A resurgence in international demand for manual centre lathes combined with avalue engineering exercise have brought down their costs significantly.

Following the resurgence in international demand for its manual centre lathe range and the resulting value engineering exercise carried out by Colchester Lathe design and production engineering team, the Colchester Sales operation is now able to offer the newly developed variable speed Master and Triumph VS centre lathes at GBP 11,950 and GBP 12,750 respectively. Providing outstanding value for money, both machines feature an AC inverter 7.5kW electronic spindle drive giving constant power, through three infinitely variable ranges. There is also a constant surface speed option which gives improved surface finish capability and shortened facing-off cycles.

Each machine uses a heavy duty construction with a wide bed and triangular webs to provide high torsional stiffness and stability.

Slideways are coated with 'Moglice' PTFE low friction linings for longer life and reduced 'stick-slip'.

The Master has a 350mm swing and 650mm between centres capacity with 17 to 3,250 revs/min speed range and No 4 taper tailstock.

Meanwhile, the larger Triumph has a 400mm swing with 1250mm between centres.

Its speed range is between 14 and 2,500 revs/min with a No 5 tailstock taper.

Equally at home in the school workshop, technical college or factory, toolroom standard, flat bed range of lathes have the production capabilities and flexibility of a CNC machine.

British lathe builder Harrison has produced a new world-beating lathe, which is equally at home in the school workshop, technical college or manufacturing environment. Benefiting from an even larger swing-over-bed, as well as new production enhancements and manufacturing refinements, the new Alpha 1350S is the foundation model for Harrison's landmark S1000 range of two-axis manual/CNC lathes. Extremely easy-to-use, the Alpha S1000 series is a toolroom-standard, flat bed range of lathes with the production capabilities and flexibility of a CNC machine.

The power and sophistication of the Alpha 1350S brings, at modest cost, easy to assimilate yet extremely advanced programming and machining functions to teaching lathes.

On the other hand, it is just at home in the manufacturing workplace, providing a sophisticated, extremely productive and flexible turning platform from a modest cost base.

The Alpha 1350S incorporates the most advanced and easy-to-use CNC/manual lathe control in the world, the Alpha 1000 series control.

Specially developed for Harrison's revolutionary Alpha lathes, the new Alpha 1000 control features a 260mm (10.4 in) wide touch panel, alphanumeric keypad and a system selection key to provide effortless switching between powerful, but simple-to-use turning options.

This allows technology students to progress, with ease, from simple manual turning concepts right through to sophisticated CNC programming and machining.

A major feature of the control is its Manual Guide System, a welcome addition to the comprehensive range of operating modes already available on the Alpha range.

The Manual Guide System is a touchscreen accessible cutting program enabling the full generation of simple cutting profiles and complex automatic programs directly at the machine.

A teach facility is available, allowing hand wheel initiated moves to be recorded as a program and rerun automatically after completion of the first component, while all programs generated can be stored to memory for later use or saved to the supplied AlphaLink software.

Additionally, all programs generated in the comprehensive 'Cycle Cutting' mode may be converted to a full CNC program if required.

The Manual Guide System complements the industry proven AlphaSystem which has gained wide popularity through its flexibility and ease-of-use.

The AlphaSystem provides a semi-automatic machining capability for stops, taper turning and automatic thread cutting; and an offline CAD/CAM machining facility.

The Alpha 1350S completes a comprehensive and extremely popular Alpha S1000 range, which also includes the 1400S (400mm swing), 1460S (460mm swing) and 1550S (550 swing), and complements the established Alpha U and Alpha T ranges of lathes

Precision machinist says that electronic manual lathes are more cost-effective on small batch work and prototype production than either the company's CNC lathes or traditional centre lathes.

Precision machinist says that electronic manual lathes are more cost-effective on small batch work and prototype production than either the company's CNC lathes or traditional centre lathes. Three Harrison Alpha T (Touchscreen) electronic lathes, supplied and commissioned by RK International of Erith, Kent have increased manufacturing flexibility for sub-contractor Norman Precision of Thrupp, Gloucestershire by filling a production 'gap' between full CNC and manual turning operations. The three lathes, an Alpha 330T (330mm swing over bed), Alpha 460T (460mm swing) and Alpha 550T (550mm swing), have proved to be far more cost-effective on small batch work and prototype production than either the company's CNC lathes or traditional centre lathes.

The Alphas also provide 'toolroom' support for the CNC operation.

Specialists in high precision CNC machining with customers in the oil, medical and automotive industries, Norman Precision took delivery of its first Alpha, the 460T, in December 2001.

The acquisition proved so successful that it was followed up in August 2002 with the purchase of the Alpha 550T and Alpha 330T.

Managing Director Kevin Norman comments: 'Business has grown tremendously over the last few years and although we never particularly wanted to get involved in small batch and prototype machining, it is something that was necessary due to customer requirements.

Also our own CNC department requires considerable support by way of the manufacture of fixtures.' While many sub-contractors have experienced a downturn in business, Norman Precision's policy of aggressive marketing coupled to an ambitious investment in new machinery has seen the company virtually double its turnover in the last year alone.

The recessionary trend in the manufacturing sector has also had a knock-on, but rather unexpected effect on the company.

As the downturn has taken hold, many of Norman Precision's larger manufacturing customers have cut costs by contracting their supply network while at the same time expecting more value from those suppliers retained.

While this has had dire financial consequences for some sub-contractors, Norman Precision's outstanding ability to produce precision-engineered products at very cost-efficient prices has helped it to actually increase business from some sectors.

The ability to survive in such a competitive marketplace is one thing, to prosper in such trading conditions is quite another and reflects well on the skill and dedication of both staff and management of the company - fully justifying Managing Director Kevin Norman's ambitious decision to invest over 25 per cent of annual turnover in new machinery in a single year.

