Hooray Henry

Manufacturer of the famous Henry range of vacuum cleaners, Somerset-based Numatic International has standardised on the Macro reference system from System 3R – chucks and electrode holders – in its toolroom to help make a significant percentage of the hundreds of injection mould tools which make the plastic parts for its range of domestic, commercial and industrial cleaners.

“Around 30 computer controlled injection mould machines produce the principal components of our products and the toolroom is kept busy with the injection mould shop works 24/7 across four shifts, 51 weeks a year,” explains toolroom supervisor Simon Adams.

“We therefore needed to find a more efficient system for the production of electrodes and Macro has given us a 90% saving in set-up time.”

Previously Numatic machined copper for electrodes in a vice on its milling machines and then put the workpieces into the spark erosion machines using a different clamping system. This proved to be exceptionally time consuming and also positional errors were likely to creep in, leading to a loss of accuracy.

Numatic has now invested in a Macro chuck for its vertical mill and once the electrode is set-up on the Macro holder, it simply transfers to the EDM machine on the same holder. Once the machines have been programmed there is no need to repeat the process or check the positioning as repeatable accuracy is guaranteed. Typical tolerances are 0.05mm to 0.10mm.

“Set-up on our spark erosion machines has decreases from one hour to literally minutes,” Mr Adams continues. “Macro gives us full interchangeability and flexibility as the electrodes remain on the Macro holders in case any rework is required. We don't always need to mill an electrode, so we are also producing a more accurate electrode purely through the EDM process.

”As a major innovator, we are constantly developing new products and the efficiencies we have gained with Macro are vital when we need to produce prototype tooling in a quick time frame.
“Over the past year Numatic's toolroom has been set-up to produce injection mould tools and currently produces 10 tools from single to six impressions,” he adds. “We're looking to produce at least double that number over the next year. This investment needs to provide a fast payback and Macro is delivering the maximum return for the minimum outlay.”

“We have received excellent support from System 3R who were able to provide an excellent solution that has improved electrode production beyond what we would have thought possible.”

System 3R
www.system3r.com