Copper cuts like brass

the copper chips like brass. Yield is now 100%, throughput is high and we can even leave the machine to run unattended."

The other Cincom slider on site with this chip breaking functionality, a nominally 20 mm capacity L20-VIIILFV, arrived on the shop floor in 2017, making the subcontractor an early adopter of this novel technology. Supplied with a kit that allows feeding of oversize bar up to 25 mm diameter, the lathe is also proving useful for machining other materials that tend to generate stringy swarf.

C&M Precision was established in 1992 as a CNC sliding-head, twin-spindle, millturning shop, following research at the time indicating that fourfifths of rotational parts produced in the UK were less than 25 mm in diameter.

The first model to arrive in 2001 was a now discontinued M12, which has been sold on. The first job it tackled was the production of 120,000 brass connectors requiring the milling of 3/8-inch hex flats. Amazingly, due to the rigidity of the lathe that Mr Cable described as "rock solid", one 6 mm diameter carbide milling cutter completed all of the flats, 720,000 of them, and still had not worn out.

The subcontractor is an enthusiastic user of Cincom M-series machines due to their inclusion of a tool turret as well as a gang tool post, allowing the production of complex components. A 16 mm diameter bar model installed in 2004 was joined three years later by a pair of 32 mm diameter bar capacity lathes. The latter, thirdgeneration M32 lathes have since been replaced by fifth-generation models to take advantage of Y-axis motion on the turret and an overall higher specification.

2014 and 2015 saw the arrival of three more 32 mm sliders, this time in the Cincom A-series. They have only gang tool posts, so are faster when manufacturing less complicated parts. One of the lathes does not have a guide bush, as it is devoted to relatively limited runs of short components such as mining industry connectors. The other two sliders with a guide bush produce tens of thousands of parts per week, 24/5. One example is a mild steel gas meter part which the customer orders at a rate of one million per year, with the subcontractor making weekly deliveries.

C&M Precision's latest two acquisitions are from Citizen's Miyano range of fixed-head lathes. Installed in January and March 2022 respectively, the twin-turret BNE-65MYY models with Y-axis motion on each tool carrier replaced two ageing lathes that had one Y-axis turret apiece.

As to the future, Mr Cable sees the continued purchase of LFV lathes inevitable. While high pressure coolant systems break swarf adequately on his current larger lathes, as they mainly process free-cutting materials, there is one job presently produced from malleable, oversize, Swedish iron bar on the L20-VIIILFV that would profit from being put onto a 32 mm Cincom in the same series with the chip breaking technology. 8 onehitcnc.com

A family-run precision engineering business in Warwickshire has invested over £600,000 to expand into new markets after receiving grant support.

MAS Precision Engineering specialises in manufacturing components for a variety of industries including motorsport, automotive, electrical, hydraulics and medical, and exports to countries including Poland, Hungary, Germany and Thailand. The 13-year-old business, which is based on the Manor Road Business Park in Atherstone, is run by brothers Martin Smith, who is the Managing Director, and Steve Smith, who is the Works Director.

The 11-strong company needed to make a significant investment of £180,500 for a new CNC sliding head lathe to accommodate a new contract which was won after another firm unfortunately went into liquidation.

Martin contacted the Coventry and Warwickshire Growth Hub and was awarded a grant of £20,000 through the Coventry and Warwickshire Business