The three Alphas have taken up a proportion of this investment, though the bulk was spent on acquiring machining centres and CNC spark erosion equipment, and these acquisition costs have had to be fully justified in terms of improved productivity and competitiveness for the company.

Certainly the three Alpha T lathes with their modest acquisition costs, extremely easy-to-use features and productivity benefits from 'day-one' have justified their presence in Kevin Norman's mind: 'I have been keenly aware of the benefits of the Alpha T and its predecessors for some time and although our work is primarily CNC machining I could see a niche for such machines in our operation.

Threading, tapers and large radii are much quicker and easier on the Alpha than on conventional lathes, and it's also a lot more cost effective for small batch work than CNC.' The Alpha T offers the user the benefits of both manual operation, semi-automatic and fully automated cycles, as well as a comprehensive offline CAD/CAM system.

To add to its versatility Harrison has recently embodied automatic 'thread chasing' and 'Acme' threading cycles to the Alpha T repertoire, enhancing the lathe's productivity and boosting Harrison claims that the machine is the logical successor to the manual centre lathe and the natural choice for any manual lathe user wishing to upgrade its production machinery.

The productivity and flexibility of a newly acquired electronic lathe has transformed a small agricultural jobbing shop into a busy sub-contract operation serving a wide range of industries.

Ray Barnes Engineering of Kendal has been transformed from a small agricultural jobbing shop into a busy sub-contract operation serving a wide range of industries - thanks to the productivity and flexibility of a newly acquired Harrison Alpha 400T electronic lathe, and the ambition and determination of company owner Graham Barnes. Delivered and commissioned in July 2002 by distributor BL Gilbert of Barrow-in-Furness, the Alpha was productive on its very first day. Since then, the productivity and profitability of the Alpha has allowed the company to bid for, and win, a wide variety of machining contracts - from sophisticated 'one-offs' up to batches of 3500.

Graham Barnes recently took over the company on the retirement of his father.

Up until then, the company had been a very small operation chiefly serving the agricultural community as a small jobbing shop for over 20 years.

Barnes already knew that work from this sector - the company_s biggest earner - was in decline, in part due to the lasting effects of the foot and mouth epidemic.

Although there was some local industry in Lancaster and Kendal, chiefly the paper industry, machine fabricators and laundry equipment manufacturers, Ray Barnes Engineering was hardly equipped to make inroads in these markets - particularly for complex machining work or medium-to-large batches.

The company's production facilities comprised three elderly manual centre lathes all of which were labour intensive.

The decline in business was further compounded by a skills shortage in the Lakeland area, so the company found it difficult even to recruit to increase capacity.

Graham Barnes was left with a stark choice - do nothing and risk eventually going out of business, or invest and re-equip while chasing new business from different sectors.

Choosing the latter course of action, his first step was to consult trusted local machine tool distributor BL Gilbert and ask their advice on which machine they thought would best fit the production profile of the company.

Managing Director, Richard Gilbert's view was that the Harrison Alpha T electronic lathe was the most cost-effective option for increasing productivity and thus capacity for Ray Barnes Engineering.

Graham Barnes comments: 'I considered both the Harrison Alpha and a foreign import, however the British machine looked much more ruggedly built for the large percentage of axle machining we carry out - and if anything did go wrong with it, Harrison wasn't that far away.' Gilberts arranged to demonstrate the Alpha T at a local sub-contractor in Carlisle and then took Mr Barnes through to the Harrison factory in West Yorkshire.

There, an applications engineer programmed the Alpha from an axle drawing supplied by Graham Barnes.

Set-up took 15 minutes - a fraction of the time Barnes would have taken on one of his manual lathes and enough to convince him that the Alpha would be a considerable asset to the company.

The Alpha had an immediate effect on productivity, the company owner quickly assimilating the Alpha's CAD/CAM system and creating a complex machining routine on the very first day.

As he says: 'It's pointless to buy a machine and use it to only half its capacity.' General turning is proving to be 30-50 per cent quicker than conventional centre lathes and that has helped increase turnover considerably.

Word has also spread within the local engineering community about the company's expertise.

It has already received orders from OEMs and larger sub-contractors, aware that the Alpha is fully capable of carrying out large batch, sub-contract work to the necessary standards.

One typical job is the machining of a one metre, 200kg, fine tolerance shaft that would occupy a skilled operator for a full day using a traditional centre lathe.

With the Alpha however, the lathe is set up and left to run while the operator attends to other work.

Also there is no requirement for form tools, as radii and complex forms can be executed as simple semi or fully automated operations.

Graham Barnes sums up the Alpha T very simply: 'I can't understand why anybody would buy an ordinary centre lathe with a machine like this on the market.'

Easy-to-use conversational programming routines on a manual/CNC lathe have made a significant difference when applied to the small batch work, says a precision machining company.


If one event in its 52-year history could be said to encapsulate Ilford Engineering's tradition of engineering excellence, it would be the 1995 Le Mans 24 hour endurance race. The winning car featured engine, brake and body components produced by the company, and the achievement is still regarded as a defining moment in terms of the precision and reliability of this Basildon, Essex sub-contractor's output. Indeed, the round-the-clock demand for its engineering expertise is such that the 65-employee company continues to operate a night shift.

Ministry of Defence approved since 1973, Ilford Engineering's reputation has ensured its involvement with a diversity of projects, from 'supercars' and body scanners to Challenger tanks, where Ilford components have been used in a computerised suspension system.

'The advantage we have is that we operate in niche markets,' says Chris Greenhalgh, Ilford's Production Manager, 'which means a high percentage of repeat orders and a lot of scheduled work that could entail making the same part for, say, five years.' Even so, batch quantities tend to be small, with prototype and development work benefiting from a 'one-stop-shop' combination of precision machining, fabrication and assembly.

