Big business

 

Viaturn is the exclusive UK supply partner for Taiwanese manufacturer of heavy-duty lathes, Top-Turn. Top-Turn's success over recent years has meant that further space was needed to build its machines and key to this success has been worldwide supply partners Viaturn, based in Sheffield.

James Kearney says: “With an increasing demand for Top-Turn lathes, we are delighted that this additional facility is now up and running. We are proud to be a part of Top-Turn's success and we welcome its forward thinking approach to today's market. As well as the new lathe manufacturing facility, a further sheetmetal production facility has been established to build the guarding for the Top-Turn range.”

Mr Kearney has some pretty strong views on how large capacity machines should be manufactured. “Simply using large components is not enough,” he claims. “We continually see the term ‘heavy-duty' used on machinery that simply does not qualify for this sector of the industry.

“Machines capable of large cuts and rapid material removal are our speciality,” he continues. “Our machines are specified with the most robust castings in the industry and all have the option of high torque spindle motors. Also, in my opinion, the ability to hold large workpieces is something that is lacking in other machines. A lathe with a 1,200mm cutting capacity and a 6m bed length for example, must be able to support large, heavy components. An obvious fact maybe, but one that is often overlooked.”

The road is long

In the UK, Viaturn has carried out a number of Top-Turn lathe installations but possibly the world's largest hollow spindle CNC slant bed lathe is currently in operation at Sheffield-based Shepcote Engineering. The Top-Turn S50 model has a massive 610mm spindle bore and is equipped with front and rear four jaw chucks.

Shepcote Engineering specialises in the manufacture of hydraulic cylinders and the machining of large forgings, tubes and shafts in all types of material including stainless, Inconel, Duplex and 718 for the offshore, marine and construction industries, as well as riser joints and pipeline equipment for the oil and gas sectors. Its managing director is Malcolm Gregg.

“The reason for choosing this particular model was to satisfy the customer demand we are experiencing for the machining of ever increasing lengths of material – plus we needed to consolidate our position as one of the UK's largest manufacturer of bespoke heavy-duty hydraulic cylinders,” he explains. “The Top-Turn machine offered us a spindle bore far bigger than comparable machines from other manufacturers and was delivered quick enough to satisfy our current workload.”

He adds: “The successful completion recently of two large contracts in excess of £1 million has helped strengthen Shepcote's growing reputation for producing work of a high standard. One contract recently completed, was to machine, assemble and test a range of 20 inch bore riser joints for offshore specialists Sub Sea Riser Products.
“Ranging in length up to 11m, this highly challenging work was made easier by the use of the Top-Turn 24 inch hollow spindle lathe supplied by Viaturn. The lathe, although a significant investment by the company, was bought specifically for this type of work and we are currently machining risers for another of the UK's leading oil and gas companies.”

Pipe dreams

Another large contract for Shepcote – this time for Dutch company Krohne Oil and Gas BV, has seen the first stage completed which involved the machining of a number of large bore (570mm) components from stainless steel pipe. So far, 45m of material in 5m lengths have been despatched and installed on site at the Euroloop project in Rotterdam.

“Each piece of material required Shepcote to bore, hone, turn and then drill before sections were bolted together to form 11m lengths after which the bores were honed once more for enhanced accuracy and fit,” Mr Gregg expands. “The finished sections were then shipped to Rotterdam where our engineers oversaw the final assembly.

“We are currently working on the second phase which is to machine another 45m of pipe – this time using 1,200mm bore material, again in 5m lengths. The Euroloop project will be the world's largest test site for calibration of flow meters for the oil and gas industry.”

“It was a pleasure to work with Shepcote Engineering on this project,” says Viaturn's James Kearney. “They asked us if the Top-Turn factory could manufacture such a large spindle bore on a slant bed model and after discussions with our bearing and chuck manufacturers we embarked on what we consider is the largest hollow spindle slant bed lathe in Europe if not the World.”

Big guns

Recent developments at Viaturn include a new supply agreement with heavy-duty machine tool specialist Vision Wide. Also based in Taiwan, the company specialises in double column bed mills and VMCs and following a recent visit, Mr Kearney was able to witness machines being built firsthand and was suitably impressed with both the product range and the manufacturing facility itself.

“The range of machines and options available is simply vast,” he reveals, “and I'm sure customers will be impressed with the capacity available with bed lengths starting at 900mm and rising to 10,000mm on the largest double column machine. For such a large machine you would expect a large table loading capacity and the Vision Wide range does not disappoint with the capacity to machine up to 40 tons.”

Viaturn
www.viaturn.com Shepcote Engineering
www.shepcote-eng.com