the first William Hughes welding tools were soon being produced.

Shortly afterwards, the first-off tool components appeared and were ready to be measured in William Hughes’s high-tech quality department.

After two years of manufacture in Bulgaria, word of the Company’s capability reached the customer base in the UK and it secured its first welded assembly for the home market.

By this time, some serious investment in machinery and personnel had led to William Hughes producing its own tooling, allowing more control over design philosophy and greater cost effectiveness.

These early projects have now all gone to end of production but William Hughes growth in this area has meant that they now have a total of 23 MAG robot welding cells and 10 spot robot welding cells over its three manufacturing locations.

8 wmhughes.co.uk JULY 2022

Engineering Capacity | CASTING & FORGING Copper Alloys has developed a lead-free material for use in food and beverage industry. applications such as valve fittings, pumps and gears.

Achieving FDA approved GRAS status, the material is a food-safe alloy with low friction and anti-galling characteristics in contrast to stainless steel.

The alloy’s composition means it offers high corrosion resistance in both acidic and caustic environment and it’s specially developed to prevent galling when in contact with stainless steel, even in high-speed contact applications. What’s more, its alloyed-in lubrication avoids the need for externally supplied lubrication, and it holds uniform properties in all directions.

Ben Turner, Managing Director of Copper Alloys said: “Through the inclusion of a specific mix of minerals and elements we created a fine dispersion of soft globular phases distributed throughout the alloy structure.

These phases provide the alloy’s inbuilt lubricity and exceptionally low friction and anti-galling characteristics against austenitic stainless steels.”

To ensure stringent certification and documentations, every piece is hard marked with a cast and bar number so that it can easily be traced back to the relevant material certification.

Each batch is also subject to indepth assessment of chemical composition, liquid penetrant, tensile and hardness properties All certification is produced in accordance with BS EN 10204 3.1.

JULY 2022

New alloy for food sector

Copper Alloys exercises precise control over alloy composition and using advanced

process technology techniques, the firm has developed a range of high-performance alloys designed to give engineers greater options for a variety of significant applications in the food and beverage industry.

Traceability from source to customer is guaranteed.

8 copperalloys.net

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CASTING & FORGING | Engineering Capacity Leading UK aluminium die casting foundry, MRT Castings Ltd, has been honoured with a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade, for the second time in six years.

Following its previous award in 2016, the Andover based manufacturer has experienced a further period of exceptional growth in export sales.

MRT produces aluminium die castings and machined components for a wide range of UK and international customers.

These components are used in applications as diverse as hi-fi equipment to supercars, and designer lighting to military control systems. One of the company’s largest markets is in medical devices, and in particular, critical care ventilators.

When the Covid-19 pandemic struck, hospitals around the world were in desperate need of additional ventilators to treat critically ill patients. Since 2014, MRT has worked with one of the world’s leading manufacturers of these ventilators, supplying 21 components in each unit. Prior to the pandemic, MRT produced approximately 4,000 kits of these

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MRT Castings wins Queen’s Award

precision engineered and finished components each year, but between April 2020 and March 2021, MRT dramatically scaled up operations to manufacture over 26,000 sets, enabling its customers to supply life-saving ventilators to every corner of the globe.

This year MRT celebrates its 75th Anniversary. The familyowned business was originally established in London, then relocated to its current production

base in Hampshire in 1965. It has steadily expanded the scale and complexity of their production facilities over the years, and just prior to the pandemic, opened a new, purpose-built, state-of-theart diecasting foundry to accommodate future growth.

The company wasn’t expecting to fill it quite so quickly, but with the challenge of rapidly scaling up operations to respond to the Covid-19 crisis, the business invested in additional two diecasting cells and seven additional CNC machining centres over just a few weeks. It added a second shift, and almost doubled the workforce, instantly transforming the new foundry into a hive of productivity and innovation. It is now one of the most technically advanced diecasting facilities in the UK. The new foundry has been designed with digital JULY 2022

Engineering Capacity | CASTING & FORGING manufacturing at the heart of its operations. As machines from the original facility were transferred into the new building, each was fully refurbished and upgraded to incorporate the latest robotic ancillary equipment, and full networking capabilities for data transfer and real-time monitoring.

Indeed the facility itself was designed in partnership with the Manufacturing Technology Centre, utilizing 3D virtual reality representations of the building and the machinery to optimize the efficiency of the layout.

The investment has not been limited to MRT’s foundry operations though. The company’s extensive in-house machine shop now boasts 26 Brother high efficiency CNC machining centres, and three CNC turning centres, including a new Biglia 620YS installed just last month. All of the machines have been selected for their lightning speed, accuracy, flexibility, and one-hit machining capabilities for maximum productivity.