It's also an environment where, with motor sport customers in particular demanding both precision and fast response, CNC milling and turning machines supplied by XYZ Machine Tools have found their niche, their 'prompted' conversational programming proving to be an especially useful attribute.

The latest acquisition is a 7.5 HP/5.6kW Proturn VL 355 manual/CNC lathe that has replaced a manual centre lathe.

Machinist John Knight describes the new machine, which has a 360mm swing over bed and a 52mm spindle bore, as 'fast and accurate, holding [tolerance] limits well'.

And he says the easy-to-use conversational programming routines of the Prototrak VL control have made a significant difference when applied to the small batch work, usually up to 20-off, earmarked for the new machine.

When programming the Prototrak VL CNC, the operator simply inputs the geometry that is required before then filling in the prompts.

And, having defined the part geometry and stock dimensions, the tool path, including all roughing passes and the speeds and feeds, is then generated.

Constant surface speed is an integral feature of the Prototrak VL's software, as is spreadsheet editing which caters for extensive changes to large programs.

At Ilford Engineering, the time taken to program from drawing to finished component can be as little as ten minutes, which in a fast-moving business is a considerable benefit.

Typical of the type of work being tackled on the Proturn is a batch of one-metre long, zinc plated steel tubes and complementary white nylon collars destined for a sister company, Miltra Engineering, specialising in training and multiple munitions sets (TAMMS).

Once machining is completed, the three sizes of tube are telescoped together and incorporated into replica munitions.

Civilians and military personnel around the world depend on these inert devices, which are entirely free from explosive or incendiary materials, when being trained in recognition, awareness and disposal procedures.

Currently engaged in updating its BS EN ISO 9002-1994 accreditation and aerospace approvals, Ilford Engineering attaches considerable importance to innovation, experience, up-to-date technology and, above all, quality workmanship.

Which is why the company's customer list includes such 'blue chip' names as British Aerospace, Thales and Lotus Cars.

'It's about getting quality parts out of the door and keeping the customer happy,' says Chris Greenhalgh, 'but in these days of the 'cost down' culture, you have always got to be asking 'why are we doing it this way?' and 'how can we do it better?' You can't wait for a customer to answer these questions, because by then the work could be on its way to someone else.'

Within a matter of hours an operator with no CNC experience was able to program and produce parts using icon-based commands, virtual tool display and graphic support on an electronic centre lathe.

When managing director Andrew Dobson, went looking for a computer driven centre lathe at MACH 2000, he also knew that his company SG Equipment would need further machines over the next 12 months. In the event, it was the effect on the business of the performance and ease of use of the first Colchester Combi K2 installed that led him to speed up the purchase programme and install three machines within six months. The key to this accelerated rate of introduction was the speed of operator conversion as Andrew Dobson recalls: 'The first operator to use the Combi was Alan Corless, a very experienced centre lathe operator, who had no previous CNC experience.

Within a matter of hours he was able to program and produce production components using the icon-based commands, virtual tool display and graphic support and has since progressed to develop very good CNC skills.' He then recounts how they moved another operator from an existing Colchester Electronic centre lathe: 'He was well up to speed within half a day,' said Andrew Dobson.

While it was the apparent ease of use that won the initial order for Colchester, today Andrew Dobson freely admits he was surprised at how well it was translated into practice on the shopfloor.

SG Equipment is a subsidiary of the Hyde Group plc.

It specialises in design, development, refurbishment and manufacture of ground support equipment for civil and military aircraft.

This embraces a wide range of activities covering production of locking pins for weapons systems, fabricated staging for external maintenance and sophisticated electronic and hydraulic test equipment.

Whilst much of the equipment is highly sophisticated, batch quantities are normally quite small averaging around 15 parts with single component requirements being quite common.

There is also the occasional need for batches up to 500.

As Andrew Dobson outlines, with the type of work the company produces, a production type CNC lathe would probably be counter-productive.

However, he acknowledged the benefit from batch-to-batch consistency and repeatability offered by CNC turning.

'We produce components such as dynamic seals out of stainless steel with dimensions tied to 0.012mm and a high standard of finish.

Our original Colchester Electronic lathe provided part of the solution with its ability to repeat cycles but it had insufficient capacity for our largest components and was far less sophisticated then the Combi K2,' he says.

The type of turned parts machined by SG Equipment generally range from 8mm to 60mm diameter, however, the company has one regular job which requires a 23/4 inch Acme thread to be cut on a 1320mm long shaft produced from a 180mm diameter bar.

This part is well within the 400mm swing capacity of the Combi.

Material specifications cover anything from EN3A to S154, which is an high tensile aerospace quality stainless steel and here, the 11 kW spindle with its gearless drive with a six to 2,500 revs/min speed range, is ideal.

As Andrew Dobson maintains, the company is reducing its past dependence on form tools 'This means we have a lot of quite complicated component shapes to produce which can now be single point turned and easily programmed through the software and graphics with detail scaling of features.

Also, as we have to carry out more reverse engineering tasks we now have the ability to adapt or modify a CNC program quickly which is extremely useful.

The combination of specialist Colchester windows-based software and Fanuc 210i-TA control on the Combi K2 provides us with those facilities and much more besides.

For instance the constant surface speed machining is particularly valuable as it guarantees that we achieve a consistently high standard of finish and overcomes possible problems such as not being able to tolerate rips or tears when machining threads and we need to comply with aerospace standards.

From its machining experience, SG Equipment are very complementary over the accuracy capability of the Combi machines and in particular the repeatability and reaction to respond to minor size adjustment.

And, according to Andrew Dobson: 'Colchester support is extremely good; if we have a programming query we get an answer on the 'phone, while if we have a need for something like a steady, it arrives next day.' The operators have found that when setting up, the ergonomic aspects of the machine's design have proven to be a key benefit.

