A 65 mm bar capacity Miyano BNE-65MYY fixed-head lathe speeds production at turned parts specialist Yorkshire Precision Engineering Ltd. (YPEL)
Managing director Sam Laybourne says that parts come off the BNE machine twice as quickly as its earlier Miyano BNJs can produce them, greatly increasing productivity, and the two Y-axis turrets mean that components of higher complexity can be finished in one hit.
“The new Miyano is not only faster due to uprated feeds and speeds, but is also more rigidly and accurately built, and more thermally stable than other lathes on the shop floor. It translates into higher quality parts and less tool wear and breakages," he said.
He explained that a key feature of the BNE is its box sideways that are hand scraped to near-perfect smoothness and flatness. The process removes high spots on the hardened steel surface, lowering noise, virtually eliminating vibration and chatter, prolonging tool life and improving the surface finish on machined components.
Furthermore, box ways rather than linear guideways provide better rigidity for selecting higher cutting data when turning and especially when milling. It contributes substantially to the machine’s productivity, particularly as prismatic machining frequently accounts for between 20% and 50% of a cutting cycle in the Keighley factory.
Sam’s brother and technical director Jack Laybourne added: “Since November 2020, when we purchased all the assets of a nearby subcontractor and secured significant contracts to take on many of the components it was producing, our headcount has risen to 28 and we have also doubled our annual turnover in that time.
“We are now actively replacing older plant with up-to-date, highly capable machines to speed production and reduce the number of operations needed to produce components, which are often completed in one hit, all to increase profitability.
“I calculated recently that the monthly amount we spend on repairing old machines on the shop floor would pay to finance a brand-new machine, so there is strong incentive for us to re-equip our workshop as fast as possible.”
YPEL has been in contact with Citizen Machinery UK since 2011, when the company took over responsibility for Miyano turning centres in the field. Jack Laybourne confirmed that the service they have received over the years has been consistently reliable.
There are many attributes of the latest Miyano that both brothers appreciate. One is its stability, both mechanically and thermally, which results in effortlessly holding tolerances down to ± 10 microns, although ± 0.1 mm is more generally stipulated on customers’ drawings. A wide range of materials is processed, from Duplex and Inconel through to engineering plastics.
Not only is the machine typically twice as productive as the early Miyano models, but there is scope for even shorter cycles using the BNE’s superimposed machining capability, where three tools can be cutting a part simultaneously at both spindles, despite the lathe having two turrets. This facility has not yet been adopted in Keighley but will be in the future for the right jobs, namely reasonably long runs of parts with complex features, where the somewhat longer setup times can be justified.
The beneficiaries of these technology advances are YPEL’s many customers, about 40% of which are in the oil and gas sector, with a further 20% operating in the medical industry. That the subcontractor has held ISO 9001 accreditation since the company started has led to a lot of work in many other sectors as well, including agriculture, electronics, marine and pharmaceuticals. Music enthusiasts may be interested that parts for bagpipes and grand pianos are occasionally machined; and pub-goers may well be staring at YPEL parts as their pints are pulled.
Sam Laybourne concluded, “The bottom line is that, if we could, we would like to put every component over 32 mm diameter – the maximum capacity of our sliding head lathes – onto the latest Miyano. Especially for longer runs of 1,000- to 10,000-off, its one-hit production capability and extreme accuracy make it the go-to lathe on our shop floor.
“You set the machine and it doesn’t move. It just runs and runs, producing parts within tolerance all day long, and unattended overnight as well.”
The successful implementation of the Miyano BNE-65MYY on the shop floor in Keighley has prompted the subcontractor to further upgrade its capacity by placing an order for another new Miyano, a model BNJ-51SY7 LFV, for delivery in May 2026.
The 51 mm capacity lathe benefits from Citizen’s simultaneous 4-axis LFV (low frequency vibration) chipbreaking, which is capable of operating on the X and Z axes of both the main and sub spindles at the same time. The machine is therefore ideally suited to reliable, lights-out manufacturing of parts from malleable materials that traditionally create long, stringy swarf and require operator attendance to remove it.
Photo: Jack Laybourne (left) and Sam Laybourne with the Miyano BNE-65MYY on the shop floor at YPEL, Keighley.