Machining

Coming together and combing their expertise and customer bases, A.D.M Engineering and Fine Machining have merged to  become ADM Fine Machining. Traceability is a key factor in all the products it manufactures for the aerospace and petrochemical industries.

Imagine how angry your boss would be if you were to tell them a fifth of your output was being wasted and could not be accounted for, you wouldn’t be in the good books. Where would they think the wasted output was coming from? Most managers would blame human error in their workforce, but they could be jumping to conclusions. 

Backed by a modern enterprise resource planning system, as well as three decades of experience in cutting, forming, welding and assembly of sheet metal components, Grenville Engineering installed its first fibre laser cutting centre back in November 2016, a 3kW BySprint Fiber 3015 from Bystronic UK.

Showcasing the simplicity of operation in the new Max 5 control for all types of machining operations is Hurco. The CNC system, which runs the latest WinMax software, is intended for graphical, menu-based, conversational programming but is equally capable of handling NC code.

  Offering an effective solution for the special challenges in fineblanking production, the reinforced model of the XFT 2500speed press is equipped with stronger knuckle joints.

Due for official launch in 2017, Mitsubishi Electric sees the Smart Carriage as a key technology to help address industry challenges such as improved productivity, increased overall equipment effectiveness and greater production line flexibility.

A new system has been introduced by Bosch Rexroth, which is set to minimise down-time by bringing greater accuracy to predictive maintenance techniques across a broad spectrum of applications. ODiN Predictive Maintenance uses machine learning methods to generate knowledge on the state of health of equipment from recorded sensor data, to enable reliable predictions about likely time to failure – a key attribute given the widening adoption of Industry 4.0 techniques.

This Christmas Barnshaws Section Benders, well-known for bending metal, has received a call from the North Pole as the elves need them to bend some more festive material. After Rudolph broke into the candy department and ate all the stock, the elves realised they had no candy canes left for the big day. With Christmas only weeks away, and no time to bend the candy in-house, the elves contacted Barnshaws to bend 500 tonnes of straight candy canes before the deadline of the 25th December.

Engineers are making greater use of electronic motion control technologies as packaging machine designs call for ever greater levels of performance and flexibility, especially combined with the ability for faster changeovers from one product run to the next. Gerard Bush of INMOCO (Intelligent Motion Control) looks at the opportunities and the challenges.

A busy open house event in High Wycombe in December, and its immediate aftermath saw Hurco Europe take orders for 12 vertical machining centres to the value of £800,000. The company welcomed 70 engineers from 50 manufacturing companies from the OEM and subcontracting sectors during the two-day show.