Converting to sliding-head lathes produces savings for subcontractor

The company has installed an average of one Star sliding-head mill-turn centre per year for the last decade and now has 10 on the shop floor. In terms of production output, each has replaced four to five cam-type turning machines, which are now all gone. "I am surprised that some sliding-head sales staff do not make more of the savings in consumables that are possible with their products," said Mr Smith, "although Star's engineers do make the point". "I suppose the other benefits of single-operation mill-turning on a CNC machine, namely easier set-up, quicker cycles, 24/7 operation, better repeatability and less work-in-progress, are so considerable that they mask the savings in consumables. However, the latter have become much more important these days." He put together some specifics as a guide to others thinking of moving from cam auto's to CNC sliders. The simple fact of using one machine to produce a given number of parts in one hit, rather than a bank of cam automatics plus milling, drilling and turning machines for subsequent manual operations, gives rise to savings in electricity, cutting oil and tooling. This is in addition to the economies in labour costs. When Wealdpark operated 53 single-spindle cam automatics plus second-op machines, more than 2,000 gallons of cutting oil were used every quarter. The 10 Stars machines use just 180 gallons in the same period, an 11-fold reduction and a big money-saver. Electricity to power one-sixth the number of machine tools is also much lower and results in further substantial savings over the course of a year. Fewer machines means fewer cutters overall and in addition, those cutters last longer because with CNC machines, feeds and speeds can be optimised to suit the material, process and tool. All of these savings are on top of Wealdpark having reduced its workforce over the past 10 years from 55 to 19, while increasing output.