Driven by success

In relative terms, the Haas F1 Formula One team is a newcomer to the scene. The team debuted in 2016 as the brainchild of Gene Haas, founder of the largest machine tool manufacturer in North America, Haas Automation.

Dave Tudor caught up with Haas UK commercial director Greg Smith at a recent ‘Meet the Drivers’ event held at the company’s F1 Team Facility in Banbury just two days before the Rolex British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

The synergy between Formula 1 and machine tools is undeniable. It’s evident first and foremost through Gene Haas, Haas Automation’s founder who, aside from being phenomenally successful in growing his machine tool business into the global leviathan it is today, is also a championship NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) winner with his team Stewart-Haas Racing.

The venture into the mega-competitive world of F1 is something of a natural progression then. Not bad for a guy who started Haas Automation in 1983, entering the industry with the development of the Haas 5C fully programmable collet indexer. In 1987, the company made its mark on the machine tool market with the VF1 VMC.

Using clichés like ‘the rest is history’ and ‘Mighty oaks from little acorns grow’ seem inadequate here; Gene Haas’ entrepreneurialism, business acumen and vision is irrefutable – a true industry success story if ever there was one.

The aforementioned synergy between F1 and machine tools was also evident at the ‘Meet the Drivers’ event held in Banbury where around 60 Haas customers were in attendance – attracted no doubt by the opportunity to meet Haas F1 Team drivers Kevin Magnussen and Pietro Fittipaldi (Grandson of two times world champion Emerson) while getting up close and personal to the selection of Haas machine tools that adorn the F1 Team Facility. The drivers along with team principal Guenther Steiner were more than happy to answer questions from the audience and autograph literature.

For Haas Automation, its association with the F1 team is an unquestionable match made in heaven in terms of raising its profile and branding. There’s no better industry for epitomising the very best in advanced engineering and cutting edge technology – pushing the car to its absolute limits to gain that all-important advantage on the racetrack. Also, there’s a lot of F1 fans that also happen to be engineers.

The Banbury site, from an F1 perspective exists primarily to co-ordinate team logistics and management, with some functionality as a garage facility while the team is racing in Europe. On the machine tool side, Banbury is Haas UK’s main showroom.

Strong sales across the board

Of course whilst F1 proceedings may have taken centre stage for this customer-focused event, it also set the scene to check out some of Haas’ latest machine tool technology – particularly the new kids on the block – the UMC-1000 5-axis and its high-speed stablemate the UMC-1000SS. More about those later.

Haas UK has enjoyed a strong position in the marketplace for many years. Indeed it holds the accolade of being the first distributor outside the US to sell and support Haas machines. The business will celebrate its 30th birthday in 2020.

Despite the ‘B’ word, the market remains relatively buoyant for Haas and sales figures reflect the underlying resilience that is thankfully the cornerstone of UK manufacturing: “The first six months of this calendar year have been the strongest on record,” commercial director Greg Smith advises.

“We’re winning new customers all the time, which is fantastic, but we’re also retaining our existing clients. Currently we’re shipping around 40 units a month which is excellent in the current economic climate.

“Another really positive aspect is that sales have been across the board,” he adds. “The UMC-750 (the smaller sibling of the new UMC-1000 5-axis VMC) has been very popular since its introduction in 2014 and we’ve also seen strong growth from the Modular Mini Mill and Haas ‘classic’ machines like the VF-2 and VF-4.

“We’ve also enjoyed increased interest in the turning market this year with sales of models like the ST-20 and ST-25 exceeding all our expectations.”

Globally, 90-employee Haas UK certainly holds its own. There are currently just under 10,000 Haas machines installed in the UK. To offer some perspective, Haas worldwide has a user base of 225,000 machines. Incredibly, ALL Haas CNC machines are still designed and built in California at its 1.6 million ft2 manufacturing facility.

Leadtimes are always a challenge for machine tool companies and there’s inevitably a degree of crystal ball gazing when it comes to predicting demand accurately. Fortunately, through nearly 30 years in business, Haas has keenly honed its forecasting skills and by and large, according to Greg Smith, it gets things just about right.

