Engineering Technology Group (01926 818418), the UK dealer of multiple Japanese and other countries' brands of high quality machine tools, has formally opened a new showroom in Southam, Warwickshire.
The showroom is being called a 'permanent trade show' because the machines and sales staff (there are 38 people on site) will remain at the centre and at visitors' disposal; the machinery, selected models of a much larger range of available stock machines, is expected to be refreshed every three to four months.
At the event, the chief executive of trade organisation the Manufacturing Technologies Association (MTA), of which ETG is a member, spoke. "I'd like to congratulate ETG on its farsightedness and its courageous investment in facilities like this. What more could you want to dispel the image of old-fashioned manufacturing and engineering than machine tools on carpets? It's absolutely superb," James Selka said.
Space for the exhibition has been freed up in the company's 7,500 ft2 Southam site, thanks to the acquisition of a 17,000 ft2 operations centre in nearby Wellesbourne. That operation's 46 employees now handle spares, turnkey engineering, stockholding and turnkey engineering, among other services.
In late May and early June, the ownership of the company, which generates £30 million annual turnover, was rearranged in a secondary management buyout, as part of which company founder Paul Rhodes sold his last shares and retired from the business. In the new structure, former group sales and marketing director Martin Doyle has become group managing director, and former managing director John Temple has become executive chairman. In the first management buyout in 2012, Temple had a majority of ownership; he now has a minority stake in the organisation.
"In a period of four years, by any measure, we have tripled in size; in terms of turnover, profitability, headcount, number of machines," explained Temple, speaking at a press conference before the official opening of the centre. "We've not finished yet; we have aspirations to double the size of the business again over the next few years, becoming the predominant independent player in the UK."
THE MACHINES
Two of the five new machines shown had innovative designs. Perhaps the more interesting of the two was the Nakamura Tome NTRX 300 mill-turn machine, offered through wholly-owned subsidiary Turning Technologies UK (TTUK). Unusually, this model's design was borne out of a collaborative design process involving the company's top five international dealers (USA, Germany, UK, France and Italy, in no particular order), each of which committed to buy one unit to offset development costs. The machine features a single spindle with tailstock or twin-opposed-spindle configuration, and has a B-axis milling head that supports 5-axis machining (225° B-axis positioning range). The machine also incorporates twin loading and unloading conveyors, on the right-hand side of the machine. These send parts to, or receive parts from, a gripper tool attachment in the single tool-holding milling spindle that loads the 8- or 10-inch (203 or 254 mm) chuck. When no longer needed, the gripper tool is stowed in the left-hand ATC.
Another brand in ETG's stable, Hardinge, offers both general-purpose lathes having 10 micron accuracy and super-precision versions offering 3 micron accuracy. ETG adopted the UK Hardinge brand in March 2013, taking over UK sales, service and customer support activities from Hardinge itself, but it only began to sell the super-precision machines, which include the T-42, T-51 and T-65 horizontal turning centres, late last year; previously, they were sold from Krefeld, Germany.
The show floor, as seen from the mezzazine level
Now Hardinge has launched, and ETG is selling, a new model for small turned parts in this category, the Hardinge GT27 (bar capacity of 27 mm). The unusual feature of the machine is that its three tool stations can be equipped with either static turning tools, or grinding wheels powered by electric spindles. So the machine can support turning or grinding operations, or both, depending on the set-up. Using the grinding wheel, users could, for example, eliminate sculpted lines caused by the radius of a cutting insert, which, in the case of a seal face, would rub against a seal and wear it; a grinding operation would leave these surfaces completely smooth. The GT27 can grind elliptical shapes, too.
Grinding spindles are available in four speeds up to 100,000 rpm, producing surface finishes down to 0.2 micron and part roundness of 0.4 micron. The turn-grind variant requires a paper-based coolant filtration system.
Not every new showroom unit takes machining off into new directions, however; in fact two take an established path, as they are new variants of existing models.
First, the Nakamura-Tome AS-200 LMY+S adds to the AS-200, a stripped-down 8-in chuck, 400 mm swing over bed machine that also offers Y-axis, milling and C-axis capability launched a few years ago. The new model is bigger: the long bed offers 570 mm turning length capacity, nearly double the 300 mm length of the original's. And while the original had a Y-axis as standard, this machine adds longer Z-axis travel (to 585 mm) and milling capability. A further option is 5.5 kW sub-spindle.
Second, two new Hardinge machines, one turning centre and one milling machine, also fill in the mid-range: although not at the highest specification level, they are not entry-level either.
In turning, above the GS range of general-purpose machines with 10-micron accuracy but below the super-precision machines such as the GT 27, sits the new 5-micron accuracy Hardinge Conquest H51 machine. Turning diameter is 312 mm, turning length up to 647 mm, and its 12-station turret holds 12 driven or up to 24 stationary tools. The machine can manage bar up to 51 mm diameter; according to ETG, 42 mm and 64 mm bar capacity models may be rolled out, should it prove popular.
Similarly, the Conquest 1000 vertical machining centre from Hardinge's sister milling machine brand Bridgeport is a new mid-range 3-axis machine with travels of 1,020 by 610 by 610 (in X, Y and Z), a 30-tool swing-arm automatic toolchanger, plus lots of options, including 4- and 5-axis versions, linear scales, through-spindle coolant, probing and more. Like all Bridgeport VMCs, X and Y movements are made by the table, while the spindle moves up and down only (in Z). This design maximises spindle stability, according to ETG. Standard control is the Heidenhain TNC 620, offering either conversational or offline programming.
Other brands represented by the company include Taiwan-based Quaser. Indeed, a recent 5-axis machine, the £80,000 MF400U, adapted to take the Heidenhain 530 control, was demonstrated cutting a statue of cartoon character Scooby Doo.
New workholding approach for standard and custom parts
A new subsidiary within Engineering Technology Group, ETG Workholding, now provides thousands of fixturing products from a 12,400 ft2 facility in Coventry. The business now cuddles up next to Hyfore Engineering's design and manufacturing operations of custom workholding equipment. In providing bespoke systems for metalcutting, welding and assembly, Hyfore Engineering's production includes zero-point cubes and tombstone fixtures, retrofit NC axes, jigs, fixture plates, trunnions and other components.
The combined operation, employing 31 people, not only includes the SHOPHardinge web portal for Hardinge toolholders and third-party products, but also thousands of products from other suppliers.
"In effect, [this] means that we can significantly broaden the scope of ETG Workholding towards machine tool manufacturers and users beyond Hardinge," says ETG Workholding manager Rob Beckett.
First published in Machinery, July 2015
