First Biglia sale for Hardinge goes to Drurys Engineering

The Hitchin-based subcontractor will this month install a Biglia 545YS CNC turning centre. Hardinge sales and marketing manager Martin Doyle says it is a significant landmark in the development of the Biglia brand in the UK. "Drury's is one of the UK's most respected subcontract manufacturers and it always sets the bar very high in terms of quality, investment in machines tools and its personnel. The company has a long-standing relationship with Hardinge and this latest development further emphasises its commitment to investing in the very best technology in order to stay both competitive and offering their customers the highest standards of manufacturing." Richard Dunn, managing director of Drurys Engineering, says: "We supply customers in some very demanding industries, such as oil, defence and aerospace, and, as such, need machines with the flexibility to support a rapid response. Keeping costs down is always a challenge and so reducing non-productive time is essential. Our experience with Hardinge 5-axis machines has been positive and when they presented the case for the Biglia machine to us, we were immediately impressed. It brings another dimension to our operations and will contribute to us staying a number of steps ahead of our competitors." Drurys Engineering operates a total of 28 CNC machine tools of which four are Hardinge Bridgeport 5-axis machining centres, with a further 14 Hardinge VMCs, while there is also a Hardinge turn-mill centre. Drurys commitment to a single machine tool supplier has benefits, as Richard Dunn explains. "The policy enables us to standardise on tooling, spares and service contracts, and our operators can easily move from machine to machine. Further, having a row of machines in the same livery always draws positive comments from customers." The Biglia 545YS is due for installation this month, but Hardinge has installed a loan machine to support Drurys high workload prior to this.