Dromafield Engineering has enhanced capacity and provided cover against a machine breakdown by leasing a high-performance vertical machining centre.
The machine’s arrival in June 2025 proved timely, as it was ready when one of the company’s older machining centres suffered a spindle breakdown and was out of action for a short period. It increased Dromafield Engineering’s in-house milling capacity and capabilities as intended.
The decision to invest in a new DNM 4500 in Spring 2025 was made to alleviate pressure on an older machining centre which, due to increased customer demand for high-quality machined parts, risked becoming a production bottleneck and affecting turnaround times.
Ben Nightingale, Office Manager and Work Scheduling Co-ordinator, said: “Our older machining centre, a Mynx 540 with full 4th-axis capabilities, supplied by Mills in 2005, was struggling to cope with the increased volume of work. We had another machine available, a DNM 500 acquired from Mills in 2013, but it was mainly dedicated to machining high-accuracy aluminium aircraft inspection equipment.”
‘It became clear that additional milling capacity was needed urgently, leading us to contact Mills CNC about acquiring a new machine.”
Will Smith, CNC machine tool programmer and setter operator, added: “Due to shop floorspace limitations and the nature of our work, which involves heavy-duty roughing and machining a range of materials, we needed a flexible, compact and high-performance machine. The DNM 4500, rather than the smaller DNM 4000 or larger DNM 5700, was the right choice.”
Sam Nightingale said: “We were impressed with the DNM 4500’s fast processing speeds and high-precision cutting capabilities. By investing in advanced work-holding systems, we could reduce set-up and part cycle times and address the backlog of milling work.”
Parts machined on the new DNM 4500 are processed in small-to-medium batches and include components made from S355 steel, high-strength carbon steels, aluminium alloys, brass, phosphor bronze, etc., for customers in the aerospace, automotive, and crane and lifting gear industries.
Specific crane and lifting gear parts processed on the DNM 4500 have included different-sized hook block components such as side plates, centre plates, pins, bolts, and housings, all machined to tight tolerances, typically +/- 0.025mm across parts or selected features.
Part cycle times for smaller side plates machined from solid are currently 6 minutes. The company aims to reduce this to 4 minutes 30 seconds per part or less once new zero-point clamping systems are in place. The Lang Zero Point clamping systems will improve productivity and efficiency by reducing set-up times and increasing machine uptime through quick and repeatable positioning of fixtures and workpieces.
Tel: 01384 455864