Alan Corless commented: 'Everything on the machine falls easily to hand and the shallow 30 (degrees) slant of the bed definitely makes it easier to load and unload the machine and work on the far side of a job.

The guarding also gives an excellent view of what's happening and you can use the on-screen graphics simulation to monitor internal machining and areas which are flooded with coolant.' All three of SG Equipment's Combi K2s are identically equipped as chucking machines with the eight station electric turret option.

Six tools are common to almost every component produced while two are variable to accommodate specific requirements, such as different thread forms.

This commonality of set-up provides the company with a lot of flexibility, while ability to save programs to a flash memory card has allowed the building up of a CNC program archive for future repeat operations.

From a productivity standpoint Andrew Dobson feels the machines have demonstrated at least a 25 per cent improvement over a centre lathe though this is in direct proportion to the demands of the job and the size of the batch.

A prime example is the turning of the 23/4 inch Acme thread where production of a single part on a manual centre lathe used to take 16 hours.

The Combi K2 is able to complete the task in around 9 hours.

As Andrew Dobson concluded: 'We're extremely pleased with the performance of these machines, to the extent that we would have no hesitation in adding a fourth as and when our production requirements justify.

The outstanding thing about the Combi is definitely the control interface.

It has good simulation facilities that give the setter/operators the confidence needed to push along and in the early days quickly develop their programming skills.'

Believed to have one of the most advanced control systems on the market yet, a two-axis, flatbed lathe is designed to operate across a wide spectrum of manual/CNC working parameters.

British lathe builder Harrison showcases three examples from its world-beating 'Alpha' ranges of CNC/manual and electronic lathes at MACH 2004, as well as a lathe from its classic, variable speed 'V' Series. Incorporating one of the most advanced control systems on the market yet is Harrison's Alpha 1550S - a two-axis, flatbed lathe designed to operate across a wide spectrum of manual/CNC working parameters. An Alpha 1550S x 2m (550mm swing over bed capacity by 2000mm distance between centres capacity) will be demonstrated at MACH 2004.

The lathe uses the Harrison/Fanuc Alpha 1000 Series control, which features a 260mm (10.4 in) wide colour touch panel, alphanumeric keypad and system selection key to provide effortless switching between powerful, but simple-to-use turning options.

This allows non CNC-trained operators to progress with ease from simple manual turning right through to sophisticated CNC programming and machining.

A major feature of the control is its Manual Guide System, a new addition to the comprehensive range of operating modes already available on the Alpha range.

The Manual Guide System is a touchscreen accessible cutting program enabling the full generation of simple cutting profiles and complex automatic programs directly at the machine.

The Manual Guide System complements the industry proven AlphaSystem which has gained wide popularity through its flexibility and ease-of-use.

The AlphaSystem provides a semi-automatic machining capability for stops, taper turning and automatic thread cutting, as well as an offline CAD/CAM programming facility.

Alongside the Alpha 1550S is an example from Harrison's Alpha 'U' range - the 1330U (330mm swing over bed capacity).

The foundation model for the range, the Alpha 1330U is a sophisticated, highly versatile, slant-bed manual/CNC lathe contained within a compact machine envelope.

The Alpha 1330U incorporates the state-of-the-art Alpha 1000 Series control.

The Alpha 'U' is engineered with a high performance composite base assembly, which is matched to a 30-degree box section slant-bed to form a single, rigid unit.

This configuration offers outstanding thermal, kinematic and dynamic damping characteristics that relate directly to the quality of component surface finish and accuracy of cut.

Complementing the Alpha 'S' and 'U' is an example from the Alpha 'T' range of electronic lathes - a 400T.

Harrison's Alpha 400T has been developed to offer super quick drawing to component times without the complication or cost of a full CNC system.

With a machine swing over bed capacity of 400mm and 1250mm distance between centres, the Alpha 400T is ideal for any lathe user looking for a competitively priced replacement for the traditional centre lathe.

Harrison's variable-speed 'V' Series centre lathes remain ever popular and Harrison has an example of the range in the MACH line-up.

The V390 (390mm swing over bed capacity) offers customers maximum cost saving in a top specification lathe, with infinitely variable, digital display, spindle speeds up to 3250 rpm and constant surface speed [CSS] with DRO for optimum cutting performance.

Three gear ranges are incorporated for maximum metal removal rates, as well as a powerful 7.5kW (10hp) spindle motor with AC inverter drive and 33:1 constant power range.

The V390 design provides excellent rigidity and swarf clearance.

For the medium-to-heavy production environments the V390 - with heavy-duty bed and cast iron base - is ideal for both heavy metal removal and precision finishing.

Nickel-titanium material is expensive and machining by turning is regarded as very difficult, but innovative lathe control helped to optimise machining conditions to get good results.

The impressive signage adorning Goldring Industries' Trafalgar Works in Cable Street, Wolverhampton, serves a dual purpose. It is first and foremost a highly visible symbol of what in less than 15 years has become an extremely successful engineering business. But it also bears witness to Ivor Dring's determination to overcome redundancy, a circumstance that for some has been known to signal the closing of one door and the slamming shut of the next.

However, for Goldring Industries' founder and managing director, the decision to start his own sub-contracting company, while not without its setbacks, opened the door to a new way of life.

'I initially envisaged running a small machine shop with, say, five or six employees,' he says, 'but there is now a team of more than 30 people and we are still recruiting.

Our 45,000ft2 premises are owned rather than leased, and we provide a one-stop-shop for fabrication, casting, machining, assembly, test and painting.' Ivor Dring's previous experience with NEI's nuclear engineering division, latterly as operations manager, has proved invaluable, enabling Goldring Industries to become a main contractor to the Ministry of Defence and to include on its customer list some of the biggest names in British industry.

