Polyurethane moulding specialist, Midas Pattern Company, has taken delivery of a very large Haas CNC machining centre.
The new machine can machine parts up to 3m by 1m by 0.7m.
Midas MD Alan Rance said: “This latest investment will add valuable capacity to our company, helping us react faster and push boundaries on scale and complexity within our niche manufacturing process. We feel proud to be one of only a handful of companies in the South of England able to invest in such an enormous machine, especially in current times.
Midas are best known for producing very large polyurethane enclosures and housings (up to 3m in size) using the Reaction Injection Moulding (RIM) process for the scientific and medical sectors. Trading for over 30 years and providing employment to 75 staff, the company continued to operate throughout the pandemic to support its customer base. Classed as a critical supplier, Midas joined many other UK manufacturing companies in keeping production running to protect the NHS and support the production of ventilators, laboratory test equipment, and instruments developing the long awaited COVID-19 vaccine. Although the company ships mouldings as far away as the US, Singapore and China, most of its customers are based in the Oxford and Cambridge innovation arc.
Weighing over 15 tonnes and occupying over 7.2m by 2.2m of factory floor space, the new machine is one of the largest computer controlled milling machines manufactured by Haas. In order to secure safe passage of the machine into its new location, the team at Midas spent many hours planning the logistics which ultimately included moving four large shipping containers, numerous skips and existing machinery. In order to manoeuvre the machine into its final destination, a huge crane lifted and swung the machine in to place.