TEG, which has been producing parts for the world’s leading aircraft manufacturers since 2001, has in recent years progressed from being a sub-contract machining firm to a multinational provider of engineering services, exporting to 35 countries — including China.
With headquarters in Mullingar, County Westmeath (to the west of Dublin), the company was one of the first manufacturers in Ireland to be certified by the European Aviation Safety Agency to make interior parts for passenger-
carrying aircraft built by Airbus, Boeing and other ‘primes’.
It later gained EASA Part 21(G) approval to manufacture structural parts from metallic and non-metallic materials.
The company — certified to the AS9100C quality standard for the aviation, space and defence industries — is also heavily involved in supplying AOG (aircraft on ground), MRO (maintenance repair overhaul) and ‘legacy’ components.
Aer Lingus, BE Aerospace, Iceland Air, BAE Systems, Bombardier and Lufthansa Technik are regular customers.
Another ‘specialism’ is the building of automated manufacturing lines and tooling for the bio-pharmaceutical and pharmaceutical sectors.
Products include the latest in tablet feeders, blister-pack tooling, tablet and booklet feeding systems, bespoke wash racks for sterile fill parts and format-change parts for solid-dose blister packing; TEG also undertakes the design of pharmaceutical packaging.
Customers are ‘blue chip’ names within the industry, such as GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Eli Lilly and Pfizer.
The company also has ISO 9001:2008 approval and provides tailor-made solutions — plus it produces relatively small quantities of parts and assemblies that require reverse engineering, 3-D printing and non-destructive testing.
Between five- and 30-off is the norm for aircraft-cabin components, for example, and orders are rarely for more than 100-off. AOG, MRO and legacy parts are normally one-offs.
On the pharmaceutical side, machinery parts are required in low numbers, while blister-pack tooling in aluminium or stainless steel and the associated hardened-steel cutting and perforating tools are made in ones and twos.
Ease of programming
Bearing in mind its relatively low production volumes, when the company started investing in CNC machining centres, importance was placed on speed of programming on the shopfloor to minimise set-up times. The proprietary single-screen Max and twin-screen Ultimax (now WinMax) controls fitted to Hurco machines — available in Ireland through Michael Gannon Machine Tools, the local agent for High Wycombe-based Hurco Europe Ltd (www.hurco.co.uk) — were considered ahead of other conversational CNC systems on the market.
TEG founder Tommy Kelly was already familiar with Hurco equipment, having used the company’s machining centres and lathes when he held senior manufacturing positions in previous companies.
John Hunt, TEG joint owner and managing director, said: “Virtually since the start, Hurco machine tools have been the backbone of our company’s growth and success. Our bespoke service, rapid turn-round times and competitive prices can only be fulfilled if the spindles on our shopfloor are running for a high proportion of the time. Most of our components are programmed conversationally in WinMax at the controls on the shopfloor and are into production very quickly.”
In the case of smaller less-complex parts, the machines can be cutting metal in a matter of minutes. For more complex components, entire cutting cycles — or the more difficult elements within them — are prepared off-line using one of TEG’s CAM systems; the program is then downloaded to the control.
Over the years, a number of Hurco three- and four-axis prismatic machining centres have been installed at the Mullingar factory, along with the manufacturer’s CNC turning equipment. TEG has a policy of regularly replacing its shopfloor plant, and early machining centres have already been superseded by three of Hurco’s latest i-series models, which were installed in early 2015.
Another of TEG’s commitments is to training and further education. At any one time, 20 staff are undergoing a four-year apprenticeship under the Irish government’s Solas scheme. In addition, employees are kept up to date with the latest techniques in CAD, CAM, CNC machining, surface treatments and assembly.