New investments in fixed and sliding head mill/turning centres underline C & M Precision’s ‘One-hit CNC’ philosophy.
Based in Maldon, Essex, the company has a policy of continuously upgrading its machining capacity to embrace the latest advances in technology.
In the past couple of years it has invested £500,000 in two fixed head Miyano BNE 65 MYY mill turning centres, followed by a further investment in a Cincom L32 type 12 sliding head machine – all supplied by Citizen Machinery.
The decision to focus on ‘One-hit CNC’ came with the installation of C & M’s first Citizen sliding head machine in the late 1990s.
Managing Director John Cable says: “ Our approach is ‘bar in one end of the machine, finished goods out of the other’. We don’t do any operations off the machine apart from some simple assembly.
“The main benefit for the customer is that they are getting far superior components geometrically because of the way the machine works. With the sub-spindle picking the part off the main spindle and cutting it off, everything is concentric. You can’t guarantee that with an operator putting a part in a collet.”
The two Miyano machines have a 65mm capacity, 3m magazine bar feeds, twin Y-axis turrets and twin spindles, with live tooling on all stations.
The Cincom L32 is Citizen’s flagship sliding head machine, capable of machining up to 38mm diameter and supplied to C & M with LFV (low frequency vibration) technology for programmable chip control. Next month another new sliding head machine, a Cincom L12 LFV type X is due to arrive.”
John says that, in terms of quality and ease of machining, the LFV technology has really been a game-changer.
“When you’ve got problematic materials the swarf can wrap round the component and damage it. The LFV overcomes the problem of long strings of swarf. We machine a lot of OFHC (oxygen free high conductivity) 99.99% pure copper. That is very sticky, but we chip it like brass with the LFV. We also do a lot of nickel alloys, which are very stringy, and it handles those materials beautifully – plastics too.”
With capacity from 0.5mm up to 65mm, all bar fed, and covering a wide range of materials, C & M serves a diverse customer base.
“We do a lot of components for electronic connectors. These could be going into many different sectors – military, marine and even household products. We do around a million glass-to-metal seal parts every year that ultimately end up in your gas meter.
“We also do high-end brass bathroom fittings - what they call ‘exquisite brassware’. These parts will eventually be plated, but they will be polished first. We give them a part that comes off the machine already shiny and needs next to no polishing – so they are very happy with that.”
Other components include connectors for the mining industry, minute titanium parts for eye surgery instruments, components for pilot and co-pilot seats, and copper anodes for the magnetrons that go into marine radar systems.
The common factor, says John, is quality. “ The parts coming off the machines look good, they are burr-free and they have a good surface finish.
C & M also manufactures its own product, a bar tidy that bolts to the side of the bar feed unit to store bars close to the machine in a safe, organised and convenient way.
John says: “We have a good relationship with customers, we will help them in any way we can to make their parts more efficiently and cost-effectively .
“We have to be competitive, do a really good job and must do it on time. If you can’t do all three of them nobody is going to stick with you. Our customers do stick with us, so I’m sure we are doing it right.
“I think that one of the reasons for our success is that I am passionate about what I do. I keep close to the business and I keep close to the shop floor. I come to work ready to set and make components.”
Last year John appointed a new team leader for the shop floor, Leon Rawlinson, who has taken on running the workshop – giving John the chance to step back a bit and take a more strategic view.
Leon now leads a daily production meeting every morning where he, John, John’s PA Hayley Hill and the two main setters Jamie and Dale discuss every job that is going through the shop.
John concludes: “I try to run the company in the best way I can, and involving everyone has definitely been a positive way to do it. With the investments we have made in machines and the changes in management we are well set up to face whatever challenges and opportunities the future brings.”