Speed and accuracy for aerospace customers
Keywords: Aerospace industry, Tooling, Engineering, Technology
Arden Precision is a well-established UK engineering company based in Midlands which over many years has developed a close business relationship mainly with the aerospace industry. At the present time it could be called on to produce any one of nearly 800 parts and deliver the order to a very tight time schedule (Plates 3 and 4).
Plate 3 System 3R's 3Refix tooling technology provides fast set-up and guaranteed repeatable accuracy at Arden Precision
Plate 4 Almost 90 per cent of Lymington Precision's tooling design incorporates 3Refix technology helping them to achieve maximum production and accuracy whilst minimising down time
So to have the fast set-up times that System 3R tooling provides – with their 3Refix tables, T-fixtures and cubes – is believed to be a positive bonus and an important addition to the company's sophisticated CADCAM facility.
Plus, of course, Arden Precision pride themselves on their ongoing attention to keeping abreast of the latest engineering technology in order to meet their customers requirements as quickly and, most importantly, as accurately as possible. Their customers include Boeing, Rolls Royce, TRW Aeronautical Systems,Lucas Electronics, Ferranti, Marconi and Aeromet International.
It is highly competitive, High-tech work that needs to keep upfront with new and resourceful engineering technologies. Indeed, the company has invested significantly in keeping ahead of the field and has just recently moved to new premises in Solihull.
This has more than doubled Arden Precision's workshop and office capacity compared with the company's previous location in central Birmingham, and so they face the future with even greater determination.
Here the company has already taken up some of the additional space and introduced a third Mitsubishi M-H5B four-axis machining centre on which a System 3R 3Refix table is already beginning to pull its weight in time- saving dividends.
Other machines include eight various Bridgeport CNC machining centres,milling machines and lathes, one with an turning capacity of 13.8in diameter by 40.6in turning length.
Rob Thompson, Arden Precision's quality & engineering manager, says: "Our new Solihull premises are an integral part of our continuous improvement and a further move towards world class engineering status. We now have the additional capacity that will make all the difference to our ability to expand and develop.
"It's been a major investment and we are looking to equipment such as System 3R's to make sure that we continue to provide the production speeds and accuracy that our customers have come to expect from us. And to maintain our profitability in quite a tough market.
Reducing set-up times and maintaining maximum precision on the machines is crucial and an ongoing exercise. Indeed, over the past 18 months Arden Precision's increasing use of System 3R's workholding techniques has cumulatively saved many hours. For example, Rob Thompson reckons that normally setting up a fixture on a four- axis machine can take one engineer up to 11/2 hours. Using 3R technology it's been reduced to just a few minutes, after which the engineer can move onto another task.
He explains: "We know the hourly cost of running the machines is high, so for our customers' sakes we need to avoid long set-up times which are so uneconomical. With the various System 3R tooling that we use, such as T-fixtures, cubes and 3Refix tables, we know that we have a system that's quick and gives us accurate repeatability.
"Accurate repeatability is paramount because what is essential to us is to be able to take one fixture off a machine and put on another – it may be a totally different product, and then just press the button and let it run. System 3R 3Refix gives us the confidence to do this so we can walk away from the machine and let it get on with the job."
System 3R technology is all geared to a repeatable accuracy of 5 gm which is essential to Arden Precision's demanding work cycle. 3Refix with its x, y and z referencing system reportedly guarantees repeatability based on a modular hole pattern of 100x100mm pitch and 20mm diameter reference holes.
At the present time the company has some 20 major development projects on the order book, which are "serious projects and outside of the run-of-the-mill". Plus, they are in bed with a number of castings companies, providing them with a machining and finishing service on high-tech aluminium castings for aerospace electrical control units and hydro-mechanical fuel metering parts.
But Arden Precision's production capabilities don't stop at engineering. It also has the in-house facilities to provide a full colour coating process, in addition to protective alocroming.
The company employs over 30 highly motivated, skilled engineers and administrators, all striving towards the same target – to maintain customer satisfaction by producing an end result that's second to none.
System 3R also reports on a second successful application for its System 3R Refix tooling technology. UK based Lymington Precision Engineers (LPE) is a high tech, forward thinking and progressive engineering company, with a turnover of close to £16m, based in the picturesque little Hampshire port, bordering the New Forest. Their success is mainly attributable to dedicated teamwork,state-of-the-art technology and a major investment in the latest machinery and time- saving tooling technology such as System 3R Refix.
Part of the Fullers Group of Companies, LPE's engineering capabilities reach out around the world embracing a host of high- tech customers in the satellite,aerospace, marine, defence, medical, nuclear, telecommunications and allied industries.
