Chippenham-based specialist sub-contract fabricator De Marchi Engineering (DME) has invested in an additional thread-rolling machine to keep up with the demand from a long-term customer.

Its decision to purchase the Europa Mega TR-18T from RK International (www.rk-int.com) has allowed work to be brought back to the UK, with its customers seeing the benefit via improved quality and lead times.

DME makes fabrications weighing up to two tonnes for high-profile construction projects, including the new Wembley Stadium.

It also specialises in light fabrications (mainly of stainless steel) and uses technology such as five-axis water-jet cutting and HD plasma cutting.

Many of these light fabrications also require bracketry and fixings — for example U-bolts, L-bolts and threaded bars and studs, which used to be produced on a 12-year-old thread-rolling machine.

However, the limited capacity of this old machine meant that DME was missing out on some high-volume work, which was being produced overseas.

Mark Collins, co-director of DME, said: “Our original machine was limited in the tonnage that it had available, which in turn limited the thread-rolling work that we could take on. By increasing the capacity, we now have greater control over the quality being produced and the production scheduling of parts.”

The Europa Mega TR-18T hydraulic heavy-duty thread-rolling machine can thread bar between 6 and 60mm in diameter, and can produce threads up to 150mm long using the in-feed system. When the through-feed system is used, thread length is virtually unlimited.

Thread-rolling is a good way to produce high volumes of screw threads quickly and accurately, while at the same time improving the tensile strength, shear strength and wear-resistance of the item being threaded.

Mr Collins added: “These threaded bars and U-bolts are relatively straightforward components, but to ensure that the work stays with us in the UK, we have to produce components to a higher standard and deliver when the customer needs them. The Europa Mega TR-18T allows us to do both of these things.”