“We’re fortunate in that we have a large warehouse in Norwich and we keep around £5 million worth of machine tools here in the UK, and over £20 million of machines held centrally in Europe to hopefully alleviate peaks in demand and keep leadtimes to an absolute minimum,” Mr Smith affirms. “It’s the same story with spares – and we also have the option of drawing on stock held in our European warehouses. It’s impossible to forecast 100% right all the time but we get pretty close.”

5-axis technology – without breaking the bank

It’s an opportune time to look at Haas’ machine tools in more detail – specifically its UMC series 5-axis models.

Haas made quite an impact on the marketplace when it introduced the UMC-750 VMC back in 2014. Positioned to allow affordable access to the 5-axis market and therefore priced accordingly, it certainly didn’t compromise on features with X, Y, Z travels of 762 x 508 x 508mm respectively, 500mm integrated dual-axis trunnion rotary table, 15,000rpm max spindle speed, and 40+1 side mount toolchanger, not to mention 30.5m/minute rapids and WIPS (wireless intuitive probing system).

“5-axis machining is an effective way of reducing set-ups and increasing accuracy on multi-sided and complex parts and in the UMC-750 we brought affordable 5-axis machining to the masses,” explains Haas UK director, James Leet.

“Since 2014, we’ve sold 143 machines in the UK. Like the newer UMC-1000 models, the 750 can be used in 3+2 or full simultaneous 5-axis mode and there’s no doubt it has found a position in the marketplace, delivering an excellent package in terms of cost, footprint and technical capability.”

Now those capabilities have been extended further with the introduction of the UMC-1000 and its speedy sibling, the UMC-1000SS. Sometimes size is everything and the larger 1,016 x 635 x 635mm travels and 10,000rpm (as standard) spindle speed provide additional capacity all round. The UMC-1000SS offers 15,000rpm and a high-speed integrated, dual-axis trunnion table.

“The UMC-1000 has been in development for the past two years and has evolved from the successful UMC-750 machine with some progressive developments. The need for a larger model has been customer driven to an extent and also a natural progression and addition to the range. It can handle larger and heavier workpieces,” Mr Leet explains.

“We believe the new model will open up new markets for us. The UMC-750 has been a huge success and has exposed more customers to the Haas brand leading to sales across the entire range.

“We have already made sales of UMC-1000s and in fact have had to re-order our demo machine twice due to customers placing orders without even seeing the machine – they simply couldn’t wait for delivery. We now have a machine available for demonstration at our Banbury facility, and expect sales to ramp up as a result of customers being able to physically see the capability for themselves.”

Out in the field

One of the first customers to purchase a UMC-1000 is Newcastle, Northern Ireland-based Doran Engineering, a company that specialises in the manufacture of precision components, offering batch production work, rapid response and rework services.

90% of the factory’s output serves the aerospace industry, supplying to a worldwide customer base, making interior parts for aircraft giants such as Thompson Aero Seating and Collins Aerospace. The company machines a wide range of aerospace grade materials including aluminium, stainless steel and plastics.

The partnership between Haas and Doran is strong – the latter has invested in 16 Haas machines in the past eight years. Included in this total are three UMC-750 5-axis VMCs.

“The UMC-750s allow us to produce both small batches and prototype work in a much shorter time frame,” explains Doran Engineering’s managing director, Kieran Doran. “Using the latest Mastercam package, with the UMC’s 12,000rpm spindle and 40+1 side mount tool change, we quickly found cycle times were reduced by 30%.

“These were our first 5-axis machines, but they were easier to use than I’d imagined,” he adds. “They really worked for us. We use them for five-sided machining producing multi-option parts. We finish them in much shorter lead-times with a higher accuracy and precision.

“Following on from the success of our UMC-750s we have just installed a new Haas UMC-1000. We’re looking forward to seeing what we can do with the larger working envelope.”

Haas UK www.haas.co.uk

Haas F1 www.haasf1team.com

Doran Engineering www.doranengineering.com