Automation Beyond precision: Empire Manufacturing's strategic leap in machining technology

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Empire Manufacturing has witnessed substantial growth, evolving from owning three sliding head turning centres to boasting a diverse machine tool range. In 2022, the company diversified its machine tool vendors, purchasing tools from Dugard, including the Hanwha XD10 sliding head lathe which remarkably improved precision and efficiency.

Founded back in 2007 with an initial purchase of three sliding head turning centres, Empire Manufacturing is a company that has gone from strength to strength. In 2012, it moved to a larger facility and subsequently added more sliding head turning centres, with machining centres, measuring equipment and fixed head turning centres following suit. More recently, the company that has technology from several machine tool vendors has invested in machine tools from Dugard.

In 2022, the Hoddesdon-based company made a paradigm shift in vendors when it bought a fixed head Smec SL2000-BSY turning centre with a barfeed unit, a Robojob robot loader and a Roto-Rack parts catcher. This order was rapidly followed by a Hanwha XD10 sliding head lathe from Dugard. This has since been followed by yet another Hanwha sliding head machine.

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As an established sliding head turning shop machining a vast range of products from washers, nuts and bolts, as well as fastenings and bottle tops through to highly complex and intricate components, the Hertfordshire company wanted to increase its capacity for machining small components. To alleviate a bottleneck on an existing 10 mm capacity sliding head turning centre, the subcontract manufacturer invested in a Hanwha XD10 sliding head lathe from Dugard. Recalling the situation, Managing Director, Stuart Wade says: “We were getting regular orders for small copper components in quantities from 8,000 to 12,000-off and we needed extra capacity. Our existing machine tool supplier didn’t have a machine available in the timeframe that we wanted, so we decided to look at the Hanwha machine from Dugard. We quickly discovered that the PCR chip breaking cycle on the Hanwha machine is far superior to what we already had — and this would allow us to run more jobs unmanned and extend our tool life.”

After purchasing the first Hanwha machine from Dugard, Empire Manufacturing quickly realised that the Hanwha machine was also better at holding tolerance on long runs of components. One particular example is a frequent production run of stainless steel M3 and M4 tight tolerance screws with a weight limit tolerance of +/-0.3 mg. Inevitably there were some scrap components when machining screws on its existing sliding head machines. However, switching the parts to the Hanwha machine reduced the scrap rate considerably and eradicated the need for constant operator intervention.

As a long-time sliding head business owner, Stuart says: “The ability of the Hanwha machines to hold tolerance is on another level, I have never seen anything like it on a sliding head machine. There are also a lot of features on the Hanwha machines that stand out from our existing technology. It is for these reasons we opted to buy a second Hanwha machine when the requirement was there. Another reason we opted for a second machine from Dugard was the service, it genuinely is outstanding and better than anything we receive from other machine tool suppliers.”

The Smec SL2000-BSY turning centre was the first purchase from Dugard and whilst this machine was on order, a Hanwha machine was ordered and delivered. The performance and availability of the Hanwha machine resulted in a second Hanwha soon following. Recalling the purchase of the fixed head machine, Stuart adds: “We had a gantry-loaded turning centre that has performed well down the years. However, it was creating a lot of problems with the unloading of finished parts. Loading billets via the gantry was a simple task but the more complicated our parts became, the more the machine would fail on the unloading operation and in many cases, it would damage parts during unloading.”

“The service we received from the existing supplier was indifferent, so we looked at other potential machine tool vendors. We decided to invest in a Smec SL2000-BSY fixed head turning centre with a two metre barfeed unit, a Robojob robot loader and a Roto-Rack parts catcher. The integration of the turning centre with an automated robot loading system and the Roto-Rack part collection system was all handled by Dugard and Hydrafeed,” continues Stuart.

The Smec SL2000BSY is a single turret twin-spindle turning centre with an 8-inch chuck on the main spindle, a 6-inch chuck on the sub-spindle and a 650mm swing over the bed that provides considerable machining capacity for a small footprint lathe. With twelve tool positions as standard (24 optional) and a BMT55 5000 rpm driven tool facility with a powerful 3.7/5.5 kW motor, the Smec SL2000BSY provides unrivalled flexibility and productivity in a spacious machine envelope.

As a subcontract company to the aerospace, electronics, automotive, leisure and entertainment sector, precision and quality is a necessity. As Stuart continues: “Investing in the Smec SL2000BSY eradicated our issues with unloading parts and we rapidly ramped up to extended periods of unmanned machining. We are manufacturing a range of fuel filter caps and distributor bodies for the automotive and aerospace markets and some parts will vary from 100 to 1000-off. Other billet loaded parts could run from 500 to 1000-off with barfed parts stretching to runs of 3000 to 10,000-off.”

“With the previous machine, we had major unloading issues that prevented extended unmanned operation. The reliability of the machine and the support from the supplier were very poor. In some instances, the temperamental nature of the machine would see it shut down with no alarms — only to work perfectly fine the next day. We needed to make a change and we’re glad we opted for the Smec. The machine will typically run for around 20 hours a day, leaving some time for swarf clearing and insert changes. The aluminium automotive parts on the Smec at present have a machining cycle of 20 minutes and we can load the Robojob with 40 parts at a time — this gives us over 13 hours of unmanned running. Unlike the previous gantry machine, we can simply remove the parts from the Robojob pallets and tell the machine to keep going — this flexibility minimises downtime and gives us incredible productivity rates. We really couldn’t be happier with both the quality of the machines and the impeccable level of service we have received from Dugard,” concludes Stuart.

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