AJAX SCORES AGAIN WITH AMPRESS FOR TWO MACHINE INSTALLATION

In addition to its subcontract fabrication and machining services Ampress Welding and Fabrications has become a major supplier of burner assemblies to the combustion industry. The 10 employee company based in Lymington has made good use of Ajax’s international source of different pieces of equipment from manually operated small pieces of production kit and tooling to slant bed lathes and vertical machining centres. Les Hicks, managing director of Ampress set the company up in 2000 in the 6,000ft2 unit to provide a wide range of production services. His company had a major focus on fabrication which built up a customer base in the combustion industry sector to a level that contributes up to 95 per cent to turnover due to the capability to provide high quality welds for pressurised vessels. But as the business has developed, so has the requirement for turning and milling of various components that are often required as part of the assembly. This has been more than adequately supported by Ajax Machine Tools International with an initial purchase of an Ajax MCV 300 vertical machining centre with Anilam 6000i control and an Ajax Evolution 310 CNC lathe to be followed earlier this year with an Ajax AJMCV 300 vertical machining centre and an Ajax AJSB 250 slant bed lathe. Materials processed very between 310 stainless steel, mild steel and aluminium which requires a fairly open specification machine that is quick and easy to reset. Also, quite a significant level of work is based on similar to, or repeat orders with cycle times that tend to vary between 5 and 15 mins. However, flexibility to respond to customer demands for a quick turnaround is more often than not the case and this can mean resetting each machine up to three times during the day. As the word spread, Ampress experienced rising demand for additional fabrication work to produce the likes of special gates, structural beams for industrial sites and the building industry as well as general fabrication which in turn also demanded more from his machinists. Such was the take-up, which even included the machining of some quite complex spares and components for vintage and classic cars, that Mr Hicks was finding his existing machining capacity with the MCV 300 and Evolution 310 was coming under pressure and work queues were gradually extending. So in April the decision was made to check out the availability of slant bed lathes and vertical machining centres only to find when it came to specification against price and availability, it was Ajax that still provided a distinct advantage. According to Rene Tournier, workshop manager, once installed the new Ajax AJSB 250 slant bed lathe and Ajax MCV 300 vertical machining centre made life so much easier especially with commonality of tooling, programming and ideal operator ergonomics when they set and operate both the existing and the new machines. The 4.5 tonne AJSB 250 slant bed lathe has a 550 mm swing over the hardened and ground ways of the machine bed which provides the rigidity required under cut and is an ideal capacity for the wide variety of work that Mr Tournier has to produce. The chuck size is 250 mm with a 15 kW motor delivering between 500 and 4,000 revs/min. The turret has eight stations and the between centres distance is 650 mm to the programmable tailstock which is under Fanuc 0iTD control. Tool setting probe and swarf conveyor is included in the machine package. Meanwhile, the AJMCV 300 vertical machining centre, like the slant bed lathe has high rigidity from its solid way construction. The table size is 700 mm by 308 mm and axis strokes are 610 mm by 305 mm by 460 mm. With options on the BT 40 spindle of 7.5 kW or 11 kW maximum speeds can be chosen from an 8,000 or 10,000 revs/min specification. There are further options for tool capacity of 10 tools with an armless change or a 3.2 secs tool-to-tool 16 and 24 position magazine. Rapid traverse rates are 20 m/min in X and Y and 18 m/min in Z. Control systems can be specified from Heidenhain, Siemens or Fanuc with rapid tapping a standard feature.

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