If you are in oil and gas, there is every chance you will have heard of Gateshead-based Express Engineering.

Part of the Express Group, which has extensive interests in engineering, product development and manufacturing across the UK, the USA and Brazil, the company has a strong position in the oil and gas sector, with long-term contracts that are helping it to weather the current downturn.

Express Engineering’s managing director, Gary Thirlwell, says: “The company’s origins are more humble. The business was started in 1973 by Keith Thompson, father of our current chairman, with just a couple of machines at the back of the railway station in Newcastle.

In the beginning, Express was a general sub-contractor, machining anything and everything, including parts for razor blade production lines. However, even then the company had ambitions.

“The differentiator between Express and your typical sub-contractor was that Mr Thompson decided to invest in CNC machines. A lot of other sub-contractors were still using manual lathes and milling machines, but with CNC we were able to get the products through quicker and more cost-effectively.

“The move into oil and gas happened around 15 years ago. Before that, we were working in fast-moving consumer goods and special-purpose machines, but we sold that side of the business to concentrate on what we do best — precision.
“We got an opportunity to work with Vetco Gray in Aberdeen.

This resulted in us machining actuators, and from there we have built a wide portfolio of sub-sea oil and gas products, including well-heads, conductor housings and casing hangers, as well as ‘Christmas tree’ parts and assemblies and connectors for control modules and risers.”

Situated on the Team Valley Trading Estate, Express now has six manufacturing facilities and has moved away from general sub-contracting into longer-term contract work. The company has more than 40 machines across its six sites; and in addition to machining, it undertakes CNC welding, assembly, hydrostatic pressure testing and gas testing, in-house NDE (non-destructive evaluation), inspection, design and programming.

Strategic decision

Looking back at the company’s change of direction, Mr Thirlwell says: “We knew that selling an hour’s machining time here and there is not what this business was about. We wanted to have two- to three-year contracts that would allow us to make strategic decisions.

“In oil and gas, most things are round, and the model that we used to work with was to have two lathes and one milling machine for a ‘two-thirds turning, one-third milling’ solution. That is a good model if you are undertaking general work, because it gives flexibility, but it involves a lot of set-up time, which is dead time.

“We reckoned that if we could get a machine to undertake more operations, we could reduce the number of hours it takes to manufacture a part without necessarily having to reduce the price proportionately. In effect, we knew we could get a better value per hour from a multi-tasking machine.

“Another reason for going down the multi-tasking route was to take some of the risk out of machining certain components. Before, we would turn a part then have to reset it on another machine before starting the milling operations.

The tolerances between the turning and the milling are so tight that if you get the set-up even slightly wrong, the whole component is potentially scrap. We knew that with a multi-tasking capability, we would not have to take the part off the machine, and we wouldn’t have to re-set it.”

The move into multi-tasking was facilitated by applications engineers from Worcester-based Yamazaki Mazak UK Ltd (www.mazakeu.co.uk), who supported Express with pre-manufacturing evaluation, on-site process development and multi-tasking cutting strategies. The new machines bought by Express were an Integrex e-670H, its e-650H sister machine, and an Integrex e-800H — the second machine of its type to be installed in Europe.

The machines, which are full combination turning centres and machining centres with powerful B-axis milling heads, were installed in October 2014 and immediately put into production. Moreover, they quickly achieved the benefits that Express had anticipated.

Significant benefits

For example, the company says that one specific sub-sea oil and gas component previously took about 19hr to produce — excluding setting times — involving three machine tools and multiple operations.

With the Integrex e-670H, cutting times were reduced to just over 6hr— with just the one machine and two operations. Similarly, a lower-body well component that used to take 40hr of machining time using three machines and four operations was completed in 13hr 25min using the e-670H — one machine and two operations for a 67% saving in machining time.

However, the benefits of multi-tasking have not been confined to production efficiency. The new machines have allowed Express to tackle more technically challenging products; and with the accuracy of the Mazak
machines, combined with shorter setting times, the risk of machining error has also been dramatically reduced.

Looking ahead, Mr Thirlwell is convinced that the Integrex e-800H will give Express Engineering a major competitive advantage. “It is a statement of intent, and I think we will get huge benefit from it as we come out of the current downturn in oil and gas. I think there will be a lot of product queuing up to get onto that machine.

“Right now, everybody in the oil and gas market is taking a hit of about 15-20%. If you can’t get that out of your production times, then it comes out of your margins and your profit. The market has changed; it is now much more price-sensitive. We need to machine more efficiently.”