Vineham Engineering wins fast-response contract on back of rapid turnkey Nakamura-Tome delivery

As the subcontractor's managing director, Phil Vines, explained: "We offer a one-stop subcontract machining service, from prototyping and development to volume production, in all kinds of materials from superduplex alloys to aluminium, plastics, steels and hard materials. "We focus on the high precision end of the market. In aerospace, for example, we are making mechanical parts for cockpit controls, which tend to involve very intricate machined frames. It is quite high -technology work and the AS91000 accreditation has been a great benefit. We also take this expertise, precision and quality and apply them to our work in other markets." The contract that the new Nakamura was initially put to work on was a fast-response contract from a leading international manufacturer of tooling and metrology probes. This called for 700 components a week, delivered over a tight three-month period, to meet increasing customer demand. A crucial factor for Vineham was that the Engineering Technology Group could supply a production-ready turnkey package, with parts programmed, tooling specified and supplied and parts proven out using hard gauges at Vineham. In under a month, Turning Technologies delivered a Nakamura-Tome WT 250 II twin-spindle, twin-turret turning centre with powerful driven tooling, complete with all programs, tooling and production engineering, that went straight into production. "We saw that the Nakamura WT 250 II was the ideal machine to produce these components complete in one setup, "said Mr Vines. "And we also saw a great deal of potential for the machine once the contract was completed. We are currently in the process of acquiring and integrating the operations of another subcontractor that has a fleet of smaller Nakamura and sliding-head machines. This machine will perfectly complement that capacity by extending their range to 65 mm bar and 10 inch chucking work." The Nakamura-Tome WT 250 II performed flawlessly throughout the three-month contract, allowing Vineham to win new business from the customer, an international leader in the manufacture of machine and metrology probes. The Nakamura-Tome WT 250 II machine supplied to Vineham has a maximum turning diameter of 250 mm, a maximum turning length of 555 mm and a bar feed capacity of 65 mm. The machine has an 18.5 kW main spindle, 11 kW sub-spindle and two 12-station turrets – with the top turret having a 41mm Y-axis travel. It can accommodate up to 24 driven tools, of up to 25 mm square outside diameter with a driven tool power of 5.5 kW and rotary tool speed up to 6000 rpm. On the probe contract the component called for milling, drilling, tapping and counter-boring, with turning accounting for around 50% of the cycle time.