A £1.5 million investment in a Handtmann HBZ CompactCell five-axis simultaneous CNC machining centre by specialist metals supplier Wilsons Ltd has been key to the business maintaining its position as the UK’s leading independent supplier of high-performance semi-finished metal, as well as alloy billets and bars.

Supplied by Southam-based Engineering Technology Group — ETG — (www.engtechgroup.com), the Handtmann HBZ machining centre now allows Wilsons to offer customers part-machined billets to near-net shape, saving them high-value processing time, as well as the need for large-volume swarf removal and recycling.

The machine’s twin-pallet configuration provides flexible high-speed machining of aluminium and alloys, ensuring competitive pricing via the high productivity achieved with five-sided machining in a single set-up. The machine also allows parts to be loaded and unloaded — and fixtures changed — on the second pallet while the machine is operational.

Wilsons, which is based in Sawtry, Cambridgeshire, supplies metals to the global manufacturing supply chain, although producing semi-machined aerospace-grade aluminium workpieces is a significant part of the company’s business.

Director and general manager James Digby says: “Very often, 90% of the material sold into the aerospace sector is turned into swarf, so we offer a service that supplies a billet already 80% machined, allowing the customer to focus on the high accuracy finish-machining operations and increase their machining throughput without any considerable investment.

“Most of the bar and billet products that Wilsons supplies into aerospace are semi-finished in some way — either cut to length, deburred and chamfered, part-marked or etched. With our latest milling facility, we are now able to offer another added-value service.

"We chose a Handtmann machine because the company has a long-established reputation for designing and manufacturing high-precision heavy-duty machining centres that offer high levels of spindle power and torque. These features, coupled with a generous workpiece machining capacity to accommodate large components, influenced our decision to invest in the HBZ.”

Spindle power

The HBZ CompactCell, which has 4 x 1m twin pallets that can accommodate workpieces up to the full pallet dimension, is particularly suited to the high-speed machining of aluminium. The HBZ machine at Wilsons features a 64kW 30,000rev/min spindle that offers high rates of chip removal for economic production.

Supplied as a turn-key installation by ETG, the HBZ CompactCell’s horizontal-spindle format is particularly suited to environments where high-volume metal removal is required. Compared with vertical operations, horizontal machining provides better thermal stability of the workpiece and copes better with the high volumes of swarf produced when machining complex parts with deep pockets and cavities.

Moreover, the machine’s swarf management has been developed to ensure that material cut from the workpiece is immediately transported out of the machining area via screw-type conveyors to an exit at the rear of the machine.

As part of the turn-key supply, Wilsons also specified an RUF briquetting machine; this allows the company to reclaim cutting fluid, increase the metal yield, reduce chip volumes by up to 20% through compaction, improve chip handling and reduce chip storage areas.

Mr Digby says: “There are very few customers or competitive stockists that have the added-value capability that this machine gives us. The HBZ runs at 30,000rev/min, whereas most customer machines run at a third of that, which means we can remove material three-times as fast while giving them a massive increase in capacity to undertake finish-machining operations.

"Customers can focus on spindle time in the areas that earn them most money — final component machining. We have also eliminated high-volume swarf management from their cost base.”

Regarding the application of this Handtmann machine, Graeme Thomas — key accounts director at ETG — said: “Wilsons are making very good use of the exceptional capabilities of the HBZ. The machine offers a wealth of opportunities for those in the heavy-duty but high-precision machining sectors, reducing machining times and costs per part and — as in this case — helping to create a unique market position for a company.”