Leader CNC Technologies enters large machine tool re-engineering partnership

The South Korean manufacturer is an established specialist and integrator in the design, retrofitting, overhauling and re-manufacturing of large machine tools for the power plant, nuclear power, wind power, shipbuilding, industrial plant and automotive industries. To date, DSK has completed projects for established companies such as Doosan Heavy Industries, Doosan Engine, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industry, STX Metal, Hyundai WIA and Alstom to name but a few. Machine tools that can be re-engineered include heavy duty CNC horizontal lathes, table and gantry-type plano milling machines, vertical turning centres, roll grinders, crankshaft lathes, horizontal boring and milling machines and even automotive-production lines. Some of the well known machine tools that have undergone the re-engineering process at DSK include Toshiba, Waldrich Siegen, Waldrich Coburg, Dorries Scharmann, Ingersoll, Forest Line, Skoda, Schiess, OM and Carnaghi. In the vast majority of cases, the existing main structure of an existing machine can be utilised, while other mechanical sections and units can be completely overhauled so that a full CNC control, spindle and drive package can be adapted to improve the capabilities and productivity of the new machine tool. To minimise internal disruption, machines are removed from the customer's site, re-engineered at DSK and, once completed and accepted, professionally re-installed. Many large machines in industry are over 20 years old, says Leader CNC Technologies, and with the cost of new large machine tools representing a significant investment, re-engineering existing plant, enables customers to boost capabilities, productivity and accuracy far more cost effectively, suggests the company. It adds that there is a massive upsurge in the requirement to machine large components in the aerospace, oil and gas, power generation and automotive industries in the UK, and that these parts are generally manufactured on very old conventional machinery requiring specialised skills that are not easily available, are ever diminishing and are certainly not cost-effective. Leader CNC Technologies says that there are an extremely limited number of companies that have the overall capability of taking on this type of re-engineering work and, as importantly, also have the equipment to complete large grinding and machining operations required for such refurbishments.