C Dugard offers a mix of well-known brand name machine tools (see 'Machine tool brands offered' below), together with its own Dugard-badged machines. The company has offices in Poland and in the Middle East (Dubai and Saudi Arabia), as well as half a dozen key international sub-dealers, so exports account for half of the company's turnover.
Most of this export business is based on its own machine range, but in the Middle East, for example, C Dugard also represents Samsung (CNC lathes) and You Ji (large vertical borers).
The available mix of machines, some 180 models are listed on its website (about 80 are Dugard brand), gives the 100-employee company a large potential catchment, both at home and abroad, and sees it offering machines that other players do not. "We try to offer something a little bit different, filling niches, while also offering standard machines, too," says managing director Eric Dugard. And a stockholding of 60-70 more standard machines, mostly vertical machining centres (VMCs), supports immediate availability in areas where such is competitively important, while a rolling schedule of 10-12 machines/month maintains a pipeline of standard machines.
The Dugard brand range, and the company's export business, effectively grew out of C Dugard's highly successful Yang activities, which were disrupted when the Taiwanese manufacturer got into difficulties at the turn of the century. The company sold several thousand Yang CNC lathes and VMCs. But it now draws on several factories in Taiwan to support its own brand, guarding against any repeat of the previous supply interruption. (Yang users are still supported, incidentally.)
THE DUGARD BRAND
Dugard brand machines include standard 3-axis vertical machining centres having X-axis travels from 500 mm to 2.5 m, heavy duty models, 5-axis models, large twin-column VMCs, horizontal borers and horizontal machining centres, plus CNC lathes from 6 to 20 in chuck, as well as bar-fed production CNC lathes that run from a 32 to 76 mm diameter bar capacity. Small and large capacity flatbed lathes – manual, teach and CNC – also feature, as do large CNC vertical turning lathes (VTLs).
In the 32 mm capacity production turning area, there's a novel non-guide bush sliding-head machine, the Dugard 32, that has seen sales of "several hundred" over nine years or so, Dugard reports. Featuring a PC-based control system, this machine boasts up to six OD and six ID turning tools, together with four radial and three axial driven tools tools. In its sub-spindle version, the Dugard 32 additionally boasts four turning tools and four axial driven tools serving the second spindle. The range starts at £75,000.
But a particular production lathe model highlighted is the 42i TTU (above). This 42 mm bar diameter capacity machine is an innovative automatic lathe having main and sub-spindle plus twin vertical tooling blocks that each have B-axis rotation/positioning for the motorised tooling element, while the sub-spindle has both X and Y positioning.
The main spindle tool block has six OD tools, four ID tools and 12 motorised tools. The sub-spindle tooling block has four OD tools, four ID tools and 12 motorised tools. The price tag for all this technology is £85,000. There are a number of these Mitsubishi-controlled 42 mm bar capacity machines offered, each with a different tweak. For example, the 42 iT Robo CNC lathe has an integral 6-axis robot in place of the second linear block, with one sold into the Czech Republic for automotive parts. But at £75,000, this is also considered a good bet for the educational market, suggests Dugard.
The latest addition to the production CNC lathe range is the 65 mm bar capacity slantbed T8 hybrid machine. Having both main and sub-spindle, the novel element is the combination of both a tool turret and a linear gang tool system in the same machine, offering 32 tools. Yet another demonstration of the "something a little bit different" strategy followed by C Dugard.
At the lower end of the price range, the company has been working with a Chinese company for three years to bring in a range of low-cost machines. This includes two teach-type flatbed lathes with PC-based controls made by China's GSK CNC Equipment Co – the third largest CNC maker in the world, by volume, behind Fanuc and Siemens, Dugard reveals. The larger Dugard Lunan 19-55, which has 280/500 mm swing over cross-slide/bed and four-way electrically driven toolpost, comes in at around £18,000.
A 52 mm bar capacity, 12-position turret production 2-axis slantbed lathe, Dugard Lunan 210A, is another outcome of the new joint venture. This machine is offered at just over £28,000.