This impressive array of manufacturing technology has attracted an increasingly complex range of new projects from international and UK-based customers. MRT supports those projects with a collaborative design support service. In-house Solidworks CAD and Magmasoft casting simulation capabilities complement MRT’s 75 years of engineering experience to ensure that component and tooling designs are optimised for the ultimate functionality, repeatability and productivity.

JULY 2022

MRT's current export markets now cover Western Europe, Eastern Europe and North America. Overseas sales have grown by 437% over the past three years and the proportion of sales exported has increased to 85% of total sales.

Managing Director, Phil Rawnson, explained “A Queen’s

Award for Enterprise is the ultimate accolade for a UK business, and to have won two just six years apart is testament to the relentless energy and enthusiasm of our team. To receive this honour during the company’s 75th anniversary year is particularly special.”

8 mrt-castings.co.uk

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CASTING & FORGING | Engineering Capacity Doncasters, which manufactures high-precision alloy engineering components, has acquired UniPol, a global business specialising in the manufacture of superalloy cast parts.

The company says the acquisition places it amongst the largest manufacturers of highprecision alloy components in the global supply chain, enhancing the future for the group, its employees, and customers.

The precision parts market is expected to reach revenues of $300 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of over 10% between 2019 and 2025. Doncasters has seen the industry develop since 1778, when the company’s founder, Daniel Doncaster applied the crucible steel-making process to the manufacture of hand tools. From creating forging tools, Doncasters developed a reputation for quality craftmanship, reliability and metallurgical knowledge.

Since it was established, Doncasters has grown to be a leading international manufacturer of high-precision engineering components. Each of its eleven advanced production facilities across Europe and the US has specialist capabilities and serves a broad blue-chip client base, including Siemens, GE, RollsRoyce, Ansaldo, BorgWarner, Garrett Motion and Cummins.

Established in 2005, Uni-Pol has four manufacturing facilities in China, India, Mexico and the UK. This acquisition means that Doncasters will have an annual revenue of over $500 million and 30

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Cast parts acquisition

employ nearly 3,000 people across 7 countries.

“Some time ago, we identified Uni-Pol as a natural fit with the Doncasters group of businesses,” explained Mike Quinn, CEO of Doncasters. “The additional support from the group gives Uni-Pol extensive opportunities to further develop its offering and, in turn, Doncasters will benefit from Uni-Pol’s additional expertise and technology. It also broadens Doncasters’ product offering, benefiting existing and new international customers, particularly those in Asia and South America.

“This is an exciting time for the Doncasters group of businesses, as we invest in upgrading our operating equipment, technology platforms and capabilities, so that we can be more efficient, accurate, timely and can compete on a wider scale. We’ll also be strengthening and

developing our talent, who will benefit from the opportunities created by this acquisition,” concluded Quinn.

David Orr, Chief Executive Officer of Uni-Pol commented, “This is a fantastic new chapter in our history. This synergy is great for our people and for our customers as we focus on supplying complex, high-quality competitive products for the automotive and aerospace industries on an international scale. I’m looking forward to working together as one team, towards what looks like a bright future for us all.”

Doncasters says that the uniting of these two companies will augment its mission to supply complex, high-quality, competitive products for the aerospace, automotive and industrial gas turbine industries on an international scale.

8 doncasters.com JULY 2022

Engineering Capacity | COMPOSITES

Making a Lamborghini faster Envisage group has helped 7X design create a 270mph carbon fibre-bodied hypercar, the Rayo, takes as its starting point a Lamborghini Huracan.

The finished car took to the track for the first time at this year’s Supercar Fest: The Runway on 29 May. Translating as ‘lightning’ in Spanish, Rayo is the latest project from bespoke vehicle creator 7X Design. The super-enhanced 1900bhp Lamborghini Huracan LP 610-4 took to the 1km runway reaching 190 mph as the coachbuilt carbon fibre body, engineered by Envisage Group, stood out as an exemplar of hypercar engineering.

Now in its third year, Supercar Fest is the fastest growing supercar event in the UK. Much of the focus was on the everpopular First Point Hypercar Zone where the Rayo went headto-head with more than 50 unique vehicles, impressing the audience with its combination of speed and striking aesthetic.

Rayo’s twin-turbocharged V10 engine produces an incredible 1900bhp – compared to the standard car’s 610bhp. Yet the true differential is the aerodynamic body with a drag coefficient Cd of just 0.279 – a significant 28.5% better than the original. Envisage’s coachbuilding expertise has supported the extensive improvements to performance.

