Bromford Industries, a specialist manufacturer of aero engine and landing gear components for the global aerospace supply chain, is installing nine Okuma MU-6300V mill-turn centres in its Birmingham factory at a cost of £7m.
The Japanese-built, 5-axis, vertical-spindle machines, ordered from Okuma’s UK agent, NCMT, are ideally suited to volume production of nickel alloy aero engine parts to tight tolerances.
Seven of the machines have already been installed and are producing components, with the remaining two due for delivery in the fourth quarter of 2017.
Mike Tew, operations director at Bromford Industries, commented: “Our aerospace supply programmes are long-term and to fulfil them we need machine tools that maintain top levels of accuracy for extended periods, especially as they are running 24/7.
“Another factor in favour of the supplier was the successful installation a couple of years ago of an Okuma Multus B400II multifunction turn-mill centre, which has proved reliable in operation and has been well supported by NCMT.”
The machines form the major share of a £10m investment at the Birmingham plant that includes tooling, automation, metrology equipment and CADCAM software.
In 2018, Bromford Industries plans to install an automated storage and retrieval system from Finnish firm, Fastems, which has already been designed by NCMT to link seven of the MU-6300Vs to form a flexible manufacturing system.
Further investment will be made in four more machines from Okuma to complement the MU-6300Vs and support increased production for flagship aerospace programs internationally.