Cosworth order win prompts piston line investment

Placed in January 2007, the order is for a fully automated facility made up of two sets of Takisawa TC-200CM CNC lathes with driven tools, Takisawa MAC-V40 – 5-axis vertical machining centre and a Takisawa TPS-3400 elliptical and round profile turning and grooving machine. Each machine will have a CNC overhead gantry loader to load/unload, a transfer station will be positioned between each machine to allow each gantry loader to output a piston and then the next machines gantry loader will collect the piston ready to load it for the next process. Also included is a washing station and a weight measuring station which will record the piston weight, calculate how much more material to remove to ensure the piston is within the weight tolerance of 9 grams when the machining process is finished. The line will be delivered as a full turnkey package for four different pistons, included will be all necessary cutting tools, work holding chucks, fixtures and programmes. Pass-off testing takes place in July in Japan. The oder comes because Cosworth has recently secured a large order worth £10 million over a 7-year period to supply forged pistons to the American aircraft engine maker Lycoming. These engines are used by major airframe manufacturers such as Cessna, Robinson Helicopters and Piper. Takisawa UK Ltd has produced many similar piston production lines before and this year installed a 7-machine line, worth £1.4 million in the Czech Republic. This high volume production line will produce a finished piston every 40 seconds.