Envisage is known within the JULY 2022

automotive sector for supporting vehicle development for everyone from start-ups to OEMs. 7X Design is a specialized automotive designer and project manager that creates one-off vehicles of the highest standard. The team at Envisage had previously worked with 7X Design on a project in 2019 and was first choice to coachbuild the Rayo.

Envisage collaborated with 7X Design throughout the process, providing engineering on the provided 3D designs after handscanning the base vehicle to produce a full 3D model. The team then set to work engineering each individual panel, manufacturing the carbon fibre components and assembling the vehicle to match the design to sub-millimetre accuracy, and the integrity needed for 270 mph plus speeds. Before the final build, the advanced paint technologies division painted all components in Sport Orange.

Since being established in 2009, Envisage Group grew on the back

of its ability to respond to changing customer requirements.

With four sites in Coventry, together with offices in India and the US, the group has become a coachbuilder for automotive clients around the world.

Tim Strafford, Envisage Group CEO, said: “Supercar Fest was a fantastic event and highlighted just what we’re capable of. The Rayo is a remarkable vehicle and we’re very proud to have played such a key role in its creation. Our relationship with 7X Design goes from strength to strength and we relish every challenge.”

After reaching a top speed of 278 mph in testing, the next goal is to hit 300 mph.

8 envisagegroupltd.com www.engineeringcapacity.com

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OIL & GAS | Engineering Capacity

Difficult duplex components At CIRC Manufacturing in Westbury, Wiltshire, Low Frequency Vibration (LFV) technology on its Citizen sliding head turning centres ensures productivity and quality on difficult materials.

A tubular Duplex stainless steel weld collar for the oil and gas industry is a good example of how the benefits of LFV can be utilised. The high strength material has a tendency to work harden as it is being machined, the impact of which can be reduced by taking deep cuts to remove the work-hardened layer from the previous pass.

The problem is that taking deep cuts in such tough, ductile materials inhibits chip breaking and normally results in a bird's nest of swarf wrapping itself around the component and tool, to the detriment of both and perhaps even rendering them useless. LFV prevents this from happening, so every part produced is perfect and tools last longer. In the case of the weld collar, LFV is switched on for facing the bar and turning a chamfer, then to maintain a high production rate it is switched off for simultaneously boring and turning the OD. Company owner Tom Pearce explained, "Sliding-head lathes when used with the guide bush in place have an inherent drawback.

It is not really feasible to rough and then finish turn a part, as the smaller diameter of the roughed 32

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section when drawn back into the guide bush would cause vibration and impair the finishing pass.

"It is therefore necessary to turn to size in one operation, but that tends to produce long, stringy swarf when machining certain malleable materials. The LFV software prevents this from happening by lifting the tool tip away from the surface of the material periodically for a few microseconds.

"The frequency of the oscillation can be adjusted in the part program to control the size of the much shorter chips, added to which the LFV function can be turned off by G-code when it is more expedient, i.e. slightly quicker, to cut without it.

"Overall, productivity is increased by enabling reliable unattended operation, eliminating the need to include axis shuffles in programs to shake swarf off components, especially from grooves, and avoiding the need to

stop the machine to clear swarf."

Mr Pearce is enthused that the chip breaking software also reduces problems and raises productivity when machining other materials such as pure copper, exotic alloys, other stainless steels and most plastics, especially nylons.

Commenting on his Citizen Cincom machines, Mr Pearce concluded, "The three Cincoms are the bedrock of our subcontract machining service.

All feature main and sub spindles, full length bar feeds and a multitude of tools for driven cross working, end face milling and off-centre drilling.

"They enable us to offer economical done-in-one manufacture, without the need for secondary operations. This in turn allows us to run our machines unmanned, so we can offer competitive prices and hence fantastic value to our clients.

8 circmfg.co.uk/ JULY 2022

Engineering Capacity | MOULDING A new moulding machine at Advanced Plastics has doubled output on a key range of products.

The FANUC ROBOSHOT S450iA injection moulding machine, the first in the UK, was installed in combination with an integrated FANCU robot. The success of the installation led Advanced Plastics, a supplier of precision-engineered parts to OEMs in the automotive, medical, packaging, defence and consumer goods industries, to invest in a second machine/robot combination cell.

Rob Anderson, Managing Director of Advanced Plastics, said: “The combination of the FANUC robot and moulding machine allows us to seamlessly integrate our processes. This has resulted in a dramatic increase in our output from around 600,000 parts on a particular range up to a planned 1.3 million.”

