St Neots-based Tycam Engineering (formerly Astral Engineering) has built a solid business supplying machined parts for aerospace and military power supply units. In its early days, it was a two-man business that used manual machines; some 25 years later, it remains a two-man business, but its production methods have changed significantly.
Andy Tyler, the current owner of Tycam, bought the business from his former employer in early 2000; he has transformed it by buying four XYZ ProtoTrak LPM machining systems and an XYZ 2-OP portable vertical machining centre — all supplied by Burlescombe-based XYZ Machine Tools (
www.xyzmachinetools.com).
Mr Tyler says: “Back in the early days, a lot of the components we worked on comprised fabrications, so manual machining was probably the way to go. However, as our key customer Ipeco Electronics developed its products we
had to review how we machined them. This meant looking at CNC, which my boss at the time had little interest in. However, after a demonstration of the XYZ ProtoTrak system, I managed to convince him to have one retrofitted to an old turret mill we had.”
This early experience of ProtoTrak helped to change the direction of the business, and other CNC machines were added over the years; these included an XYZ MiniMill 560 and a couple of XYZ bed mills. The MiniMill 560 was bought for a specific job that ran for four years. When that job finished, Tycam decided to look at larger machine capacity and purchased an XYZ ProtoTrak bed mill, as its remaining work still tended to be low-volume, albeit of the type that required a CNC capability.
Tool changing
Mr Tyler says: “We were very happy with the ProtoTrak bed mill, but when one complex job turned into a production part, we knew we needed to upgrade to a machine with tool-changing capabilities. However, I didn’t want the trouble of learning G-code and a new control system — hence our purchase of an XYZ LPM — Lean Production Machine.”
The LPM is a three-axis vertical machining centre that uses the ProtoTrak control and has the benefit of a 16-position tool magazine. It is both quick and easy to set up, thanks to the use of the ProtoTrak control, a tool-setting system, and a Jergens ‘ball lock system’ for locating vices and fixtures to the table.
The latter ensures that the control knows the exact co-ordinates of any fixturing information; these co-ordinates are stored in the control for use any time a particular set-up is required. The big advantage for Mr Tyler and Tycam was the ability to simply transfer the program from his bed mill to the LPM, with the only adjustment being to add
in the tool changes.
“That first LPM was a revelation, and I am now hooked on them. Its ease of use and versatility have made a major difference to how we produce parts; and having already had experience of ProtoTrak made the transition straightforward. I have total confidence in the machine’s capability, which makes quoting for new work simple.”
The four LPM machines Tycam now has are operated by just two people — Mr Tyler and his apprentice, Jordan Parish, who joined the company last December. Although he had no programming or production machining experience, Mr Parish quickly got to grips with ProtoTrak, and after a relatively short period of time, he was happy to set and program parts on the LPM machines.
Fixturing variety
The four LPMs are set up slightly differently, with a combination of vices and vacuum plates designed to suit the work being undertaken adding to the LPMs’ versatility. “Bringing Jordan in as an apprentice was a big decision. He spends one day each week at Huntingdon Regional College; the rest of his time, he is learning ‘on the job’. He has taken to the ProtoTrak control like a duck to water and was quickly able to program basic parts at the control and run two machines simultaneously, such is their ease of use. In time, he will move on to programming on the CAD system and transferring the DXF files to ProtoTrak.”
In addition to its tool magazine and table layout, the LPM features a work envelope of 785 x 470 x 530mm, an 11.2kW 8,000rev/min, spindle with rigid tapping capability, 20m/min rapid-traverse rate, and a table capacity of 460 kg. A fourth axis is available as an option.
The four LPM machines at Tycam have been complemented by an XYZ 2-OP portable vertical machining centre. This is designed to be relocated around the factory — where it is needed, when it is needed — to take pre-op or second-operation work off more-costly machines, but Tycam also saw its value as a stand-alone vertical machining centre.
The company was seeing increasing demand for batches of between 50- and 60-off of smaller components, which it did not want to tie up an LPM with. Again, the big advantage with the 2-OP was its use of the ProtoTrak control system, as this allowed programs from the LPMs to be used on it — and vice versa.
“As our workshop is compact, and there are only the two of us, we don’t need to make use of the 2-OP’s portability; we just treat it as a small VMC.”