'We are an ISO 9002 - 2002 accredited company and we are very good at complying with procedures while still being able to produce work quickly,' he says.

This explains why Goldring Industries is now producing safety critical components for one of the UK's largest generators of electricity.

Machined on one or other of two recently installed XYZ Proturn 425 VL manual/CNC lathes to a diametric tolerance of +/-0.0005 inch, these nickel-titanium alloy components play a key role in avoiding unscheduled shutdowns of expensive generating plant.

However, the machining process is complicated not so much by the varying sizes required within any given batch of components or the tight tolerance, but by the nature of the material.

It belongs to the group of metallic materials known as Shape Memory Alloys, which possess properties of particular relevance to this application.

Although a relatively wide range of alloys are known to exhibit the shape memory effect, only those that can recover substantial amounts of strain or that generate significant force upon changing shape are of commercial interest.

It is the latter quality that is crucial because the component is frozen in liquid nitrogen - extending its length by some 40 per cent and reducing its external diameter accordingly - before being placed in position.

It then returns to its original size as the temperature rises above the transition temperature necessary to trigger the shape memory effect.

The end result is an extremely tight fit, with the component held securely in place.

The nickel-titanium material specified is expensive and machining by turning is regarded as very difficult, while heat treatment after machining, which ensures the necessary changes in the material's structure, must be undertaken in a vacuum furnace to prevent unacceptable oxidation of the alloy.

Prior to heat treatment, the components must be free from grease and other contaminants, particularly chlorides, and must not be handled directly, which demands great care throughout the manufacturing process.

The two XYZ Proturn 425 VL manual/CNC lathes equipped with the innovative Prototrak VL control have shown themselves to be ideally suited to their role in this demanding process.

Although dimensional accuracy and surface finish are the critical criteria, ease of programming and the ability to run through the entire sequence of turning the outer diameter, including the two locating 'nibs', and machining an internal bore before committing to computer control have proved invaluable.

This takes account of the high cost of the material and the numerous variations in the sizes of components specified within each batch.

It says much for Goldring Industries' enhanced turning capability that, having succeeded in obtaining the order, the company's first batch of 42 components was the subject last November of a complimentary letter from its new customer.

'It is gratifying,' he wrote, 'to be able to say that this is the first batch of these components I have ordered [from any supplier] that has had no rejects.

Since acquiring a manual/CNC lathe, a leading motor factory is producing turned parts 'better and quicker' allowing new parts - and 'one-offs' - to be produced to high quality standards.
A leading motor factory based in the south of England, which successfully expanded its business into fabricating and machining parts for vehicle operators and other industries, is producing turned parts 'better and quicker' since acquiring its Harrison Alpha 1550S manual/CNC lathe. Aghabridge , of Rochester, Kent, which supplies vehicle parts to hauliers, vehicle repairers throughout the Kent, Surrey, Sussex and London region, uses the Alpha 1550S, with its 554mm swing over bed, to produce a wide range of components, from hydraulic rams to flywheels. Director of Aghabridge, Ceri McGregor-Davies, says the company opted for the advantages of a proven and successful British-built lathe from Harrison's main distributor RK International Machine Tools, of Erith, Kent, after experiencing difficulties with reliability and parts supply for an existing non-British machine.
McGregor-Davies says: 'The Alpha 1550S has been extremely reliable, and it is doing the job much better and quicker than our previous lathe'.
'Because it is able to be used as a totally CNC machine, the operator can set it up to carry out a turning operation and then move to another job'.
'It has made our business significantly more efficient in that way'.
'We are a very flexible company, which is why we are successful in attracting a lot of business from a wide range of customers who require repairs or replacement parts, including large haulage companies, owner-drivers, fork lift and crane companies and even individuals needing parts for private cars'.
'Many are now realizing that new parts can be produced to a very high quality, including one-offs.' David Smith, Harrison's Sales Director, says: 'The Alpha 1550S is one of Harrison's class-leading S1000 range, which combines the virtues of a high quality conventional toolroom lathe, namely ease-of-operation, build quality, strength and reliability and supreme cutting performance with the production flexibility and capabilities of a full ISO (CNC) machine'.
'Our many customers, like Aghabridge, have already discovered the improvements that the Alpha 1550S brings to their business in terms of improved turning performance and finish quality, efficiency, manufacturing capacity and speed of producing single or multiple turned parts'.

