‘Rising star’ machining centre installed

11th January 2017
Posted By : Anna Flockett
‘Rising star’ machining centre installed

A Sahos Dynamic bridge-type machining centre with a five metre X-axis has been installed by Lentus Composites, for machining pattern board, aluminium mould tools and components made from composite materials. Built in the Czech Republic by Blue Ray, the 5-axis machine was delivered and commissioned in March 2016 by sole UK agent, Asquith Butler.

Simon Odling, Managing Director of Lentus commented: “There are a number of high-speed machining centres on the market, mainly of European origin, that are directly applicable to production in the composites industry.

“We chose the Sahos Dynamic for a number of reasons. In particular, we felt that the construction of the machine when compared to its competitors was an improvement on the industry norm, providing a stiffer, more stable machining environment.

“In addition, we specified direct measurement in all axes including the 5-axis head. These provide absolute feedback and minimise time-consuming maintenance and down-time associated with aligning the axes, as well as providing significantly improved positional repeatability.

“Having tested the market with other local machine users, we received positive feedback from other Sahos machine owners in our sector. The consensus was that this Czech manufacturer is not as well known in the UK as other brands but is a rising star in the industry.”

Lentus, part of Polar Technology Management Group, is located on Polar’s 16-acre site in Eynsham that has planning permission to be developed into a large technology campus within the next few years.

Lentus regularly develops and manufactures new composite products for the motorsport sector, from GT and World Rally to Formula 1, as well as for high performance car and electric vehicle producers.

Part of last year’s success was also down to winning a partnership contract with Cervélo to design, manufacture and test frames for bikes, ridden with great success in track events at the Rio Olympics. The ultra-stiff, laminated carbon fibre frames were machined to close tolerances on the Sahos Dynamic. To improve the performance of the bikes further, Lentus designed and manufactured other weight-saving composite and metallic components.

The rationale for the Sahos machine’s purchase was to further develop Lentus’ vertical integration, as the ability to deliver the complete supply chain solution, often in compressed timescales, was important. There were already two turn-mill lathes and a mill-turn machining centre with a carbon management package on site, all of which continue to be used, but a dedicated, large-capacity machining facility was needed for composite components and the manufacture of patterns from tool boards.


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