£600,000 Chiron investment seals Shawpak’s future growth

Shawpak, which is a division of Derby-based Riverside Medical Packaging, has spent £600,000 with Engineering Technology Group (ETG) on purchasing a 5-axis Chiron 1250 vertical milling machine that will help it almost halve cycle times on the 80-off customer tools it will produce over the next 12 months.

The high-speed spindle, rotating bed and bespoke workholding from Hyfore means the company can machine up to 20 parts at any one time, with production set to take just 40 hours, instead of the previous 80.

This is a major breakthrough for the firm, which will be now be able to make more tailored machinery for food customers that could generate in excess of £2 million of new business over the next 12 months.

Alan Wade, works and engineering director at Shawpak commented: “Demand for our thermoforming technology is growing rapidly, which means we need to manufacture more parts within the same amount of time to keep up.

“Our existing equipment could just about cope, but the time it took to manufacture parts would be so long our lead-times were often compromised. That’s when we decided to renew our strategic partnership with Engineering Technology Group and ask them to come up with some options.”

He continued: “The support we received was nothing short of outstanding. We initially hired a XT630 and that clearly demonstrated the type of performance we could get from a 5-axis machine. However, we knew we needed an even better solution and that’s when ETG suggested the Chiron 1250 5-axis machine and tapping into the bespoke workholding expertise of Hyfore in Coventry.

ETG regional sales manager Jon Mannion added: “The Chiron 1250 is a fantastic 5-axis machine and it quickly became clear that this was the ideal solution for Shawpak. It also underlines how we try to work with customers; it’s not just about shifting machine tools to them. We listened, understood and were flexible in our approach, with the installation being completed quickly and efficiently.”

Shawpak is expecting orders to treble over the next 18 months after stepping-up the roll-out of its new thermoforming machinery, which has the benefit of a small footprint over traditional alternatives, whilst still delivering the same levels of quality.

20 people have been recruited over the last 18 months in various engineering and design roles. The company aims to double sales year-on-year to clients in the food and medical sectors.

Engineering Technology Group www.engtechgroup.com

Shawpak www.shawpak.co.uk