New season, new opportunities

Early season racing is where motorsport teams experience the steepest part of their annual learning curve. With the 2011 racing calendar already underway in motorsport disciplines such as Formula One, World Rally and British Touring Car, many machine shops will be busy supplying modified parts on extremely short turnaround. As a result, supply chains need to be responsive, meeting lead times for machined components that are sometimes as short as 24 hours. To help accommodate such demands, new investment programmes are often implemented to create extra capacity and improve existing cycle times. RT Quaife Engineering, a subcontractor based in Kent, is a case in point. Quaife has recently installed 11 new Doosan machine tools, supplied by Mills CNC (01926 736736). The machines (five DNM vertical machining centres, four Puma 280 lathes and two Lynx 220B lathes) are now on site at the company's two facilities in Sevenoaks and Gillingham, where they are being used to manufacture drive-line products such as gearboxes, gear kits, power take-off units and ATB (automatic torque biasing) differentials for customers in Formula One, GT circuit racing, rally-cross and rallying. Parts are machined from LM25 castings, forgings and from solid. Precision is often the overriding factor when it comes to motorsport parts and here machine tool rigidity can provide a major boost to repeatability. With this in mind, Wolverhampton-based Allens Crankshafts has recently installed a rigid NT4250 multi-axis turn-mill centre with Y-axis travel of ±120 mm from Mori Seiki (0844 800 7647). Allens produces crankshafts for many motorsport applications, including the Honda K20 engine. The company's relationship with Mori Seiki started with an investment in an MT machine for heavy duty milling and turning. As demand grew, the company needed extra capacity and invested in a mill-turn centre from a different supplier, rather than waiting for a new Mori Seiki machine. However, it proved to be unsuitable for crankshaft manufacture, as Nash Sharma, managing director of Allens Crankshafts, explains. Image: Allens is benefiting from the rigidity of Mori Seiki technology "The machine wasn't solid enough for the production of cranks, so after two years we sold it and invested in a Mori Seiki NT4250 1500S. The difference is considerable: the NT4250 weighs 24 tonnes, compared with 11 tonnes for the machine we replaced, and it produces parts 33% faster." The NT4250 includes proprietary Mori Seiki technology, such as Built-in Motor Turret (BMT) and Octagonal Ram Construction (ORC), enabling it to achieve metal removal rates of around 1,024 ml/min, which is equivalent to a conventional machining centre. Machining times can vary between two and five hours, depending on crankshaft design. By using the NT4250, Allens Crankshafts can produce a complete part in one operation, starting from a solid billet of EN40B. Due to the complex nature of many motorsport parts that results from designers seeking strong, lightweight, single-piece components, milling, even in five axes, cannot always provide the solution. This is where EDM steps in, as Silverstone-based subcontractor EDM Precision Technologies can testify. The company has recently extended its capacity with a new Mitsubishi FA20S Advance wire EDM (its eighth Mitsubishi on site), supplied by HK Technologies (01788 577288). "We wanted a machine that would give us the extra capacity to meet growing demand, which meant it needed to be capable of reliable, unattended, overnight operation," says managing director Paul Waldron. EDM Precision enjoyed a strong 2010, with demand increasing across the board. For instance, a total of seven Formula One teams carried parts made by the company during the 2010 racing season, while other motorsport disciplines such as Le Man, touring car and historic car racing also placed high demands on capacity. "There are many advantages to EDM, but typically our motorsport customers like the fact that no stress is induced into the part, due to the absence of heat or friction generated by conventional cutting processes such as milling or grinding," says Mr Waldron. "Additionally, because of the high cost of the materials, customers appreciate that EDM can often yield a higher number of parts per billet, while smart engineering through the use of Erowa tooling systems [available from REM Systems, 01452 314100] enables workpieces to be transferred from EDM machine to mill, and vice versa, without the need for lengthy set-up procedures. Image: Cutting gear teeth on Mitsubishi EDM machines "In Formula One, we might be tendering for a job at 2 pm, with the order arriving at 4 pm and delivery required within a week – and we might have to source material in that time," he adds. "Sometimes we have orders with a next-day delivery. Formula One is essentially product development at warp factor 10 on a race-by-race basis." Of course, with complex components come challenging cutter paths. Here, CAM software can play a vital role in the effective generation of optimised toolpaths for contour generation, for example. Recent acquisitions at Northampton-based subcontractor, GE Precision Engineering have included 5-axis machining centres, such as a DMU50 from DMG (01582 570661), a seven-pallet Mikron UCP600 from Agie Charmilles (02476 538666) and an XR60-5AX from Hardinge (0116 2869900). However, the 17-employee business says its most important purchase has been CAM software from Open Mind Technologies (01656 738566). The selection of Open Mind's hyperMill occurred when GEPE was awarded a contract with a Formula One engine manufacturer to produce cam covers from solid billets. Managing director Garry Edwards was given a demonstration of hyperMILL at the Formula One team and immediately realised how easy it was to produce complex shapes and forms. The first seat arrived in April 2009, with additional seats following in June 2009 and then September 2010. Image: Machining a Norton cylinder head; Open Mind CAM helps out "Programming times have fallen by 30-60% and when our average programming time is approximately 16 hours, it shows the importance of hyperMill," he says. "The optimisation of toolpaths and rough machining cycles ensure that 'fresh air' cutting is minimised and this has contributed to cycle time reductions of beyond 20%. hyperMILL also offers shorter program lengths with less code by condensing outputs, such as incorporating radii into G2 and G3 codes." Another CAM software vendor, Delcam (0121 683 1000), also has a heavy presence in the motorsport sector, with customers such as Brembo, Cagiva, Crosby Composites, Lotus Engineering, Silverhorse Racing and Wegner Motorsports. In fact, the company demonstrated its latest machining and inspection software developments for motorsport customers at a Motorsport Industry Association members' meeting held at the company's Birmingham headquarters in February. The seminar included demonstrations of Delcam's software for engine port machining and composite manufacture. Box item Chequered flag for Maza Autosport Engineering exhibition organisers awarded 'Best Stand in Manufacturing Technology' to Yamazaki Mazak (01905 755755) at the recent NEC show, where Mazak showcased its Integrex j series multi-tasking machine. Stand visitors were able to witness live cutting demonstrations of a complex component completed in less than 14 minutes. "Crucially, the number of stand visitors increased on last year and our live cutting demonstrations resulted in a number of enquiries for the Integrex j, along with strong enquiries for other machines not at the show, including the recently launched Vertical Centre Smart," says Tony Saunders, UK sales director. " We are confident of converting these into firm orders in the near future." Mazak has a long history of supplying machine tools to the motorsport sector, including more than 11 years as an official supplier to the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula One team. Image: Best stand at Autosport Engineering goes to.....Mazak