Taking part in the ‘Profitable growth through applied research for Scotland’s manufacturing sector’ event held at the University of Strathclyde’s Advanced Forming Research Centre (AFRC), Starrag UK received a number of serious enquiries for machines from Scotland-based blue-chip companies.
These included an oil and gas OEM which is showing great interest in the Scharmann ‘lights out’ Ecoforce solution for automating large valve machining using a system that would incorporate component transport, metrology using a coordinate measuring machine and robot welding.
In addition, a company involved in shipbuilding is also considering Droop+Rein technology for the machining of large workpieces. Of interest is its kinetic measuring system (KMS) for automatic compensation of geometric errors in rotary axes as well as angle and parallelism errors, in conjunction with the SQS self-qualification system for automatic geometric checking of linear axes, via laser, and V3D for checking rotational axes, with touch probe.
Starrag also reports positive reactions to the recently-announced Heckert Focus horizontal machining centres. Specifically designed for general subcontract applications and for use by supply chain partners, these machines are said to be “very flexible and cost-efficient.” The three Focus machines are said to offer users throughput increases of up to 10% through reduced machining times and energy cost savings of up to 20% via Blue Competence policies. They also promise up to 10% savings in service and tool costs, and are available on shorter-than-usual delivery schedules times, according to Starrag.
At the AFRC event in December 2016, the company displayed a number of machines, including models suited to processing aerostructures (Starrag STC 800X horizontal machining centre), aero assembly (Droop+Rein FOGS overhead gantry type machine), automotive (Heckert HEC horizontal machining centre) and oil and gas (Scharmann Ecoforce horizontal machining centre).
