South coast success

Recently, the privately-owned UK arm of the business, located in Hayling Island on the south coast of England, held an open house to showcase its wide range of technology. Machine tools took centre stage but there’s a number of strings to Emco’s bow; the company took the opportunity to exhibit controls from Siemens, Heidenhain and Fanuc; 3D printers from Stratasys, CNC routers from Isel and a range of laser marking and cutting systems from Epilog and Lotus.

Partner companies were also invited to participate: Iain Caville from Measurement Solutions demonstrated the capabilities of Creaform 3D scanners and Mike Robbins from Inscot, an authorised supplier of Mastercam products, highlighted the latest developments in CAM technology.

Emco’s pedigree and heritage is deep rooted in the education sector – supplying high quality equipment to educational establishments is undoubtedly what the company is best known for in the UK – but this is only part of the story because the business also operates a successful, but somewhat lesser known Industrial Division headed up by sales director Mike Worner. Managing director Jim Wilson looks after the educational side of the business.

“We’re well-established as a supplier of high quality equipment and service to the education sector but a primary objective is to raise the profile of our Industrial Division to the same status,” explains sales manager Chris Heal. “In the education market, around 30% of the work we undertake is project-based: we get involved early on at the design stage and see things through manufacturing, project management, applications, installation and service and support.

“Our message to prospective industrial customers is that whilst we can offer ‘off the shelf’ high quality machine tools within short lead-times, we can also provide customised solutions to specific turnkey projects and applications though our dedicated team based in Hallein, Austria. From a group perspective, we have a vast pool of knowledge and expertise at our disposal.”

Emco UK hosts two open house events each year in May and in October and historically these have proven to be successful. The company has a loyal customer base and open houses are a convenient way to showcase new technology to prospective and existing clients. The two-day event in October was well-attended and generated a healthy number of high quality sales leads.

In terms of technology, Emco was keen to give the new, cost-effective Emcoturn S65 universal turning centre its UK debut. This is a compact CNC lathe with turn/mill turret designed to process bar parts up to 65mm diameter and chuck parts up to 310mm. According to Chris Heal, this machine was particularly popular at the open house.

The main spindle features speeds of up to 4,200rpm and main drive power of 18kW and for shaft machining, the S65 is available with an automatic tailstock. Control options are Siemens Sinumerik 828D or Fanuc 0i TD with ShopTurn and ManualGuide i. The machine’s solid machine bed ensures high thermostability. A smaller variant – the S45 – is also available. This machine can handle bar diameters up to 45mm and chuck parts up to 220mm.

“Although not a new machine, we also exhibited the Hyperturn 45 twin spindle, twin turret CNC lathe at the open house,” Mr Heal affirms. “With two high performance spindles, twin tool turrets and a Y-axis, this is a machine designed to handle medium to large quantity, high precision work. The Hyperturn 45 is a product from our premium, multi-tasking machine tool range which extends up to the Hyperturn 200 Powermill with 1m turning diameter capability.”

The Maxxmill 400 is also worthy of mention. This is a new, larger variation of Emco’s Maxxmill 350 vertical 5-axis milling centre. Specification-wise, it’s identical to the 350 but is fitted with a 400mm swivel rotary table which can take workpieces up to 80kg in weight with maximum edge lengths of 250 x 250 x 225mm.

Overall, Emco has had a successful year with continuous growth both in the industrial and educational markets that it serves: “The subcontract market is where we have seen most success in our industrial sales so far this year,” Mr Heal reveals. “Our customers appreciate the build quality, the high level of quality components used and the proven reliability and repeatability that our machines provide. Many of our clients are repeat customers who have returned to expand their capacity.”

He concludes: “Emco has focused on enhancing its five-sided CNC milling range in recent months and we see this expansion offering our customers a wider choice and greater options when making decisions regarding their future machine tool requirements with ourselves.

“Looking forward, we’ll be at MACH 2018 next year and have doubled our stand size compared to the previous show. We’ll also be exhibiting at Southern Manufacturing in February 2018. Additionally, plans are underway to expand our demonstration facility next year.”

Emco www.emco.co.uk