Heavy hitters in the spotlight

Heavy engineering is big business, commercially, as well as literally. While its traditional playgrounds of shipbuilding yards, mines and steel works have faded to an extent, modern industries such as oil, construction, yellow goods, commercial vehicles and wind energy are ensuring demand continues for large capacity, heavy duty machine tools and manufacturing technologies. The UK's expertise in this sector dates back several centuries and is part of the reason there is active overseas investment in knowledge that originated on these shores. For instance, Precision Technologies Group (PTG) has recently sold its heavy machine tools business to Chinese machine tool maker Chongqing Machinery & Electric Co, which is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange. Huddersfield-based PTG Heavy Industries (01422 379222) takes in the manufacture and refurbishment of Binns & Berry and Crawford Swift lathes, plus other heavy machinery such as deep hole boring machines and roll grinders. "Heavy industry has turned a corner, from the dark days of the 80s, when it was a dirty word, to today when government has acknowledged that high value manufacturing is vital to the country, in order to rebalance the economy and provide the engine to sustain UK recovery," says Dr Tony Bannan, PTG chief operating officer. In another strategic heavy engineering acquisition, Chinese large capacity CNC lathe maker Spark Machine Tool Co Ltd recently took a majority shareholding in UK VTL maker Wickman Bennett (024 7663 9208), which has just launched its heavy duty Revelation2 VTL. And the trend is perpetuated further by the recent purchase of Sheffield-based heavy engineering firm DavyMarkham by India's Hindustan Dorr Oliver (HDO) Ltd. HDO says it will be using DavyMarkham's corporate credentials and engineering expertise to gain a foothold among domestic heavy engineering clients. The company is currently exploring opportunities in oil and gas, power and uranium processing. MARKET WITH ENERGY The energy market is a big driver of modern heavy engineering technology and the wind energy sector particularly is a significant area of opportunity, as Sheffield-based sub-contract engineering firm Barker Collins can confirm. "It is estimated that in the next 10 years, around 10,000 offshore wind turbines will need to be manufactured and installed in the North Sea and the Baltic to help meet Europe's future energy requirements. This number could rise to 30,000 by 2030," says Chris Carter, managing director at Barker Collins. To help meet this demand, Barker Collins has recently installed five Doosan DB 130C/CX horizontal boring machines, supplied by Mills CNC (01926 736736). The machines have a powerful, high torque spindle (25 kW 2,500 rpm), with a 3-range gearbox for heavy duty machining. Image: Barker Collins turned to Mills CNC for a large capacity manufacturing solution Barker Collins has already won numerous offshore wind turbine manufacturing contracts, such as one for the production of large clevis joints. Manufactured from cast steel and weighing 2.5 tonnes each, these clevises are machined on the Doosan borers in a single set-up. Machining time is typically around 11-13 hours per part. Prior to the arrival of the Doosan machines, the parts were turned and milled. Cycle times were long, and transferring the clevises between different machines created delays and affected part accuracies. OEMs are also investing in heavy duty machining capability. A case in point is Bridlington-based AB Graphic International, a manufacturer of printing equipment, such as narrow-web label finishing and converting lines. Until recently, the company put out the machining of large structural plates used in the construction of its equipment. Annual machining cost was in excess of £80,000 per year. As a result, the company recently installed a DCX22 bridge-type machining centre from Hurco (01494 442222) and brought the work in-house. It is estimated the machine will pay for itself within 18 months. Image: A hurco DCX22 brfidge-type machining centre is supporting large capcity machining at AB Graphic International Operations manager Phil Robson says that a large aluminium plate measuring, say, 2,150 by 1,500 by 20 mm and containing over 100 features can be programmed in less than 45 minutes at the Hurco's Ultimax control. In contrast, the same job would take many hours on a different control on the shopfloor, as all parameters would have to be keyed in manually, with a consequent risk of human error and potential for scrapped parts. A further initiative has been to work with tooling suppliers to maximise metal removal rates. Solid carbide cutters are used, mainly from SGS (01189 795200), for machining aluminium, and Fenn Tool (01376 347566), for use on steel. Selection of the right cutting tools is also important when it comes to heavy duty turning operations. With this in mind, TaeguTec has developed its HZ heavy chipbreaker range of turning inserts for machining 20 mm depths of cut. The new HZ insert range has projections on the upper side of the insert to improve chip removal. This new geometry minimises heat generated at the cutting edge during heavy machining. With ability to machine at a feed rate of 1.5 mm/rev, the HZ can operate at a cutting speed of 100 m/min on alloyed steels. Image: Heavy duty turning operations are supported by TaeguTec's HZ chip breaker range Yellow goods is, of course, another important sector within the realm of heavy engineering and System 3R (02476 538653) reports recent sales success at Normet, a producer of vehicles and mobile equipment for the mining and tunnel-building industries, based in Lisalmi, Finland. Normet had capacity