news bRitish tooling teaMwoRk at its best


Using its newly equipped state-of-the-art tool room, the Broanmain Plastics team has developed a true cross-departmental collaborative approach to tool design and delivery. Led by Kamil Stec and Thomas Catinat, the team now has capacity to complete tool design and delivery projects – engineering, crafting and testing – in house. The most recent project saw the completion of a single cavity slide action tool with a hot tip – which sees the company manufacturing the utility filter components in house for a leading UK OEM. Flying the flag for British engineering, tool


room manager Kamil Stec headed the project, designing the drawings, sourcing over 200 individual tool components, and assembling the steel tool to the highest precision. Automating a previously time consuming and labour- intensive manual moulding process, the benefits of using a moulder with the in-house tooling expertise are threefold highlighted Stec. “When it comes to optimising the design, it is extremely useful to understand the moulding process and the nuances of the machine that the tool will be running on.” In this instance, Stec was able to call upon


the expertise of operations manager Thomas Catinat. With toolmaking being such an in-


A project being launched at the National Centre for Additive Manufacturing, based at the Manufacturing Technology Centre aims to transform the use of additive manufacture or 3D printing in highly regulated industries. Currently the adoption of additive


manufacturing in highly regulated sectors such as aerospace and space is hindered in part by the lack of laid down standards for part quality, reliability, traceability and process repeatability. The Daedalus project is funded by UK


Research and Innovation through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund. The project will help make the UK become the go-to place for forward-thinking manufacturing by enabling additive manufacturing in highly regulated sectors such as aerospace, space, oil and gas and medical. Joining the National Centre for


Additive Manufacture in this ground- breaking project are Bristol-based HiETA Technologies, who are leading the project, Arrowsmith Engineering, and global enterprise software business ValueChain Enterprises. HiETA is a world-class design, development


and production company pioneering the use of metallic additive manufacturing technologies. Arrowsmith is a precision engineering company which has worked in the UK aerospace supply chain for more than


6


50 years, supplying world aerospace primes. Valuechain provides modular solutions for advanced manufacturing sectors, and supply chain intelligence solutions. As well as developing a single, traceable


digital thread and the flexible integration of facility and production management systems, the project will develop artificial intelligence-enabled solutions for material and process control and stability. The final demonstrator will be a digitally


integrated AM supply chain which will be a secure, collaborative, intelligent and independent platform whereby reliable AM raw material and product traceability data can be shared between the supply chain partners.


www.the-mtc.org


demand, highly skilled profession, having access to this all-round knowledge can be critical to the project’s success. “It’s also beneficial for creating test


samples, especially if you have to re-run tests before the tool is signed off,” added Stec. Rather than shipping the tool and booking a slot with an external moulder, Stec ran samples and got the approval parts in the same day. “It is so much faster as well as making it easier to modify and service the tooling and run samples again.” Stec estimated that this to-and-fro process can equate to several lost production weeks. From the clients’ perspective, having a single


point of contact and no language barriers is equally advantageous. Stec explained: “Sitting face to face with any customer and being able to show the tool and sample components means that we can usually deduce and correct any issues on-site within 24 hours.” De-risking tooling projects is also at the


forefront of UK manufacturers mind right now. Trade wars, closed borders, shipment delays, ongoing tariff negotiations, currency fluctuations and Brexit are just a number of factors prompting UK OEMs to review supply


PRoject to Revolutionise 3D PRinting take-uP


chain vulnerabilities. In plastic processing, tooling is a critical part of this chain. Managing director Jo Davis commented: “For some time now there’s been a generational gap and concern that toolmaking in the UK is a dying art with the most skilled heading for retirement. But thanks to the concerted effort being made within the industry, including the GTMA and Make UK, the tide is turning. One positive to come from the current COVID crisis is it has renewed the focus on future engineering skills and workforce resilience.”


www.broanmainplastics.co.uk Rubix acquiRes MataRa


Rubix UK has acquired Matara, a specialist supplier of industrial automation products to UK industry, as part of the Group’s network development strategy. Matara’s focus on linear automation components


provides Rubix UK with a significantly expanded footprint in the mechatronics market. Operating out of its purpose-built headquarters


in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, Matara was founded in 1995, and currently employs 27 staff including ten specialist workshop technicians and three field sales technicians. It reported sales in excess of £5m in the year ended 31 March 2020. As well as providing linear motion, pneumatics,


aluminium extrusion and actuator system products, Matara’s in-house machine shop provides expert precision customisation services. These include cutting linear rails, building bespoke frames, machining ballscrews, assembling pneumatic cylinders and other ancillary solutions.


www.rubix-group.com January 2021 UKManufacturing


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