MACHINING
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Not to be mist
When Martin Campbell started his own business by designing, developing and testing fire prevention equipment, he had little idea
of the success it would become. Twenty years later his company, Reeling Systems, is now a primary fire prevention equipment
supplier to Chubb fire for the MoD’s naval vessels. Solutions reports.
T
he company’s designs were approved by the MoD system. What struck us was the
and the hose reeling system was integrated with friendly service and willingness
Chubb components to provide a complete fire to meet our exact needs whilst
prevention package. providing a product superior to
When the Chubb Group restructured in 2002, Reeling Systems anything available from the
continued to work with a Chubb subsidiary, which resulted in the competition. The OMF1000 is
Whitchurch-based subcontractor taking full responsibility for the designed to be mounted
majority of production as well as the assembly and packaging of alongside the machine,
specialist fire systems. simplifying filter changeovers,
In 2009, a supplier was hit by the downturn and Reeling Systems so, instead of clambering up a
employed the company owner/engineer and acquired its own CNC machine to carry out a service,
machine tools to produce the parts in house. Following a visit by we have a system at the side of
XYZ Machine Tools, the company purchased a 1010 vertical our machines where we can
machining centre and 250TC turning centre. The XYZ engineer also open a door and rapidly change
noted the limited factory space and suggested a media filtration the filters. The OMF1000 also
system to maintain a clean and healthy work environment that has gauges that inform you
would keep the facility dust and oil film free. when the filters need changing,
“We were advised to install media filtration units and were given which is very useful.”
the details of a well known supplier,” Mr Campbell explains. “We
did our research and found the systems were designed to be
Working together
mounted on top of the machine tool, making them inaccessible for The XYZ engineer suggested
filter changes. A further web search brought up Air Cleaning filtration units based not only on
Systems (acs) so we decided to investigate further. the limited workshop space and
“We spoke to Mark Lemkey at Air Cleaning Systems and were employee environment but also
immediately sold on the benefits of the OMF1000 media filtration the type of work the company
was planning to undertake. The forecast was that production at the acquiring the acs filtration units.
four employee business would result in heavy cutting, generating I often wonder how companies
significant heat and clouds of mist when combined with fast can operate without such
What struck us was
flowing coolant. systems.
With plans for batch production, heat and coolant mist would “The need for filtration is more
immediately dissipate from the machines when the doors were prominent on our machining the friendly service
opened. With all this in mind, the decision was made and acs set centre where we have to open
about working with XYZ prior to the installation. the machine doors after each
and willingness to
Mr Campbell continues: “We wanted to hit the ground running cycle to load and unload parts,”
when the machines were installed. Air Cleaning Systems he adds. “Without the OMF1000
accommodated our plans and worked with XYZ in Tiverton prior to our factory would be covered in
meet our exact
the installation to develop the complete package. They hard wired an oily film. We are now
the OMF1000 units to the machines and also painted them the developing platen tooling
needs whilst
same colour as the XYZ machines. When we took delivery in fixtures, so we can machine a
October, the machines and filtration systems were instantly up number of parts in one cycle
and running.” which will improve our
providing a product
productivity and enable us to
Head in the clouds
keep the machine doors closed superior to anything
Reeling Systems now produces hose guides, inductors, nozzles for longer periods.
and reels that are just a few of the 30 plus product families that “Our turning centre has an
available from the
incorporate upwards of 300 part variations. With parts made from LNS barfeed system that allows
stainless steel, phosphor bronze, aluminium and non-ferrous us to produce batches without
materials, coolant is a necessity not only for heat dissipation and opening the machine doors too
competition
tooling longevity but also the removal of swarf from the machining frequently,” he concludes.
area. Production batches vary from 25 to 1,000 with heavy cuts “However, there are some jobs
and coolant applied to most parts. that require us to use soft jaws
“If we ever produce a part without the OMF1000 unit running, we and manually load parts and open the doors after each cycle. We
immediately witness a wave of hot coolant mist and dust can fortunately rely upon the OMF1000 units to rapidly extract all
emanating from the machine,” observes Mr Campbell. “This is not dust and mist, so as soon as the cycle ends we can open the
only unpleasant for the operator and the general work machine doors and be mist free.”
environment, but also we can’t take parts from the machine and
set-up the next part until the cloud settles. This can have a
considerable knock on effect with production times. These
> ACS
reasons are enough to justify that we made the right decision in www.acs-ltd.com
Blockbuster Pro Range
Double Column
Vertical Machining Centres
Accurate, High
Performance Machining of
Large Size Workpieces
wardcnc.com
Call 0114 276 5411 for further information
High Quality New, Used and Re-manufactured CNC Machine Tools
Sales, Service, Spares and Applications Solutions
10 March 2010 • Production Engineering Solutions
www.pesmag.co.uk
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