problems with its largest milling machine used for machining heavy workpieces (chassis and booms) each weighing up to 3 tonnes. They were machined in two separate set-ups having a total machining time of 5-6 hours. So Normet investigated ways of increasing capacity, either by buying a new machine or finding a more cost-effective solution. "When I began looking at the machine's spindle hours, they were only running at 50 per cent," says development engineer Janne Korhonen. "This was due to lengthy set-up and re-tooling on the machine table. Therefore, it didn't seem a good idea to invest in a new machine to then have two machines only being half used." Mr Korhonen began to look at palletisation of the workpieces as a solution. Set-up could then be moved away from the machine and performed while another workpiece was processed. Furthermore, investing in a pallet system would only be a fraction of the cost of a new machine. A conservative calculation showed that palletised workpieces might increase the machine's spindle hours by up to 30 per cent. Image:System 3R workholding increased productivity for Finland's Normet Mr Korhonen was impressed with System 3R's Delphin BIG pallet system, with calculations showing that the entire investment could pay for itself in eight months. The duly installed pallet system included eight hydraulic Delphin BIG chucks on the machine table and two in-house manufactured pallets (4,000 by 2,000 by 85 mm) weighing 5 tonnes each. Only three days were needed to prepare the machine table – install the eight chucks, fit the stops/guides and mount a cover. After only two months' operation, it was clear that the milling machine's capacity had doubled to 50 chassis per month. Two other machines are now scheduled for similar palletisation with Delphin BIG. Of course, measuring large parts can be almost as challenging as machining them. Taylor Hobson (0116 276 3771) has produced the world's largest roundness measurement system for use in the heavy duty truck engine market. Talyrond 450 with its 2.5 m column, new high precision air bearing spindle and 1,000 kg load capacity, provides inspection of engine blocks, cranks and heads. The development was instigated because the company was approached by two manufacturers of heavy duty truck engines looking for a measurement solution for their latest engines for the Chinese truck market. To meet emission criteria, the new engines require tighter form tolerances, creating a challenge for the inspector and stretching the capabilities of the measuring room. Co-ordinate measuring instruments, although capable of measuring the cylinder bores and other parts of the engine, struggle to meet the specifications applied to the crankshaft and camshaft bores, and are certainly not capable of measuring the crankshaft. The main reason for this problem is the length of the measuring probes. These probes have to reach depths of greater than 1.2 m and still maintain accuracies in and around the micron mark. IN LARGE MEASURE Large diameters can prove equally challenging when it comes to providing accurate measurement, as connector and flange specialist Welding Units UK Ltd of Rainford can testify. The company's large diameter products are used for applications such as the connecting of subsea oil industry pipes. As the risk of failure-in-use could have disastrous financial and environmental consequences, the company's products are inspected at all stages of manufacture. Because Welding Units produces flanges of up to 2 m in diameter, containing a range of close tolerance features, conventional large-scale calipers often prove too heavy and cumbersome to achieve the required levels of precision. Also, the dedicated internal/external jaws of traditional calipers do not allow the retrofitting of accessories such as ball contacts for the measurement of face grooves, and cones for checking the centreline distances of bores. Following a search for a large capacity digital measuring instrument that would overcome the limitations inherent in normal workshop calipers, Welding Units found the new UniCal universal digital caliper from Bowers Metrology (01274 223456). Although the UniCal has the same measuring capacity as some of the company's existing calipers, because it is manufactured from advanced composites, it is only a fraction of their weight, which enables staff to achieve higher levels of accuracy, while reducing operator fatigue. The company now plans to fit its UniCals with Bowers' data transmitters, enabling wireless collection of the gauges' findings. Image: Large capacity but lightweight Bowers calipers Box item Large press brake order LVD-HD (+32 (56) 430511) has been awarded a contract from Sany Group Co of Changsha, China, to manufacture a custom 3,000 ton press brake, for the production of mobile crane equipment. LVD-HD is the newly established, China-based joint venture company of LVD Company nv and Hubei Tri-Ring Metalforming Equipment Co. LVD will perform engineering and design work and provide critical components for the custom machine, while HD will manufacture the frame and handle assembly. Installation of the machine is planned for November 2010. The PPEB-H 3,000 ton, 14 m press brake will be one of the most technologically advanced machine of its kind, incorporating a CNC adjustable Vari-VEE die, with 'Smart Crown' feature, and LVD's patented Easy-Form Laser adaptive bending system. LVD's Vari-VEE die provides automatic adjustment of the V-width to reduce set-up time and provide flexibility to form long parts, different material thicknesses and high strength materials. The Easy-Form Laser system provides exact measurement of the angle during bending. Image: Click here for additional image