Berkshire-based Cadmatic Engineering Services has taken delivery of a new multi-tasking lathe that is currently machining press tool components.
The Doosan Lynx 2100LMB supplied by Mills CNC is a compact, powerful and flexible lathe 8” chuck lathe with a 15kW/4500rpm main spindle and 3.7kW/6000rpm driven tooling capabilitity.
Since its arrival, it has been put through its paces machining a range of high-accuracy and high-performance press tool components (i.e. pins, pillars, shanks etc.) for new press tools (i.e. blanking tools, piercing tools, forming tools, progression tools etc.), the company designs and manufactures for its automotive customers.
The Lynx is also being used to machine a diverse range of press tool replacement parts as well as associated jigs and fixtures and, increasingly, low-to-medium volume production of small, high-precision parts for a growing number of customers seeking to take advantage of Cadmatic’s high-quality and well-respected subcontract machining services.
Establishes in 2001, Cadmatic Engineering Services is a family-owned, ISO 9001- 2015 accredited company that started out as a precision toolmaking business - designing, manufacturing and assembling new press tools for a range of automotive customers as well as providing comprehensive and proven press tool repair and modification services.
In addition to its design capabilities and machining expertise, which included milling, turning, grinding and wire and spark erosion EDM, the company also augmented these services by offering customers heat treatment, anodising, plating etc: a complete one-stop (press tool) solutions provider.
In more recent times it has begun to diversify its operations into providing subcontract machining services to customers.
In 2020 the company was acquired by new owners and directors, Mark and Kerrie Humphrey.
The husband and wife team, both employees at Cadmatic since 2018, began the management buy-out process in late 2019, with a view to taking full control in Spring 2020.
As Covid struck it it was an extremely challenging time for the new owners.
Kerrie Humphrey says: “We had always wanted to own and run our own business.
“We believed our experience gained from working in the aerospace manufacturing sector with its emphasis on advanced machining processes and machine tools, and where quality, accuracy and fast turnaround times are essential prerequisites to success - would stand us in good stead and would be invaluable in helping us grow, the general subcontract machining side of the business, still further.
“We didn’t anticipate that one of our first jobs would be to furlough staff.”
From April to June 2020 the company was operating with skeleton staffing and was essentially just ‘ticking over.’
From July onwards business began to pick-up.
Automotive customers anxious about the 31 December Brexit deal deadline began to ramp-up production - stockpiling components in case of shortages.
“The upsurge in demand from automotive customers helped to get us back on track,” says Kerrie Humphrey.
It was always the new owners’ intention to strengthen the company’s machining capabilities and capacity in order to increase its precision machining subcontract business.
An audit of the company’s existing capabilities revealed that its turning operations required attention.
Explains Mark Humphrey: “We needed to improve our turning capabilities but, rather than just acquire additional capacity, we decided to invest in a compact, multi-tasking machine that, with its integrated driven tooling functionality, could machine precision parts in one hit - helping us reduce part cycle times and, as a consequence, lead times too.”
The ‘pick up’ in business, experienced from July 2020 onwards, provided the company with the confidence to approach the market and decided to invest in the Doosan machine.
Says Mark Humphrey: “I particularly liked the machine’s fast turret indexing capabilities, which helps reduce cycle times, and the machine control’s 15” touchscreen which doesn’t just look the part, but also improves visibility and facilitates fast and more reliable data input.
“Mills was able to supply the Lynx lathe with a large Grippall CNC bar puller which has enabled us to use the machine for bar work and to run it unattended during the day shift.”
Since December 2020, when it was installed, the Lynx 2100LMB has been used to machine press tool components, jigs and fixtures and, increasingly, a range of high precision (often complex) parts in low-to-medium volumes.