The success of a twin-pallet five-axis machining centre at Hollygate Aircraft Components has led to the installation of a similar machine at sister company Victoria Production Engineering.
The two companies are both members of the Hyde Group, with Hollygate installing the Heckert HEC 800 X5 for machining titanium parts and Victoria using its machine on stainless steel.
Both X5s, supplied by Starrag UK, have enabled the companies to ‘work smarter’ by introducing twin-pallet machining instead of single-station, three-axis working. This provides for unprecedented utilisation levels due to the fact the machines’ twin pallets enable efficient extended hours of machining.
In addition, not only do the machines’ attributes such as integrated spindle monitoring, high-pressure coolant and excellent swarf removal allow for unmanned working, but the improved toolholding stability has also led to improved tool life.
Both companies are part of the Aero Products division of the Hyde Group – the North West-based leading engineering service provider that specialises in design, manufacture, tooling and support for a global blue-chip customer base that includes such companies as Airbus, BAE Systems, Boeing, Embraer, GKN Aerospace, Leonardo, MBDA and Rolls-Royce.
Paul Mellor, Divisional Technical Director, explains that rising demand for the titanium workpiece at Stockport-based Hollygate spurred the search for “an improved way of working where we could effectively gain more from the same” in terms of replacing machine-for-machine in terms of floorspace and manpower requirements, which led to the installation of the initial Heckert HEC 800 X5.
He said: “We’ve been cutting titanium for over 30 years so seeing Starrag’s proposals for process improvement – based around the implementation of different feeds and speeds, for example, as well as the use of a trunnion table for four-/five-axis working - were ‘very interesting’, bearing in mind the components in question had been designed for three-axis machining.
Mr Mellor, who has been with the Group for 24 years starting as a machine programmer/operator in 1995 and appointed Divisional Technical Director in 2007, outlines how similar process improvement strategies were employed for the stainless steel workpieces being machined by Victoria Production Engineering in Manchester.
“Two aspects were of particular significance,” he says. “These were Starrag’s introduction of the use of special hydraulic ‘sleeve’ clamping (via the machine’s hydraulics system) to consistently hold – yet not deform - the thin-wall tubular parts, and the application of long-reach angle milling heads on the Heckert HEC 800 X5.
“The Heckert machine is used solely for internal milling on these pre-turned workpieces. The angle milling heads, of either 280 mm or 375 mm long, reach into the workpieces and perform all milling tasks. The heads are held and automatically changed via the machine’s toolchanger.”
Mr Mellor concludes: “We want best-in-class in everything we do as a Group; we’re always looking to improve – hence our six-year Sharing In Growth programme that has focused on reduced lead times, on-time delivery and right first time production, and which has impacted all departments. This is now being followed by the Group-wide quest for the SC21 performance standard initiative, which embraces the importance of high standard quality and delivery measures.
“It’s all about producing components right first time, every time, and the Starrag machines and processes are fine examples of how we do that.”