Flat bed combination manual/CNC lathe offered with a special macro written to produce an ACME thread form won a contract against another supplier that planned to thread whirl a shaft.
A couple of years ago when the Californians were having terrible problems with their power generation systems, it was a small Yorkshire three-man subcontract machinist that was called upon to produce within 2.1/2 weeks special oil wiper rings and remake segmented metal seals some one metre in diameter. The company, A A Lampkin Engineering is owned and run by three members of Britain's most famous family name in motorcycle scrambling and trials riding, and is located up a little lane in Silsden, just outside Keighley. At the time of the Californian crisis, the company had only manual machines but bucketfulls of machinist skills gained through supplying some 30 customers with parts such as clutch, carburettor and general parts for scrambling bikes, and at the other end of the spectrum, large components for power generation and valve industries.
Quite often stainless steel shafts up to 2m long, heavy electrical brush gear and seals up to 4m diameter were machined.
The Lampkin business trio of David, Alan and Stephen are well known in their sector for the supply and machining materials most engineers have never heard of.
These include centrifugal spun nickel brass and bronzes where spinning is used to rid the material of imperfections.
Cast nickel brasses and very tough stainless steels can also be a common find on the workshop floor.
The material for some components can cost up to GBP 2,000 for each part even before they are loaded to the machine tools.
The company had already installed a vertical machining centre and had considered a CNC lathe but the decision was forced when they got the chance of a contract to produce 20 special 50mm stainless steel shafts 1.5m long.
At that point they decided to call up local lathe builder, Colchester Lathe at Heckmondwike, to see if it could supply a machine.
Ex trials rider and director David Lampkin takes up the tale.
We told them: 'We have some threads to produce.' 'What type,' they asked?
'ACME,' was our reply.
To which they responded: 'Oh?' We added: 'The threads are about 600mm long on a 1500mm shaft and left-hand' 'Oh,' was the reply again.
Then we told them: 'They are two-start, 4 tpi (threads/inch) and the line went quiet'.
''But,' he maintains, 'Colchester came up with the goods in the form of its new MultiTurn 2000 flat bed combination lathe and offered a special macro written to produce the ACME thread form which won us the contract against another supplier that planned to thread whirl the shaft.' Colchester's solution was to use a special parting tool insert set at a compound angle to rough out the thread form then repeat the cut on each flank before going through the whole process for each individual start of thread'.
''What amazed us, bearing in mind the toughness of the material, was the level of finish we achieved on each thread.
We also had to produce a nut to check the machined thread on each shaft and again we could not believe how perfect they were across the whole batch of 20 parts.
Once one part was programmed at the machine control and produced, it was then a simple matter of repeat cycle direct from memory in CNC mode.
The MultiTurn 2000 has a 400 mm swing over the bed, 585mm x 165mm in the gap bed and 1250mm between centres.
It has a 250 mm chuck and an eight-station 30 VDI electric turret.
A 8.4 inch colour TFT flat screen and keyboard is carried on the saddle with electronic handwheels and the machine can be used in manual or CNC mode.
Programming can be by teach repeat using the electronic handwheel, through macros or ISO, DNC or CADCAM at the Fanuc Oi-TB control.
Toolpath verification is included on the flat screen.
The family business of A A Lampkin Engineering was set up in 1946 by David's grandfather, his father Arthur and his uncle Alan.
It was Arthur who was often followed on Saturday afternoon black and white TV for his very successful exploits in scrambling - and Alan, another top-class rider, who still works in the business with David and the other director Stephen.
The factory is a true Aladdin's cave of machine fixturing and tooling set in several workshops that lead warren-like from one to another.
However, the work produced demonstrates high traditional toolroom skills of milling, turning and extremely high levels of creativity to engineer a solution, which is obvious in the continued success of the business.
As David Lampkin maintains, prior to the MultiTurn he had never touched a CNC lathe; his turning skills were traditional centre, capstan and turret lathe based: 'When the MultiTurn was first installed I looked at it and wondered how to work it'.
'Now you can not get me away from it,' he says and he even runs the machining centre and MultiTurn together in automatic cycle, walking between each machine loading, unloading and checking parts.
Primarily they use the control system macros with manual data input in at the Fanuc Oi-TB control to set up the first piece'.
''The fact we can use the graphic simulation is an important comfort factor and we can easily slow down into creep feed or zoom in whenever we are not sure'.
'This is most important if you have a stick of specially imported material from Sweden costing over GBP 1,000 in the chuck,' he says.
With such a high level of background manual machining skills, David Lampkin confirms the machine will operate the way each of them want to work and 'we can do it in our own time'.
To produce the first part he reckons it takes about three-quarters of the time it would take on a manual machine.
However, with the six-station automatic turret there is no contest for repeat cycles, the consistency of size and finish and, of course, the time taken.
Because of the success of the two-start threaded shaft, the Lampkins have taken more business from the same customer and describes a bronze shaft with a 6 tpi Whitworth thread where they were concerned over the surface area of the thread form'.
''We decided to break the thread into four passes with a 0.1mm final skim to take out any spring in the shaft'.
'This really proved to us the level of repeatability we can achieve and the blending on the final pass was absolutely perfect,' he maintains.
He follows on to re-live the recent turning of a large vee-belt timing pulley with a trapezoidal groove'.
''When you lift it out of the machine and look at the surface finish in the groove and across the turned face, achieved because of the constant speed capability in the control, you could never equal this on a manual machine,' he says.
Then he comments with a smile: 'You look at the part and feel really proud of what you have just achieved - but then, all three of us love engineering and making things'.

Bristol University needed a large machine to be used manually but also had the software programs to turn more complex shapes, for which a 'half-NC' or 'combination' lathe was selected.
Bristol University has opted for the advanced touchscreen technology of Harrison's Alpha T range of electronic lathes to support the work of its Engineering Faculty, including major new research facilities, which will 'enable world-class UK scientists to remain at the leading edge of research'. An Alpha 460T has been supplied to the refurbished central manufacturing workshop within the faculty; this incorporates the recently-opened Bristol Laboratory for Advanced Dynamics Engineering (BLADE), described as Europe's most advanced multidisciplinary dynamics engineering research facility. Ivan Laver, the Central Workshop Manager, said: 'The workshop is a manufacturing facility for project work, research work, one-offs and specialist requirements for a wide range of engineering studies carried out across the Engineering Faculty'.
'Active suspension, vibration control, materials tests, dynamics engineering, aeronautics and even earthquake research are just some of the projects and areas'.
'There are around 300 undergraduates in each year, who carry out projects, mainly in their third and fourth years, and we also manufacture parts required for these projects'.
'Some projects are carried out in partnership with businesses outside the university so they have to meet standards required by the industry concerned'.
'We needed a large machine that had the capability to be used manually but also had the software programs to be able to turn more complex shapes'.
'The Alpha 460T was recommended to us and we found it was competitively-priced and fulfilled our technical requirements.' Workshop Technician Chris Hunt, who is one of a team of experienced operators, said the Alpha 460T electronic lathe had proved that it was highly capable of producing high-precision turned items, using computerised programs: 'To begin with we mainly used the software on the lathe, but recently we have done a lot more off-line programming and this has enabled us to make even more advanced and complex items.' David Smith, Harrison Lathes' sales director, said: 'The education sector is an important and expanding area for our business'.
'The Engineering Faculty at Bristol University is one of the foremost research and training centres for graduate engineers in Europe and we are very proud that an Alpha lathe was selected to meet the highly demanding requirements of a facility at the very cutting edge of science in this country.' The Harrison Alpha 460T electronic lathe was supplied to Bristol University by Harrison's main UK regional distributor, R K International Machine Tools of Erith, Kent.

