Historically, a majority of subcontractor Reginson Engineering’s turnover came from the aerospace sector, with oil and gas generating most of the remainder. So, when Covid struck in early 2020 and aerospace contracts dried up, the Nuneaton-based, AS9100 accredited, Rolls-Royce approved company was deeply affected by the contraction in business.
Since its 1991 inception, the business has grown strongly in terms of staff, product lines, components, and market share. It was mitigated somewhat by the company joining the Ventilator Challenge UK. During April 2020, Rolls-Royce asked Reginson Engineering to manufacture 113,000 components in 10 days to support the build of 8,000 ventilators.
Towards the end of that month, within 36 hours of an order being placed for a pair of Cincom A20-VIIs sliding-head CNC turning centres to enable the medical contract to be fulfillled, the machines were delivered by Citizen Machinery UK.
Both have LFV (low frequency vibration) chip-breaking capability, which not only improved swarf control, raising reliability and reducing the need for operator intervention, but also enhanced the surface finish on components.
The medical work was only temporary, however, so the family-run business owned by Steve Hatch set about finding business elsewhere. What transpired altered the company’s fortunes entirely, as a contract from a jewellery manufacturer combined with strong growth in aerospace conspired to increase turnover so dramatically that by 2023 it was 447% higher than before the pandemic.
Even better is to come. The jewellery company is so pleased with the quality of the mainly titanium jewellery pieces already supplied that it has signalled its intention to increase the annual quantity of parts from 100,000 to 1 million per month over the next few years.
The machine tools underpinning both the quantity and quality of the jewellery parts produced at the Nuneaton factory are yet more Citizen Cincom sliding-head lathes.
