Coventry-based Hyfore Engineering (
www.engtechgroup.com/hyfore), a member of the Engineering Technology Group (ETG), recently delivered 54 bespoke work-holding fixtures to the Amtek Group’s UK manufacturing sites at Witham in Essex and Coventry.
In Witham, Amtek operates an aluminium die casting foundry, using machines with locking forces up to 2,700 tonnes. It works closely with another group company, Coventry-based King Automotive Systems Ltd.
The two organisations supply a wide range of components such as knuckles, aluminium bed plates, link shafts, con-rods, oil-pans, cam caps, hubs and transmission housings to OEMs and Tier One customers, including Jaguar Land Rover.
The Witham facility produces mostly engine and transmission components, which are delivered in assembly-ready condition.
The fixtures supplied by Hyfore range from cubes and tombstones to multi-part fixtures to suit various single-spindle horizontal machining centres. The company has also supplied fourth-axis ‘bridge plate type’ multi-part fixtures to suit both single- and twin-spindle Chiron vertical machining centres.
Amtek production engineer Jeff Marshall said: “We have worked with Hyfore very successfully for a number of years, and they are our predominant work-holding supplier. We involve them from the very early stages; once we have a casting specification, they design and prove out the prototype before taking the project to a production fixture.
“We are always looking to optimise our machine shops’ capabilities so it is important there is a lot of trust between the two parties.”