Nickel-titanium material is expensive and machining by turning is regarded as very difficult, but innovative lathe control helped to optimise machining conditions to get good results.
The impressive signage adorning Goldring Industries' Trafalgar Works in Cable Street, Wolverhampton, serves a dual purpose. It is first and foremost a highly visible symbol of what in less than 15 years has become an extremely successful engineering business. But it also bears witness to Ivor Dring's determination to overcome redundancy, a circumstance that for some has been known to signal the closing of one door and the slamming shut of the next.
However, for Goldring Industries' founder and managing director, the decision to start his own sub-contracting company, while not without its setbacks, opened the door to a new way of life.
'I initially envisaged running a small machine shop with, say, five or six employees,' he says, 'but there is now a team of more than 30 people and we are still recruiting.
Our 45,000ft2 premises are owned rather than leased, and we provide a one-stop-shop for fabrication, casting, machining, assembly, test and painting.' Ivor Dring's previous experience with NEI's nuclear engineering division, latterly as operations manager, has proved invaluable, enabling Goldring Industries to become a main contractor to the Ministry of Defence and to include on its customer list some of the biggest names in British industry.
'We are an ISO 9002 - 2002 accredited company and we are very good at complying with procedures while still being able to produce work quickly,' he says.
This explains why Goldring Industries is now producing safety critical components for one of the UK's largest generators of electricity.
Machined on one or other of two recently installed XYZ Proturn 425 VL manual/CNC lathes to a diametric tolerance of +/-0.0005 inch, these nickel-titanium alloy components play a key role in avoiding unscheduled shutdowns of expensive generating plant.
However, the machining process is complicated not so much by the varying sizes required within any given batch of components or the tight tolerance, but by the nature of the material.
It belongs to the group of metallic materials known as Shape Memory Alloys, which possess properties of particular relevance to this application.
Although a relatively wide range of alloys are known to exhibit the shape memory effect, only those that can recover substantial amounts of strain or that generate significant force upon changing shape are of commercial interest.
It is the latter quality that is crucial because the component is frozen in liquid nitrogen - extending its length by some 40 per cent and reducing its external diameter accordingly - before being placed in position.
It then returns to its original size as the temperature rises above the transition temperature necessary to trigger the shape memory effect.
The end result is an extremely tight fit, with the component held securely in place.
The nickel-titanium material specified is expensive and machining by turning is regarded as very difficult, while heat treatment after machining, which ensures the necessary changes in the material's structure, must be undertaken in a vacuum furnace to prevent unacceptable oxidation of the alloy.
Prior to heat treatment, the components must be free from grease and other contaminants, particularly chlorides, and must not be handled directly, which demands great care throughout the manufacturing process.
The two XYZ Proturn 425 VL manual/CNC lathes equipped with the innovative Prototrak VL control have shown themselves to be ideally suited to their role in this demanding process.
Although dimensional accuracy and surface finish are the critical criteria, ease of programming and the ability to run through the entire sequence of turning the outer diameter, including the two locating 'nibs', and machining an internal bore before committing to computer control have proved invaluable.
This takes account of the high cost of the material and the numerous variations in the sizes of components specified within each batch.
It says much for Goldring Industries' enhanced turning capability that, having succeeded in obtaining the order, the company's first batch of 42 components was the subject last November of a complimentary letter from its new customer.
'It is gratifying,' he wrote, 'to be able to say that this is the first batch of these components I have ordered [from any supplier] that has had no rejects.

Since acquiring a manual/CNC lathe, a leading motor factory is producing turned parts 'better and quicker' allowing new parts - and 'one-offs' - to be produced to high quality standards.
A leading motor factory based in the south of England, which successfully expanded its business into fabricating and machining parts for vehicle operators and other industries, is producing turned parts 'better and quicker' since acquiring its Harrison Alpha 1550S manual/CNC lathe. Aghabridge , of Rochester, Kent, which supplies vehicle parts to hauliers, vehicle repairers throughout the Kent, Surrey, Sussex and London region, uses the Alpha 1550S, with its 554mm swing over bed, to produce a wide range of components, from hydraulic rams to flywheels. Director of Aghabridge, Ceri McGregor-Davies, says the company opted for the advantages of a proven and successful British-built lathe from Harrison's main distributor RK International Machine Tools, of Erith, Kent, after experiencing difficulties with reliability and parts supply for an existing non-British machine.
McGregor-Davies says: 'The Alpha 1550S has been extremely reliable, and it is doing the job much better and quicker than our previous lathe'.
'Because it is able to be used as a totally CNC machine, the operator can set it up to carry out a turning operation and then move to another job'.
'It has made our business significantly more efficient in that way'.
'We are a very flexible company, which is why we are successful in attracting a lot of business from a wide range of customers who require repairs or replacement parts, including large haulage companies, owner-drivers, fork lift and crane companies and even individuals needing parts for private cars'.
'Many are now realizing that new parts can be produced to a very high quality, including one-offs.' David Smith, Harrison's Sales Director, says: 'The Alpha 1550S is one of Harrison's class-leading S1000 range, which combines the virtues of a high quality conventional toolroom lathe, namely ease-of-operation, build quality, strength and reliability and supreme cutting performance with the production flexibility and capabilities of a full ISO (CNC) machine'.
'Our many customers, like Aghabridge, have already discovered the improvements that the Alpha 1550S brings to their business in terms of improved turning performance and finish quality, efficiency, manufacturing capacity and speed of producing single or multiple turned parts'.

