According to Brian Yates, it is never too late to become an entrepreneur. A machinist since he left school (and latterly a manager in a sub-contracting firm), he decided in October 2010 — at the age of 55 — to start his own business.
He invested his entire pension fund in Campro Precision, renting premises and purchasing two Hurco machines — a three-axis VM20 vertical machining centre and a TM8 CNC lathe.
His son Peter joined him almost immediately, and Dewi Hughes started a year later as a third and equal partner. Six years on, the company is going from strength to strength; it now has two more staff, and it moved in 2015 to much larger premises on the J Reid Trading Estate in Sandycroft, Deeside.
Milling and turning for the medical sector account for around one third of turnover; aerospace contracts are another 20%, and the remainder is spread across a wide range of industries.
Testament to Campro Precision’s success — and a vindication of Mr Yates’s decision to risk everything on the venture — is the company’s purchase of two large-capacity Hurco machine tools.
In 2014, a TM12i CNC lathe with a 12in chuck was bought; this machine differentiated the sub-contractor from most of the competition in the North West, allowing components up to 1m long x 550mm in diameter to be turned — such as brass oil-sump cylinders, stainless-steel rings for the oil and gas industry and wheels for sand-blasting equipment.
Just before Christmas 2015, Campro installed a VMX60Ui trunnion-type five-axis machining centre with a working envelope of 1,524 x 660 x 610mm, taking the firm into a new area of prismatic machining.
Nobody in the company had any experience of five-axis work, including Mr Yates (a turner by trade), but the technology was picked up quickly by the three partners.
Conversational programming
They all say that shopfloor conversational programming of 3+2-axis cycles is intuitive using the WinMax software in the control, based on their experience preparing three- and four-axis programs on the other machining centres. That said, more-complex simultaneous five-axis routines can be prepared using the company’s OneCNC CAM system.
Mr Hughes highlights a job produced on both the VMX60Ui and the TM12i lathe — steel hubs for overhead cranes in use by Airbus at nearby Broughton.
The former production route was one operation on the smaller TM8 turning machine, another on the VM30, then back onto the lathe to complete the turning and a further two set-ups on the machining centre.
These five operations, which remove well over half the billet material, have been condensed into two on the larger machine tools.
The total prismatic metal-cutting time is similar, but the 55kW 2,800rev/min spindle (with chiller) on the TM12i drastically reduces the time needed to turn the component — from 2.5hr to 30min. In addition, there are big savings on inter-machine handling and workpiece set-ups, particularly on the five-axis VMX60Ui.
The first component to be put on the latter machine, at the end of 2015, was an aluminium bracket used in equipment for the electronics industry. It is an on-going job and another example of the cost reductions that can be made in handling, setting and work-in-progress using five-axis strategies.
With dimensions of 120 x 100 x 90mm, the component was previously machined in 45min using four set-ups on the three-axis VM30. The number of operations has been reduced to two, and the total cycle time is now 22min.
This improvement is down to the higher feed rates and the 12,000rev/min spindle speed on the five-axis machine, as well as its ability to position and clamp the two rotary axes in-cycle to allow efficient three-axis machining in any orientation, without the need for costly fixtures.
Mr Yates says: “We run a day shift from Monday to Friday, 6am to 6pm — sometimes longer — and there always seems to be enough work to fill the Hurco machines. We operate two lathes and three machining centres, including a VM30 with fourth axis that we acquired in 2011; they have never stopped since they were installed.
“When we buy a new machine, customers and local companies get wind of the fact that we have extra capacity and approach us with new jobs, especially now that we have a five-axis capability.”
When Mr Yates started the company six years ago, he already had experience of using Hurco machines during his previous employment. The WinMax conversational programming software in particular was an attraction, as it reduces the set-up time and cost for new components that might only be required in ones and twos.
“Hurco machines are easy to master. All the operators where I worked before were keen to use them, so it was an easy choice for me to follow suit when I started my own business.
“What I particularly like about them is their high-torque spindles, especially on the lathes. If I am turning a large pitch thread on a big steel billet at low revs, for example, the motor never stalls.”
In conclusion, Mr Yates says Campro Precision looks set to continue growing, especially in the medical sector, and hopefully soon in wind energy. “The company’s success means I will undoubtedly receive a better income when I finally retire than an annuity would provide.”