And the same joint venture also supplies VMCs – the BT40 Dugard Lunan range. Described as "the perfect starter VMC", there are three models – 500A, 600A and 800 A (the number denotes X-axis travel). Again, a low-cost PC-based CNC unit is offered alongside a Fanuc or Siemens system. The 500A starts at under £20,000 with the PC-based unit, while the 800A is available at £29,500.
Taiwanese components are a key feature of all Lunan machines, both CNC lathes and machining centres, incidentally. The Lunan marque was launched at the MACH 2014 exhibition, with all machines displayed snapped up.
The HD range sees a fully supported table carriage across the full X-axis movement, eliminating overhang and X-axis distortion
HEAVY DUTY MACHINING
Turning to heavier duty machining and a particularly successful machining centre model over the past year or so, reports the company, has been the gearbox-driven BT50 spindle, boxway-guided HD range.
Says Dugard: "This machine has a unique bed configuration. It has an inverted X/Y-axis set-up that sees the X-axis positioned underneath the Y-axis carriage, with the Y-axis having an integral drive. It's a bit like a horizontal borer bed, with the Y-axis [carriage] moving along the X-axis. This offers a fully supported table [carriage] across the full X-axis movement, eliminating overhang and X-axis distortion. This layout also has the effect of reducing the machine's footprint, cutting the width by about 40%." This space-efficient design means that, for example, the 1,300 mm X-axis machine fits in the space of a 1,000 mm X-axis VMC. (This fully supported table approach features in the Dugard DBM bedmill range, too.)
And in support of high accuracy heavy duty cutting, the HD machines have refrigerated cooling through its ballscrews, as well as a double-contact BBT spindle connection – standard tools can also be used when the rigidity of double contact is not required, however. Machines in the four-model HD range run from one having an X-axis of 1,300 to one offering 2,200 mm travel. After 2,200 mm, the double-column Dugard LB VMC range takes over.
Demand for HD models has come from the aerospace and the oil and gas sectors, but those making pumps for food machinery out of stainless steel have been particularly interested. "We have sold about half a dozen machines to food pump machinists; there are a number around this area [Hove]," Dugard explains.
A near-identical range to this is offered that has linear guideways in place of boxways and direct drive to the spindle giving 10,000 rpm on a BT50 machine. These models have been employed in heavy machining of aluminium, the company reports.
Moving up the complexity ladder and Dugard says that the last three years or so have seen 5-axis machines added to the company's own brand range. One of these is the BT40 Dugard X5, a 1,020 mm X-axis unit featuring a Nikken trunnion table that can be had in Siemens- or Fanuc-driven 4+1 capability and, including swarf system, comes in at around £100,000. Full simultaneous 5-axis capability sees the machine fitted with Heidenhain control and offered at around £125,000.
Supporting 5-axis machining via a different machine configuration is the BT40 HSM600, which has a 610 mm diameter table and B-axis head, with X-axis travel remaining at 1,020 mm. A larger 1,200 mm square pallet machine of similar configuration has just won two orders. This BT50/HSK100 spindle machine is able to accommodate two tonnes on the table and is competitively priced at around £350,000, the managing director highlights.
The BT40 Dugard RM250RT is a 4+1 machine that boasts power clamping on the rotary axes
A further 5-axis machine (4+1) that demonstrates the C Dugard philosophy is the BT40 Dugard RM250RT. This has a 250 mm diameter rotary table that swivels in through -30/+120° (B-axis) and features power clamping on the table's rotary axes. It's a machine that draws probably just half a dozen sales a year, with automotive fuel injector pump work an example cited. Additional bells and whistles, such as 20,000 rpm Ibag spindle and 200 bar through-spindle coolant, are part of the package here. A smaller BT30 model is also offered.
So, while not neglecting the world of standard machines, C Dugard has, in the last 15 years or so, demonstrably fashioned an offering for those looking for something out of the ordinary, with competitive pricing a key element.
Machine tool brands offered
Chevalier – surface grinding machines
MTE – floor-type machining centres
Matec – travelling-column CNC machining centres
SMEC – Samsung CNC lathes
Tos Varnsdorf – horizontal borers
You Ji – vertical borers