Flat bed combination manual/CNC lathe offered with a special macro written to produce an ACME thread form won a contract against another supplier that planned to thread whirl a shaft.
A couple of years ago when the Californians were having terrible problems with their power generation systems, it was a small Yorkshire three-man subcontract machinist that was called upon to produce within 2.1/2 weeks special oil wiper rings and remake segmented metal seals some one metre in diameter. The company, A A Lampkin Engineering is owned and run by three members of Britain's most famous family name in motorcycle scrambling and trials riding, and is located up a little lane in Silsden, just outside Keighley. At the time of the Californian crisis, the company had only manual machines but bucketfulls of machinist skills gained through supplying some 30 customers with parts such as clutch, carburettor and general parts for scrambling bikes, and at the other end of the spectrum, large components for power generation and valve industries.
Quite often stainless steel shafts up to 2m long, heavy electrical brush gear and seals up to 4m diameter were machined.
The Lampkin business trio of David, Alan and Stephen are well known in their sector for the supply and machining materials most engineers have never heard of.
These include centrifugal spun nickel brass and bronzes where spinning is used to rid the material of imperfections.
Cast nickel brasses and very tough stainless steels can also be a common find on the workshop floor.
The material for some components can cost up to GBP 2,000 for each part even before they are loaded to the machine tools.
The company had already installed a vertical machining centre and had considered a CNC lathe but the decision was forced when they got the chance of a contract to produce 20 special 50mm stainless steel shafts 1.5m long.
At that point they decided to call up local lathe builder, Colchester Lathe at Heckmondwike, to see if it could supply a machine.
Ex trials rider and director David Lampkin takes up the tale.
We told them: 'We have some threads to produce.' 'What type,' they asked?
'ACME,' was our reply.
To which they responded: 'Oh?' We added: 'The threads are about 600mm long on a 1500mm shaft and left-hand' 'Oh,' was the reply again.
Then we told them: 'They are two-start, 4 tpi (threads/inch) and the line went quiet'.
''But,' he maintains, 'Colchester came up with the goods in the form of its new MultiTurn 2000 flat bed combination lathe and offered a special macro written to produce the ACME thread form which won us the contract against another supplier that planned to thread whirl the shaft.' Colchester's solution was to use a special parting tool insert set at a compound angle to rough out the thread form then repeat the cut on each flank before going through the whole process for each individual start of thread'.
''What amazed us, bearing in mind the toughness of the material, was the level of finish we achieved on each thread.
We also had to produce a nut to check the machined thread on each shaft and again we could not believe how perfect they were across the whole batch of 20 parts.
Once one part was programmed at the machine control and produced, it was then a simple matter of repeat cycle direct from memory in CNC mode.
The MultiTurn 2000 has a 400 mm swing over the bed, 585mm x 165mm in the gap bed and 1250mm between centres.
It has a 250 mm chuck and an eight-station 30 VDI electric turret.
A 8.4 inch colour TFT flat screen and keyboard is carried on the saddle with electronic handwheels and the machine can be used in manual or CNC mode.
Programming can be by teach repeat using the electronic handwheel, through macros or ISO, DNC or CADCAM at the Fanuc Oi-TB control.
Toolpath verification is included on the flat screen.
The family business of A A Lampkin Engineering was set up in 1946 by David's grandfather, his father Arthur and his uncle Alan.
It was Arthur who was often followed on Saturday afternoon black and white TV for his very successful exploits in scrambling - and Alan, another top-class rider, who still works in the business with David and the other director Stephen.
The factory is a true Aladdin's cave of machine fixturing and tooling set in several workshops that lead warren-like from one to another.
However, the work produced demonstrates high traditional toolroom skills of milling, turning and extremely high levels of creativity to engineer a solution, which is obvious in the continued success of the business.
As David Lampkin maintains, prior to the MultiTurn he had never touched a CNC lathe; his turning skills were traditional centre, capstan and turret lathe based: 'When the MultiTurn was first installed I looked at it and wondered how to work it'.
'Now you can not get me away from it,' he says and he even runs the machining centre and MultiTurn together in automatic cycle, walking between each machine loading, unloading and checking parts.
Primarily they use the control system macros with manual data input in at the Fanuc Oi-TB control to set up the first piece'.
''The fact we can use the graphic simulation is an important comfort factor and we can easily slow down into creep feed or zoom in whenever we are not sure'.
'This is most important if you have a stick of specially imported material from Sweden costing over GBP 1,000 in the chuck,' he says.
With such a high level of background manual machining skills, David Lampkin confirms the machine will operate the way each of them want to work and 'we can do it in our own time'.
To produce the first part he reckons it takes about three-quarters of the time it would take on a manual machine.
However, with the six-station automatic turret there is no contest for repeat cycles, the consistency of size and finish and, of course, the time taken.
Because of the success of the two-start threaded shaft, the Lampkins have taken more business from the same customer and describes a bronze shaft with a 6 tpi Whitworth thread where they were concerned over the surface area of the thread form'.
''We decided to break the thread into four passes with a 0.1mm final skim to take out any spring in the shaft'.
'This really proved to us the level of repeatability we can achieve and the blending on the final pass was absolutely perfect,' he maintains.
He follows on to re-live the recent turning of a large vee-belt timing pulley with a trapezoidal groove'.
''When you lift it out of the machine and look at the surface finish in the groove and across the turned face, achieved because of the constant speed capability in the control, you could never equal this on a manual machine,' he says.
Then he comments with a smile: 'You look at the part and feel really proud of what you have just achieved - but then, all three of us love engineering and making things'.