The Nuclear AMRC — based at the Advanced Manufacturing Park near Sheffield — is a collaboration of academic and industrial partners from across the civil nuclear-manufacturing supply chain; its mission is to help UK manufacturers win work at home and world-wide.

All its requirements for sawing were originally undertaken by sub-contractors, but that was eventually judged to be too time-consuming and too costly, so the decision was taken to set up an in-house sawing facility.

Although this would focus almost exclusively on producing small items — and often in small batches — for research, testing or maintenance purposes, it would also need to be capable of processing ‘exotic’ materials with a high degree of accuracy.

After various systems from five independent suppliers were assessed, Prosaw Ltd (www.prosaw.co.uk) was identified as the company most capable of delivering a cost-effective system that would be suitable for all possible applications. A WH-6056HA twin-column bandsaw was selected, and it was duly installed by Prosaw engineers.

Maintenance manager Craig Hamp says: “The usage of the saw is intermittent, as it is normally used for cutting either small batches or one-offs, so whereas volumetric throughput is not normally a prerequisite, accuracy undoubtedly is — and this machine certainly fulfils that requirement.”