HPC Services has added a new Nakamura-Tome WT150II-F turning centre to boost capacity in the face of reducing stock levels due to customer demand.
Typically producing batches from 200 to 2000 off on its fixed head machines and larger runs on its sliders, HPC Services holds upwards of £1m of stock components for its multitude of long-term customers to ‘call off’ at any point. With the majority of its machine tools operating at a 92% spindle uptime, when stock depletes below a certain level, the company recognises it needs to invest in new machines to meet customer demand. So, with stock levels diminishing in line with increased customer demand and the company witnessing a period of significant growth, HPC needed more capacity it decided to invest in the new machine.
Managing Director Mr Paul Cobb said: “The Nakamura is the ‘ultimate subcontractor’s machine’. It's fast, powerful, and productive but above all else, it's an extremely flexible machine. That is what you need when you don’t know what job is coming through the door next.”
HPC Services now has a total of 45 CNC machines, including fixed and sliding head turning centres, and is one of the largest sub-contractors in the East Midlands.
Nestled between Derby and Nottingham, the subcontractor manufactures everything from high-end kitchen and bathroom taps and ancillaries to fire suppression systems, camera and scientific devices to hydraulic components for the rail industry, primarily machining brass, stainless steel and aluminium.
Paul said: “Our sliders produce small components and the Nakamura machines are dedicated to larger parts. However, when it comes to machining small stainless parts, we move these to the Nakamura’s. The Nakamura’s are more powerful and robust, which results in higher cutting speeds and feeds, better surface finishes and extended tool life. Whilst sliders will be inherently faster than fixed-head machines, the ability to use larger more rigid tools on the Nakamura’s along with the flexibility to machine any part with multiple tools cutting simultaneously is fantastic. Furthermore, this stability and versatility means we can get jobs off the machines in one hit and by using the Hydrafeed Rota-Rack system on the WT150II-F machines, we can run the machines unmanned over the weekends.
“We have our Nakamura machines set up with the programs and tools ready to run. All our tools are stored on shelves with the pre-sets, so they are ready to go. This means that any time a repeat job arrives, we have the programme and tools ready to run. This may be more costly from a tooling perspective, but it drastically reduces set-ups and changeovers. We can have some pretty complex jobs set up and running in less than an hour and this system of operating also works when new machines are installed. For example, the latest Nakamura WT150II-F that just arrived was up and running within hours of it being commissioned.”
The bank of Nakamura machines now runs for 18 hours a day during manned shifts and the remaining 6 hours of the day unmanned.
Paul concluded: “We are about to launch a new milling company called Skyblade for high-volume automated milling and we also want a dedicated facility for our Nakamura machines. We are confident that with our growth trajectory, we will have 10 and maybe more Nakamura machines soon.”