Based in Hull, Advanced Plastics undertakes everything from initial design concepts to volume production of plastic mouldings and assemblies, structural plastic components and technical automotive components. The company has almost 10 years’ experience of using FANUC equipment, as Rob explains: “Our injection moulding machines produce high-level engineering parts in various grades of plastic. Since we purchased the first FANUC robot back in 2012, we now have nine ROBOSHOT machines and over 40 FANUC robots. We are proud to be the first company in the UK JULY 2022

Moulding output doubled to purchase the FANUC ROBOSHOT S450iA. We purchased this machine on the back of our experience with FANUC, as we needed a bigger machine that gives us the sensitivity to protect very delicate tooling. This machine perfectly fits the bill.”

The ROBOSHOT S450iA injecting moulding machine operates with a clamp force of 4,500kN, a double platen die height of between 350mm and 1m, and a clamping stroke of 900mm. Weighing 29.7 tonnes, it boasts a rated maximum injection speed of 180mm/s.

FANUC’s M-20iD35 robot offers fast and efficient movement in all six axes with a maximum load capacity of 35kg, which is more than sufficient for lightweight plastic injection moulded components.

The system at Advanced Plastics has a range of intelligent, digital features. In this instance, one of the key smart benefits is

the FANUC AI-Protect system for both mould and ejector. This provides unparalleled mould protection, which in turn neutralises an important potential cause of downtime.

“AI-Protect allows the moulds to open and close at fast speeds with full protection of the tooling.

The tooling can often be just as expensive as the moulding machines so we must protect it,” said Ed Darling, Advanced Plastics’ Process Manager.

To highlight the effectiveness of this feature, Ed outlines an incident when an apple was dropped between two surfaces of the mould: “Because of the accuracy of the AI-Protect, the apple wasn’t crushed. That shows the precision that we need on these moulding machines.”

Other automated features include Clamp Force Adjustment, which checks and adjusts the minimum clamp force to provide increased security, eliminating the need to manually modify this www.engineeringcapacity.com

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MOULDING | Engineering Capacity meant we could get products to market extremely quickly. At Advanced Plastics, we like to experience new technologies and look at innovative technologies where we can achieve better results for our customers. In essence, the FANUC ROBOSHOT S450iA was the only machine that could do the particular job that we needed it to do – and it does it very well.”

8 advanced-plastics.co.uk

FANUC moulding machines because, being all-electric, they are economical to run; but mostly, I like them because we are a cycle time-oriented business.”

For Rob Anderson, meanwhile, the success of the first system quickly led to the company placing an order for a second: “We went for the second machine due to the easy installation of the first. The short lead times offered by FANUC

critical parameter. Optimising clamp force also minimises mould wear and increases machine life, cuts component defects, reduces energy consumption and compresses start-up times.

As a result of the close integration of machine, robot and software, exceptionally fast cycle times can be achieved.

Ed Darling explained that this is a key benefit to Advanced Plastics: “I particularly like

CNC PRECISION COMPONENTS 8

JFL are broach and broaching specialists with many years personal experience. We offer a comprehensive broaching service covering keyways, squares, hexagons and special forms.

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Qualiturn Products Limited Qualiturn are a very modern subcontract machining service. We offer CNC precision Turned and Milled components to your specifications and quantities. We work with all sizes of customers, offering the same service to all. Supplying various market sectors across the world.

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DIRECTORY | Engineering Capacity

LATHES.CO.UK Lathes.co.uk store.lathes.co.uk - where Manuals, Catalogues Drive Belts Books Accessories & Spares are listed The world’s largest machine tool reference archive. Manuals, Catalogues, Books, Pictures Specifications, Technical Guides Wardlow, Tideswell, Buxton, Derbyshire, SK17 8RP Tel. 01298-871633 (from overseas: +44-1298-871633) from 09:00 to 23:00 UK time www.lathes.co.uk

G W Martin and Co Ltd GW Martin are a supplier of precision machined CNC components and assemblies. Recent investments in the latest automated technologies reinforce our strong reputation for high quality parts and service excellence.

Contact us for your complete service engineering requirements.

7 Bishopstoke Road, Eastleigh, Hampshire, England, SO50 6AD Tel: 023 8064 2922 Email: sales@gwmartin.co.uk www.gwmartin.co.uk

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A one-stop-shop for high-quality turned parts

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2 & 3 November 2022 | NEC Birmingham

The UK’s LEADING annual gathering of OEMs and engineering and manufacturing supply chain professionals A great event bringing multiple sectors together to show innovation in engineering.

2 days of networking 4 free to attend forums 1000s of innovative solutions

Matt Travis, Engineering Manager, JCB

400+ leading suppliers Scan here to

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aeuk@easyfairs.com | +44 (0)20 3196 4300 advancedengineeringuk.com

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