Some might say that starting a business in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis was not the best of ideas, but that is exactly what Pete Ivings did after working in the machining departments of a number of Formula One teams.
His precision machining business — Lightning Machining (
www.lightningmachining.co.uk) — now supplies parts to more than half of the F1 teams — and other motor-sport companies.
Mr Ivings said: “In 2009, I was working as a contract production engineer at a leading motor-sport company that had a major project ‘on the go’. It required wire erosion, which was an area of expertise of mine, so I put in a proposal to supply these parts, and that led me to start Lightning Machining.
“The company was me with a rented wire-eroder working early mornings and late evenings, while fitting in a day shift in between.”
Thanks to that first contract — and Mr Ivings’ extensive contacts in the motor-sport industry — the company has grown steadily, with CNC milling and CNC turning now complementing its wire eroding capability.
Today, Lightning Machining not only supplies motor-sport — and F1 in particular — but also customers in the renewable-energy, automotive, marine, food-processing and aerospace sectors.
The company’s most recent machine purchase was a 2-OP portable vertical machining centre from Burlescombe-based XYZ Machine Tools (
www.xyzmachinetools.com); this sits alongside an XYZ CT52 turning centre and an XYZ SLX 1630 ProTurn lathe.
Mr Ivings says: “The 2-OP was installed in September 2016 to help with a new contract — our biggest to date — for a Formula One team in the build-up to the 2017 season. Initially, I looked at buying a used vertical machining centre, but I came up against two issues: one was the space available on the shopfloor; the other was that the difference in price between a new machine and a good second-hand one wasn’t big enough to counter the benefits and support that come with buying new.”
Dual role
The compact nature of the 2-OP, which has a footprint of just 775 x 1,380mm, meant that it would easily fit at the side of a CT52 turning centre at Lightning Machining and could carry out the role it was designed for, as a first- or second-operation machine tool cutting faces and pockets, drilling holes and undertaking rigid tapping — and machining 3-D surfaces via a CAM system like a stand-alone vertical machining centre.
Unlike Mr Ivings’ existing mill, the 2-OP features an eight-position tool-changer and a 6,000rev/min spindle. Moreover, with its work envelope of 355 ¥ 305 ¥ 455mm, the machine can handle around 80% of the work undertaken by Lightning Machining — and a broad range of materials, including titanium.
“The spindle speed of the 2-OP allows us to achieve excellent surface finishes, while the tool-changer means that we can leave the machine running unattended for reasonable periods of time, freeing up valuable manpower to do other things.
“Using the 2-OP as both a stand-alone VMC and as an extra spindle for secondary operations makes maximum use of the labour we have available. In the first six weeks following the 2-OP’s installation, it was run for extended
periods and machined some £20,000 worth of parts. At that rate, the payback period will be extremely short.”
The level of production undertaken by the 2-OP in its first month almost doubled the amount of milling work undertaken by Lightning Machining, while the simplicity of the ProtoTrak control means that the company was able to maximise the benefits offered by the 2-OP.
As the company already had an SLX 1630 with the ProtoTrak control, Mr Ivings’ training on the 2-OP took all of 5min! While it is straightforward to program jobs at the control, he takes advantage of the option for off-line programming, using a CAD/CAM system and transferring files to the machine via a USB stick.
In conclusion, Mr Ivings says: “The installation of the 2-OP has significantly improved our productivity and given me ideas as to how I can develop our machining capability. We have very little room to bring in more machining capacity at our current premises, so we might have to consider relocating.
“However, if we focus on work of a certain size, we could develop a multiple 2-OP working environment to grow the business.”