Last month, PES featured four precision engineering companies – all Star GB sliding head lathe users – that responded admirably to the Government’s rallying call to assist with the manufacture of vital ventilator parts in the fight against COVID-19. In the second part of the story, Dave Tudor shines the spotlight onto four more manufacturing businesses that offered their unwavering and unconditional support to this critically important cause.
In true Billy Ocean spirit, all manufacturing companies that were approached by the VentilatorChallengeUK consortium to produce ventilator parts have demonstrated that when the going gets tough, the tough get going.
The common thread throughout is that relatively complex parts – in varying quantities – were needed quickly, to tight tolerances and often in unusual materials. Drawings were often hastily exchanged over a weekend and commitment to manufacture was required within hours rather than days. Employees worked round the clock and over weekends and bank holidays to get the job done.
The end goal was far bigger than the sum of its parts. Let’s take a closer look at the four companies in question.
“I was actually at home at the time recovering from a nasty bout of the virus. I don’t know why I answered the phone as it was the first time in two weeks I was able to do so. Rolls had sent me an email that I would never had known about had I not answered the phone call.”
All British Precision was invited to quote on a ventilator part and then went into a virtual meeting with engineers at Rolls-Royce. There were some fairly challenging features on the component that were critical to the ventilator as it formed part of the main gas flow. This all happened in the space of 48 hours.
“The plastic parts were made on six machines: op 1 on four DMG Mori NLX2500/700 SY turning machines and op 2 on two DMG Mori monoBLOCK machines. We also had to kit out and learn about micro-deburring as burrs could not be present due to the nature of the part under any circumstances.”
He continues: “The aluminium parts were very small, down to 1.5mm in diameter. These were made on our Star machines – an SR-20J and ST-38. Star are always there to help. When we were struggling to get the aluminium parts up and running, applications manager Phil Bellamy was always at the end of the phone when we needed him – even when he was on holiday.
“The Stars are fantastically reliable and the perfect choice when tasked with making tens of thousands of parts as we did with the aluminium components. The DMG Mori machines were also absolutely pivotal,” he adds.
The staff at All British Precision played a key role: “They’ve been amazing,” Mr Allen concludes. “Our operations manager’s son James even came into help with parts washing and packaging. He would normally have been sitting his GCSEs at this time but rather than sitting at home dwelling on the situation he rolled up his sleeves and volunteered to get stuck in.”
In March, once the VentilatorChallengeUK initiative began in earnest, Mr Wood wanted to help so he contacted Sam Turner, chief technology officer of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult for advice. Before long, Rolls-Royce got in touch and Vixen began making ventilator components for the consortium.
“We manufactured 2,000 small stainless-steel banjos for Smiths medical ventilators on behalf of Rolls-Royce over a seven-day period,” Mr Wood explains. “These essentially are parts where fluid or air is passed into one end, which then exits via a side hole into a rotating pipe connector.”
Llanberis, Gwynedd-based Vixen’s new 12-axis Star SV-20R sliding head machine – purchased about a month before the pandemic hit – was used to manufacture the parts. High-pressure coolant used in conjunction with small diameter gundrills were able to produce the precise holes required. An existing Star SR-20RIV Type B also ‘performed excellently’ according to Mr Wood.
Investment is nothing new for Vixen. In the past year or so two SV-20Rs from Star (the company now has 20 Star machines); the previously mentioned Integrex i200 ST and a VCN530 VMC from Mazak and also an Opticline CS308 optical shaft measurement system from Sempre – invaluable for the VentilatorChallengeUK work – have been purchased.
“We employ 23 members of staff and they’ve all been exemplary,” Mr Wood affirms. “All I had to do was process the order from Rolls-Royce, receive the drawings and they did the rest. Their attitude was very much a case of ‘what do you need us to do?’ Getting these parts out within tolerance and within the timescales is all down to them.”
“The order was placed on a Wednesday; we started manufacturing the parts on the Friday and that was pretty much it for two months – including working double shifts and weekends, seven days a week,” says managing director, Adam Thornton.
Kirkstall manufactured around 20,000 plastic components spanning four different parts over an eight-week period comprising: a 5-axis machined manometer housing; a Perspex air release vent button; a medical grade plastic spool which is used to actuate an air release valve inside the ventilator; and a plastic cap.
“All the parts were pretty tightly toleranced with some intricate features,” Mr Thornton explains. “We actually assisted another company based on the Isle of Wight who were also manufacturing the plastic spool component. A good example of collaborative working for a vital cause.
“We have three Star machines and half the products manufactured for VentilatorChallengeUK were completed on Star sliding head lathes. The machines are fast and precise and were ideally suited for two of the ventilator products we had to produce.”
Mr Thornton’s most recent purchase is an SR-20RIV Type B which is a 9-axis machine that can accommodate up to 41 tools including six tools on the B-axis toolpost. “We bought this machine about a year ago but it’s been invaluable with the ventilator work because it enabled us to turn/mill complete components.
“In terms of their equipment and support, Star have been excellent. In particular I’d like to mention their area sales manager Charles Ferry who has been absolutely fantastic in supporting us for many years.
“I’d also like to mention Adrian Jagger at Mills CNC and Lee Rogers at Nikken whose support has been pivotal. We purchased a Doosan DNM 4500 VMC from Mills last year and that, in conjunction with a Nikken 5AX-201 rotary table, has played an instrumental role in producing the ventilator parts.
“The combination enabled us to carry out five-sided machining to manufacture the manometer housing complete. It works extremely well when wanting to complete a complex product in a single operation.”
“We were contacted by Rolls-Royce with a view to manufacturing a couple of small brass components they needed to source. I confirmed that we would be more than happy to be involved,” recalls Swissmatic’s managing director, Jim Corbally.
“Soon after, a senior member of the team called me and emailed the drawings. We were then able to confirm and commit to the order.”
The two parts were small intricate brass connectors. The biggest challenge, according to Mr Corbally, was ensuring that the components were completely free of any burrs or trapped debris as they would be in the oxygen stream. Swissmatic produced 8,000 of each part.
“I passed the drawing over to our engineers on the Monday morning. By mid-afternoon they had started producing the smallest of the two parts,” he explains. “The guys worked late into the night and had the second component running the next morning.
“By Friday, we had 8,000 of each part ready to ship as promised. I already knew my staff were a talented group of engineers but their application to this challenge was quite phenomenal. The feedback we received from Rolls-Royce was really complimentary. It was nice of very senior managers to feedback to us the importance of the work we had undertaken.”
Both parts were produced on brand new Star SR-20JII Type B machines (two machines on each part).
All British Precision www.allbritishprecision.com
Vixen CNC www.vixencnc.com
Kirkstall Precision Engineering www.kirkstallprecision.co.uk
Swissmatic www.swissmatic.co.uk
Star GB www.stargb.com
