Technoturn Ltd
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Technoturn focuses on constant development Link to MVP Article on Technoturn Development
Since it was set up ten years ago, Technoturn’s story has
been one of constant development – its latest move has been to complement its
capabilities by investing in a sophisticated Amsonic automatic part cleaning
system and OGP Smart Scope non-contact inspection equipment. Hastings based Technoturn was originally focused on
high-volume, long-running, commercial turned products manufactured on sliding
head automatic lathes. In 1998 it made its first move into CNC manufacture, when
Fred Moser, CEO of the Techno group, saw an article in a magazine about a
company that was operating 24/7 unmanned and thought, “Why can’t we do that
here?” As he explains, “We invested in two CNC sliding head
machines – a Traub and a Star - and tested the water to see if it could be
done. We couldn’t even contemplate running unmanned with the original
mechanical autos. They were far too labour intensive, coping with Swarf was a
problem and if something broke they would just keep ploughing on – creating a
tremendous fire risk.” It soon became clear that CNC was the way to go, and by
2003 Technoturn had sold all of its mechanical machines and was operating 18 CNC
sliding head machines twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. However,
sliding heads, even CNC ones, aren’t the right answer for everything, and so
last year Technoturn decided to invest in a fixed head CNC Miyano BNJ 42S. “We had never had fixed head machines,” says Technoturn’s
MD David McIlwain, “but we had always done a lot of short, stubby components.
When we got the Miyano we quickly filled it with work from our existing
customers. So we ordered another, this time a Y-axis BNJ 42SY. Pretty soon that
was working to capacity too, so now we’ve ordered a third machine which is due
in September.” The Miyanos increase Technoturn’s machining capacity to
42mm from the 32mm maximum on the sliders, and also allow it to make parts
efficiently in one hit that wouldn’t have been possible before. “It is all about being able to break up and get rid of
the swarf by hitting the component harder and in a different way,” says Fred
Moser. “With a sliding head your parameters are limited by the fact that the
bar is moving through a bush. If you try and power the material off you have
problems with push back through the bush, but you can drive it much harder when
it is firmly gripped in a chuck. With the Miyano machines you also get a bigger
diameter capability, and their accuracy and repeatability is very good indeed.” But the added productivity of 24/7 running brings its own
problems. “After a weekend of unmanned running we used to have a mountain to
climb to clean all the parts we had made. You don’t want to have people coming
in to clean the parts over the weekend – you just want to run the machines
unmanned – so it used to take us until Tuesday afternoon to clean the weekend’s
production,” says David. “ We therefore looked at the market for an
alternative approach.” The answer was a fully automatic Amsonic EGAclean 4100
cleaning machine. This uses
isoparaffin to degrease the parts and is almost effluent-free, with all the
solvent recycled. The machine is also fully programmable and can even turn parts
over and apply ultrasonic vibration if there is, say, a requirement to clean out
deep holes. The system is also versatile enough to process parts machined using
neat oil on the sliding head machines at the same time as parts made using
soluble oil on the Miyanos. “We wanted to find a system that did not rely on
materials that are being phased out under the Kyoto agreement and which we
wouldn’t be able to use after 2007. It also had to be easy to use,
environmentally friendly and do the job better than it was being done already.
We looked at the market and quickly settled on the Amsonic machine,” says
David. “We used to degrease parts by putting them in baskets and
dipping them in tanks of trichloroethylene. Now we’ve got a fully automated,
clean, efficient process that can clean the weekend’s production by Monday
afternoon. Our customers get cleaner products that are environmentally friendly
and we get a quicker, cleaner and controllable process which is much less labour
intensive”. Technoturn’s most recent investment has been in an
OGP Smart Scope four-axis non-contact measuring machine to speed up its
inspection and measurement procedures. As David McIlwain explains, this will now be mostly
managed from the shop floor. “When the operator has produced the first-off he
will put the part in the Smart Scope, call up the programme for that part and
know within minutes if the machine is set up correctly and the part is to the
customer’s drawing. If there is any query he can take a 50x magnification
digital photo of the part and email it to the customer to ask if it is OK. “The parts we are working on today are getting more
and more complicated, and so the time taken to inspect them using the old manual
approach is getting longer and longer – with more and more scope for errors.
On a complex part the Smart Scope will inspect the part in a fraction of the
time with no chance for errors.” “To steal a slogan from BT, it’s all about
working smarter rather than harder,” says Fred Moser “That’s good for us,
and it’s got to be good for our customers too.” |
Last modified: May 28, 2008 |
