5-axis machining Tooling 2000's multi-million pound investment in 5-axis and high capacity machines

Related Vendors

Hurco Europe Ltd.

DIPROFIL Diamantprodukter AB

Tooling 2000, a leader in automotive tooling based in Birmingham, takes a bold step into the future with a 1.8 million pound investment in cutting-edge machinery and additional staff. The move aims to meet growing demand for complex components and expand into new sectors like renewable energy.

Located in the centre of Birmingham, Tooling 2000 was founded over 50 years ago. Since 1996, the company has focused primarily on the design, manufacture and tryout of tooling for the automotive industry, particularly for Jaguar Land Rover, Nissan and Rolls-Royce / Bentley.

In order to strengthen its position in the industry and also to move into sub-contract machining for other sectors such as power generation, particularly renewable energy, Tooling 2000 has invested 1.8 million pounds in new equipment and additional staff over the last two years.

Gallery

A significant proportion of this has been spent on the purchase of new machine tools from Hurco, in particular a TM12i CNC lathe with a 12" chuck and the toolmaker's first two 5-axis machining centres, the VMX60SRTi and VMX42SRTi.

The SRTi configuration is fast becoming Hurco's most popular 5-axis model. The torque-motor driven, tiltable B-axis spindle head and 600 mm diameter C-axis, set flush in a fixed machine table, create a compact, high-capacity platform that can be used as a high-capacity 3/4-axis machine when required.

Brian Abbott, Tooling 2000's manufacturing director, said: “In recent years there has been an increasing demand from customers to supply more complex components that require 5-axis machines to produce them cost-effectively. The technology was a step into the unknown for us, so we needed to know that we would be supported by the machine supplier. As an existing Hurco user, we felt comfortable buying our first 5-axis machines from them, especially with the user-friendly dual-screen controls.”

Machine operator Dean Henning added: “Hurco machines are best suited to our type of work because the conversational control with WinMax software is easy to use and we can program most jobs on the shop floor. Even on the 5-axis models, we can use the Hurco control to program 3+2-axis cycles. For more complex jobs, the ability to input a DXF file from CAD into the Hurco control and use the drawing as the basis for creating the part program is particularly useful and fast. Once the features have been extracted, the WinMax software automatically generates the cutting paths to complete the cycle in the shortest possible time”.

He also likes the functionality of the interrupt button, which, when pressed, causes the cutter to retract from the job and stop during the cycle. It is then easy to check that the programme is progressing as planned and press the cycle start button again to resume machining from the point at which the tool was stopped.

In addition, a large 3-axis DCX42i travelling column machine with 4.2m / 2.6 m X / Y travels and a maximum table load of 16 tonnes was installed in 2020 to provide the capacity to produce larger press tools and components. Currently the largest machine available from Hurco, it has a 10,000 rpm spindle with BT50 interface and a 40-position tool magazine. The availability of this capacity sets Tooling 2000 apart from much of the competition in the area.

Mr Abbott confirms: “Not many suppliers offer a machine of this size at an affordable price. We visited Hurco and it was our operators who chose the DCX because they like the flexibility of the control. It helps them to programme parts without making mistakes, which would be costly on these large components. The machine also has excellent chip removal and very tight tolerances.”

(ID:49719146)