leave work running overnight so we need to have absolute confidence in our processes and equipment.”
Talking terminology
TBT has eight gundrilling/deep hole drilling machines at its disposal as well as a recently purchased Churchill Viper VT40-A- 400 4m slant bed lathe to undertake turning work. The TBT Tiefbohrtechnik BW250s for example is a 7-axis CNC table type gundrilling machine for off centre work. It can drill to a maximum depth of 1,500mm and can handle diameters from 3mm to 40mm. The TBT B3B-4500 boring machine on the other hand can drill to a depth of 4m encompassing diameters from 20-150mm. This particular machine utilises the BTA/STS drilling system and can accommodate components up to a weight of six tonnes. Nothing is small in this game.
Some terminology explanation may be pertinent here. According to Mr Ramsay, gundrilling is a process used to drill holes of up to around 1 inch diameter. Above this, deep hole boring comes into play and whilst both processes use a drill as part of the process, the main distinction is with the way in which swarf and coolant is used. With gundrilling the swarf is ejected via the outside of the drill and coolant is applied through the centre. With deep hole boring – via a system developed by BTA in Germany – the swarf is ejected through the centre of the drill and the coolant is applied under pressure, along the outsides of the drill. Somewhat confusingly, the deep hole drilling process is known by the same name as the company that developed it – BTA. Global tooling provider Sandvik also developed its own system – STS (single tube system) – so the process is widely known as the BTA/STS system.
Flexible working Following the dark days of 2009, TBT is seeing a definite upturn in business levels – particularly in the oil and gas sector. At the
It’s a small world
Mollart Engineering – a name synonymous with deep hole machining, now has the enhanced production capability at its Chessington site to hone bores as small as 4mm diameter by up to 1,000mm deep. This capability, believed to offer new orders of diameter to depth ratios, follows installation of a Sunnen HTC 2131 horizontal honing machine – said to be the only one of its kind with this level of capability in the UK.
The machine is able to process parts between 4mm and 80mm diameter and is fully programmable for repeat cycles under batch production conditions. Already materials as diverse as titanium, Inconel, stainless steel, mild steel, aluminium and brass have been honed, using Borozon stone tooling, to customer specifications.
The machine also has the capability to utilise corrective honing techniques whereby the machine automatically recognises and sizes any high spots in the bore of the component. With the installation, Mollart’s previous small bore honing capability is totally enhanced from a minimum size of 12mm down to 4mm and has demonstrated significant reductions in previously proven processing cycles.
Mollart’s specialisation in deep hole drilling, the design and build of advanced machine tools, deep hole tooling and the provision of a subcontract capability, where added value processes can be included with the basic hole requirement, means high orders of application engineering are available. This added value service can include initial hole creation, subsidiary turning and
milling and preparation for honing. Post-honing processes such as precision deburring through its latest investment in abrasive flow deburring equipment and ultrasonic cleaning that ensures any media or swarf particles are cleared from the component, is an important capability for customers to add to the service available.
Also, due to Mollart’s deep
hole expertise, it can provide advanced measuring and inspection with the support of a high level of skill and familiarity concerning hole and associated feature production with full certification for size, geometry and surface finish.
>MOLLART
www.mollart.co.uk
moment the company is working a single shift system with overtime and somewhat unusually in the engineering sector, extended hours on a Thursday and Friday until 8pm. “This simply suits our current workload requirements,” Mr Ramsay reveals. “Our customers benefit from the extended hours and we’ve got the flexibility of introducing weekend working if necessary.” All the deep hole drilling and boring machines manufactured by
TBT Tiefbohrtechnik in Germany are built to order which is why leadtimes can be anything up to 12 months, depending on the size/complexity of the machine. Capacity wise, machines are available to drill down to a diameter of 0.6mm but in the standard range holes up to 250mm diameter from solid to 15m deep can be accommodated. “In reality we can go as big as the customer needs,” Mr Ramsay adds. “If there’s a requirement to drill or bore holes of say 1m diameter by 20m deep, we can build the machine to do it.
“There’s a general rule of thumb in this industry. In terms of drill/bore depth, 100 times the diameter is easy; 200 times diameter is getting clever and 300 times is totally specialised.”
>HONING & DEEP HOLE DRILLING There’s no place like hone
Complementing its subcontracting and machine tool business, TBT is also a specialist provider of deep hole drilling and boring tooling and up until a few months ago, the company only sold gundrills from 0.6mm to 38mm manufactured by the parent company in Germany. From 1st
May this year however, TBT became the sole UK
agent for BTA Tiefbohrsysteme in Germany – a company specialising in the manufacture of deep hole boring tools. The BTA range, which includes a vast array of solid boring heads, trepanning heads, counterboring heads, skiving tools, combination tools and bottle boring tools, complements and extends TBT’s own product offering. This is something of a first for TBT – up until now, the company has only ever sold its own tools.
Honing is a process that often goes hand in hand with deep hole drilling and whilst TBT doesn’t sell honing machines per se, its parent company – the Nagel Group has a specialist division that handles the manufacture of honing machines. As part of its subcontract offering, TBT UK has purchased a horizontal tube honing machine from Nagel and plans to install it in its subcontracting facility by the end of the year. “It’ll be a useful extension to our range of services,” Mr Ramsay affirms. “At €250,000 it’s a serious investment but we want to keep as much of the manufacturing process in-house as possible and having our own honing machine will negate the need to subcontract the process to an external company. It’ll be able to hone anything from 25mm to 300mm diameter to a depth of 4m.” So there you have it. TBT has evolved from a seller of deep hole drilling and boring machines to a total solutions provider in every sense of the word. “I think this is our real strength,” Mr Ramsay concludes. “We’ve invested serious amounts of time and money into making our facility here as self-sufficient as possible and we’ll continue to do so. The reality is that customers can get everything they need all under one roof.”
Serving the supply chain
Perfect Bore claims it has emerged from the tough operating conditions of recent months stronger and leaner. Having secured significant grant funding, the Hampshire- based production bore specialist is putting over 50% of its workforce through a business improvement techniques training programme that will help the company improve quality, on time deliveries and reduce leadtimes for its customers.
The implementation of Lean techniques is seen as the bedrock for its progression to achieve SC21 recognition and to strive for continuous improvement. Whilst Perfect Bore achieved AS9100 accreditation last year, it is proud to be a SC21 signatory and recognises that whilst it not a major direct supplier to the primes, it provides
other tiers within the supply chain with essential gundrilling, deep hole boring, CNC turning and honing services. Perfect Bore has been invited to discuss the possibilities of providing extreme diameter to length ratios never drilled in the UK before for nuclear applications. The company believes the expertise gained from working in the aerospace, defence and oil and gas sectors has played a major part in its selection.
By the end of the year, Perfect Bore forecasts it will be more than 50% through an
operational expansion program and be in a position to achieve at least bronze SC21 recognition.
>PERFECT BORE
www.pbm-ltd.com
>TBT
www.tbtuk.com
Deep Hole Drilling Deep Hole Boring CNC Gundrilling
EDM Drilling CNC Milling CNC Honing CNC Turning
Hone-All Precision Limited CherrycourtWay, Leighton Buzzard, LU7 4UH Telephone 0845 5555 111
E.mail
sales@hone-all.co.uk hone-all.co.uk We’re precise...92%ExcellenceRating, 99% On Time Delivery, 99% Product Quality, 98% 24hr Quotes
...fromstartto perfect finish.
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www.pesmag.co.uk Production Engineering Solutions • August 2010 25
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