Hydrafeed developments ready for the upturn

The Milton Keynes-based firm's new Autofeed long magazine bar feed set to be available by the end of the year, having up to 65 mm bar capacity. A new quick-change guide channel means that bar changeovers can now be achieved within the allotted down time parameters of most lean manufacturing facilities. While the economic downturn has seen consolidation in many businesses, Hydrafeed has been working to expand its range of conventional bar feeding products and the automated range of component handling products. As HydraFeed's operations director, Martyn Page, commented: "We are firmly focused on offering our customers complete automation solutions from the introductory CNC turning level through to high performance top end equipment." The UK's leading barfeed manufacturer now offers a complete range of short magazine bar feeds as well as full length magazine type coupled with additional automation products to complement any CNC turning centre. The Multiservo short magazine bar feed is now able to compliment the fastest of machine tools minimising feeding cycles with innovative features that can effectively remove the bar feed cycle time in some instances. New and innovative methods now enable bars to be loaded, measured and prepared while the machine is working on an already loaded bar, thereby reducing dead time on the lathe to virtually zero. A new short magazine bar feed was introduced earlier in 2009, and this has been developed from previous models to include many new features. Hydrafeed customers can now get a constant display of the length of the bar remaining plus linear rails throughout the bar feed on the new MV65 model. This policy has been adopted across the complete range of products with research and development remaining an important part of Hydrafeed's business. Available since March, its Rota-Rack stand-alone product designed to safely collect finished components as they come of CNC equipment has been specifically designed to manage large volumes of components where traditional methods of conveying do not adequately protect the parts. One customer is now using six systems coupled with the MultiFeed short magazine bar feed, allowing the company to free up staff for other shopfloor tasks while the machines run unmanned. The Milton Keynes manufacturer is also able to provide special bespoke systems, with the most recent of these projects being a special support system allowing a propeller shaft manufacturer in the south of England to support duplex material up to 7.0 m long and 150 mm in diameter. The success of this project has allowed the Hydrafeed customer to offer improved lead times on his products and cut costs. The company is currently working on a project to feed special shaped extrusion and assisting a medical manufacturer with improving the general automation of its CNC turning centres. "We are confident that our new products will allow our company to be best placed once investment in the industry as a whole begins, I have every confidence in a good future for Hydrafeed," Mr Page concluded.