Silver lining

One such company is Birmingham-based GB Precision, currently exporting in excess of 85% of its production.

However, even with today's advantageous exchange rates, director Paul Turner, knows that the company must maximise manufacturing efficiency if it is to stay ahead of the competition, both at home and abroad. To make this a reality, he has invested in the latest Mori Seiki NL1500 CNC lathe with automatic bar feeder, sub-spindle, live tooling and Y axis, providing the company with one hit machining capability.

“Everything we do, and more particularly every purchasing decision we make, is geared to increasing our overall efficiency and so improving the quality of products and services that we provide to our customers,” Mr Turner explains. “We firmly believe that Lean manufacturing is the key to our future success and the new Mori Seiki machine will help us achieve our goals and objectives.”

GB Precision has extensive experience providing high precision tooling and turned parts solutions for household names in the food, drink, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. The company offers its customers a comprehensive in-house production facility backed by a philosophy of ongoing investment in equipment in staff, equipment and processes.

The major advantage of the new CNC lathe to GB Precision is its ability to offer single set-up machining of complex parts that would previously have required multiple set-ups on several machines. This eliminates the possibility of human error, which is always present when components undergo repeated set-up procedures. In addition, because much of the work GB Precision undertakes is complex in nature, the further components advance through the production cycle, the more valuable they become. Single set-up machining, from this perspective, offers additional security.

Furthermore, operator involvement in the manufacture of each part is much reduced, saving skilled resource which can be applied elsewhere. Where previously each component would have to be handled several times, causing the operator to interrupt other tasks, now, once the initial set- up has been completed, the machine, with its automatic bar feed, can be left to complete the job, while the operator gets on with other work.
In addition, the on machine inspection capability means that operators are not required to check parts coming off the machine, providing another step towards automating the process. Unmanned overnight machining is another option currently being explored by GB Precision, and the Mori Seiki is particularly well suited to this type of operation.

In order to offer these advantages, the machine itself has to be well specified. The NL1500 offers many technical benefits, including a 20 tool turret with a built-in milling motor to minimise heat generation and vibration while eliminating transmission losses, as well as improved tool tip rigidity to ensure high quality cutting surface generation and a longer tool life.

Mr Turner concludes: “Lean manufacturing is central to GB Precision's future. Our acquisition of the new CNC lathe is just the latest step in our strategy of developing the most efficient manufacturing processes to deliver the best possible components to our clients, reliably, on time, every time.

GB Precision
www.gbprecision.co.uk