Turning
“We have confidence leaving the machine running unattended to get on with other tasks, as all dimensions repeat from part to part to within 15 microns.”
case in point is the ongoing production since 2020 of a 16 mm diameter, 316 stainless steel magnet holder, which is welded to a small, laser-cut and bent plate to form part of a safety unit for industrial switchgear. The turned component, of which 200 are required per month, was previously produced complete on one of two fixed-head, twin-spindle lathes (that have since been sold) in a 2.5-minute cycle. Mr Davies had previous experience of programming and setting sliding-head
lathes, albeit from 40 years ago working for a subcontracting firm in London that happened to be the first ever customer of the Citizen sales agency at that time. The lathes were equipped with servo-driven cams and while the technology has moved on enormously over the decades, the underlying principle of operation is still similar. It was apparent that the steel magnet holder could be produced more quickly on a modern Citizen L20 twin-spindle, sliding-head turning centre than on a fixed-head lathe due to the faster axis motions of the gang tool carriers on the former compared with the turret movements on the latter. However, Mr Davies was surprised to find that the part could be machined more than three times faster on the Cincom, the cycle now taking just 48 seconds. The sliding-head turning centre was installed and commissioned in October 2023, so it is still early days. Nevertheless, four additional jobs had been won by the end of the following January as a result of having the capacity available on the shop floor. None of this new work has anything to do with the fabrication side of the TAS Engineering’s business. One contract involved the production of 1,000-off brass parts for a customer in industrial gases, which ran 24/7 for one week, despite Mr Davies being new to sliding-head lathe operation. Machinery & Manufacturing 39
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