Premier investment programme extends capabilities and capacity

Premier, one of the UK's largest providers of specialist deep hole drilling, gun drilling and honing services, has initiated a £500,000 four-machine investment programme, which will expand on both the company's capabilities and manufacturing capacity. To increase capability and provide back-up manufacturing capacity for existing machine tools, Premier Deep Hole Drilling has purchased a Doosan 2m CNC lathe which has been installed along with a 2m Doosan vertical machining centre (VMC) equipped with a fourth-axis, probing and a broken tool detection system. As well as providing back-up the new machine tools increase the company's capabilities. Managing director, Stuart Grant, points out this is most significant with the new VMC, "although we have been milling for 18 months on a small Toolroom Haas, an XYZ mill and a couple of 1m X-axis Cincinnati machines that are used to machine castings for a customer, we were ready for the next step. With several OEM customers requesting that we have the capability to provide complete machined components in this size range, the new machine with a 2m bed will allow us to provide further roughing and finishing operations." An OTW1000-5-2m is another 2 m horizontal honing machine from Ohio Tool Works Corporation, representing an investment of around £140,000. Featuring full CNC for superior machining performance, the new OTW1000-5-2m horizontal honing machine is the second of this specification on the shopfloor. Constructed from heavy, welded steel sections the OTW1000 provides the rigidity required for precise bore sizing of components. The 3.73 kW (5hp) servo drive reciprocation system and infinitely variable speed spindle drive motors are said to offer smooth, quiet and trouble free operation under the most arduous conditions. Launched just last year, the model 1000 is available in a variety of standard stroke configurations from 2m up to 6m with spindle drives up to 7.46 kW. Honing diameters from 25.4 mm or smaller through to 559 mm. Infinitely variable spindle speed motors up to 1000 rpm enable efficient processing using both conventional vitrified and metalbond superabrasives. Designed for flexibility, the model 1000 will process parts using Ohio Tool Works line of heavy-duty tooling as well as tool systems from other manufacturers. "We have purchased the original OTW1000-5-2m as a turnkey project," recalls Stuart Grant. "As the components being machined required precise and consistent size control, we specified the optional Size Control System which offers accurate and dependable size control at micron levels of tolerance." This system is integrated in to the user friendly, touch screen numerical control system that allows the operator to program the machine on the shopfloor and then carry out other secondary tasks during the honing cycle. This second OTW1000 will be located in a production cell alongside the initial machine. A 2m TBT gun drilling machine will complete the investment installation programme, which has required a significant move around of the existing machines on the shopfloor. The TBT machine is currently being fully refurbished and will be supplied tooled ready for one specific job. It will extend the company's current gun drilling capacity and capability. Stuart Grant says: "The TBT machine will extend that depth range and it has the ability to ejector drill or gun drill up to 50mm diameter, just by fitting a pressure head. We will use it predominantly for gun drilling but it can provide back up for our ejector drilling machines which work in the 30 to 150mm diameter range. "Once installed we will have a secondary machine for every operation we do, so customers can be confident of delivery, as all the machines can be operated around-the-clock if required. Where some machines were running at high capacity utilisation, investing in the back-up machines provides complete piece of mind." The Doosan VMC was specified with a Nikken rotary table providing a programmable fourth axis and Renishaw probing for tool setup and for component measurement. The new 2m lathe joins an existing 4M BSA Churchill Viper lathe and a Doosan 6-axis Puma lathe that turns bar stock up to 75mm diameter by 700mm long. "We did consider a mill-turn machine, which would be ideal if we had our own volume products suited to being produced on it. However, the flexibility and additional capacity of a lathe and a machining centre is a far better option for a subcontract service provider," Stuart Grant states. "We have completed the training and new work is already being scheduled for the new machines." An old 4m honing machine has been removed and the company re-organised its 4 machine ejector drilling area to reduce the footprint and make space in the centre of the shopfloor. Now the four CNC machining centres are located here. The relocation of three vertical honing machines to create a cell made room for the new OTW1000 machines. To provide support operating the new machines four new staff have been recruited with two extra people moving onto the night shift. A second, 1 tonne gantry crane was also fitted to the existing full-length overhead crane, spanning the ejector machines, machining centres and honing machines. It means efficiency is not being compromised by a machine waiting for raw material to load or the removal of a part that has been drilled. Says Stuart Grant: "Oil and gas sector customers are keen to exploit the extra machining capability. As the industry components are getting larger we are finding they want us to do more. Products are getting larger and customers are moving into drilling equipment, such as stackers, as well as the data logging area. It is taking the work outside their capacity range so they are asking us to complete the work for them, and now with this investment we can." He concludes: "Most of our customers know we have the extra capability and feel secure in the knowledge that we can support them to industry and customer specific quality standards and accreditation. Our core business always will focus on parts that require a deep hole drilled, but now we can offer extra working capability."