Embued in the motorsport industry since Kelvin Smith opened the doors for business in 1985, KS Composites is a manufacturer with a pedigree of working with numerous F1, GT, Le Mans, and British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) teams.
Throughout its history, the Melton Mowbray-based company has worked at the very pinnacle of motorsport – now investing in a CAD/CAM software from OPEN MIND Technologies to further its advanced offerings and capabilities.
Having formed many close relationships with some of the leading lights in design and consultancy through prototype and development projects, KS Composites offers design services, FEA, and CFD. This is complemented by a new manufacturing site that supports its design and consultancy services, with everything from kit cutting, fitting and assembly to wet lay composites, autoclaves and ovens, a composite shop, machine shop and much more.
Whether it’s the development of new lightweight wind turbines, the production of super-efficient alternative energy vehicles or the unique demands of the aviation and military industries, the independent manufacturer of composite and GRP products said it approaches all projects with the same enthusiasm and professionalism.
“We are a turnkey composite solution provider that offers a range of services, from engineering to 3D printing and CNC machining, as well as composite manufacturing,” said Dan Johnston, Business Development Manager at KS Composites.
“Each customer has an individual requirement that we have to respond to – everyone has nuances within their projects and programmes, and we need to be able to leverage every service we have to provide for our clients. Customers will initially come to us with a fully developed idea or just the genesis of an idea. What that journey looks like will depend on each client, but we can fundamentally take an idea, and our engineering division will deliver the solution. If someone has a blueprint for a project, we are agile and responsive enough to deliver on time.”
Discussing his company's relationship with the composite manufacturer, Justin Tallboys-Cotton from OPEN MIND, added: “KS Composites came to us because of their needs, which are not only metallic but also composite machining. This encompasses everything from 3-axis vertical machines to complex 5-axis gantry-style machines.
“One thing that KS Composites liked about hyperMILL is that the licenses are very modular, so whilst they use the 5-axis licences that we are famed for worldwide, they don’t need all of it. So, KS Composites just chose the two or three modules needed to do their work. They know they can expand if needed, but they don’t need to invest in everything up front.”
OPEN MIND Technologies
With a UK base in Bicester, Oxfordshire, OPEN MIND Technologies AG is one of the world’s leading developers of powerful CAD/CAM solutions for machine and controller-independent programming.
The company develops optimised solutions that include a large number of innovative and unique features that can deliver significantly higher performance in both programming and machining.
hyperMILL is a completely modular CAD/CAM solution that provides state-of-the-art CAM technologies on its own CAD platform: from 2.5D, 3D and 5-axis machining as well as turning strategies and solutions for additive manufacturing, HSC and HPC machining.
Whether automation, simulation or virtual machine, trendsetting technologies expand OPEN MIND’s product range and enable continuous digital process chains. Special applications, the perfect interaction with all popular CAD solutions and a customer-oriented service complete the product range.
Looking at a replica race car that KS Composites had manufactured, Johnston added: “On the vehicle itself, there is a multitude of things. We have carbon composite body panels and machined GRP and 3D printed elements. We are hitting on all our core services with this vehicle.”
In 2018, the company’s premises in Long Clawson, Leicestershire, was hit by a devastating overnight fire, one of the primary reasons for its relocation to new premises in the village of Old Dalby, Melton Mowbray. This new site is 48,000 sq ft, an increase of over 30,000 sq ft from the old site, and sees production centralised from a single building.
“One of the first things to come into our new building were CNC machines. At that point, we identified that we needed a CAM package that could get the most out of our machines,” Johnston said. “We went to the market and evaluated the options, and it was clear from the offset that hyperMILL was the obvious choice.”
“It makes me extremely proud to see how KS Composites are embracing the tools that we have within hyperMILL,” Tallboys-Cotton added. “For example, they colour-code their components and use bookmarks and templates. What this is giving them as a company is consistency throughout the process, especially when different guys’ programs work in different ways. It also helps with time to market; KS Composites can reduce the programming time to a bare minimum, ultimately getting parts onto the machines quicker to keep their customers happy.”
Johnston concluded: “hyperMILL is making our life so much easier, especially when we are making things like a show vehicle. We are representing motorsport’s pinnacle- high-performance, high precision. So, when making the patterns for this vehicle, they had to be of the same quality - that is what we have achieved with hyperMILL.”
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