LPE provides a total engineering service that's second-to-none with the aim of surpassing their customer expectations through radical quality improvements to attain zero defects. So investing in the latest manufacturing technology and systems is paramount to LPE's highly successful business ethos that revolves around cost delivery, quality and technology. An important element of this is maximising production and accuracy whilst minimising set-up times on the company's state-of- the- art CNC machines, that operate on a rigorous"lights-out" schedule, seven days a week.
Providing the fast set-up and accuracy in LPE's Flexible Manufacturing System(FMS) cells – 1 Hitachi Seiki and 1 Mazak both encompassing horizontal machining centres – is System 3R Refix tooling technology with its x,y,z referencing that guarantees repeatability and accuracy within ± 2microns. But, being the inventive, progressive company that it is, LPE are using the 3Refix cubes on five faces – four verticals and one horizontal – by attaching in-house manufactured fixture sub- plates.
Dave Shore, the manufacturing engineering manager explains: "We have a mixture of 20 finished and semi-finished, 200MM2 and 300MM23Refix cubes operating on the two FMS cells, where we are carrying out a mixture of electronics and aerospace work. We have tended to purchase semi-finished cubes so that we can finish them ourselves, thereby gaining even greater flexibility, repeatability and interchangeability between machining centres. The quality of the cubes is excellent, they are very sturdy and have good vibration absorption."
"Today, almost 900 per cent of our tooling design incorporates 3Refix technology and we have only just scratched the surface with the system as there are infinite possibilities and applications for the future."
Adding in-house features to the 3Refix cubes was an option that LPE, with its wide experience of engineering technology, had carefully considered before but had not completely developed because its previous production schedule had not demanded it. Now, with a major contract to produce thousands of precision parts,it is seen as the most important way of deriving maximum capacity from the two machining cells.
It is especially important in the context of unmanned operations that LPE gain maximum hours of run time from each cube, so an additional system of standard plates is fixed to the 3Refix cubes. These are pre- manufactured to interface directly and precisely with the cubes even though it may not be initially certain which components are going to be put on the plates. As a result, when a particular job is put up, all that has to be done is to make the component mounting elements. In this way, consistent accuracy is achieved as well as significant reductions in lead-times from inquiry right through to delivery.
Rather than having solid fixed dowels for locating the component's fixture element to the sub-plate, smaller 10mm and sometimes 20mm dowels are installed,facilitating easier assembly and disassembly of components on the sub-plates which can be done in-situ on the machines, rather than having to remove the entire subplate. This is a major advantage, because quite often elements of the component fixturing system may mask existing fixing holes on the sub-plate, but by using the expanding dowels the engineer can easily remove the relative elements in order to gain access to the sub-plate. This is found to be a very versatile way of fixing and what's more, the accuracy of loading has proved to be far greater than using solid dowels.
Using the 3Refix system, LPE is confident enough to load a fixture plate during a day shift and run it unmanned on a proven job. In terms of component relocation, they are achieving accuracy and repeatability in the order of ±5microns.
"The cost per benefit equation of the 3Refix system is excellent. We are of course very cost conscious at LPE and we know that our investment is well covered by the considerable time reductions we are achieving. In fact, there isn't another system that works quite like it out there in the market place."
Of course LPE's leading-edge status isn't down to just 3Refix. The company has invested close to £3m in new machinery to keep it well ahead of the competition. It has full CADCAM three-dimensional modelling capabilities, which can be generated from a basic taxed or e-mailed sketch.
The latest IT breakthrough is its unique remote connection diagnostic system(CDS). From anywhere in the world via a purpose- programmed lap top computer and a mobile phone connection, the latest 'state of play' at Lymington can be instantly accessed morning, noon and night.
Customers around the globe can obtain a full status report on the progress of their order and any design or production problems can be instantly dealt with. And with the installation of cameras around the Lymington workshops, very soon it may even be possible for customers to see the machine on which their job is running, and talk face to face with the engineer operating it. The computer link- up also adds an extra touch of confidence to "lights-out" operations because it will instantly alert whoever is in charge to any problems that may occur so that they can be addressed from the comfort of the engineer's armchair or bed.
Despite its technological attributes, LPE is a firm believer in investing in top-class manpower and amongst its 126-strong staff there are five up-and-coming apprentices. Because, as the company points out: "With our level of technology,we want people who are not only skilled in engineering terms but can also take on board the new technologies coming along. And that's quite a challenge".
Details available from: System 3R (M Limited. Tel: +44 (0)1844 274455; Fax:+44 (0)1844 348800.
