R&M Assembly (a division of the R&M Electrical Group) has over 20 years’ experience in the assembly and modification of specialist power distribution and control systems for use in hazardous (explosive) environments.

The company supplies customers in a variety of industry sectors, including oil and gas, nuclear, rail and marine.

A major benefit that Southampton-based R&M Assembly offers its customers is the ability to provide bespoke systems in the shortest-possible lead times.

However, achieving this means that the company must overcome production bottlenecks caused by some of its manufacturing processes — hence the investment in new machining capacity, which has enabled it to generate additional business from existing and new customers.

R&M Assembly division manager Martin Goodall said: “Our business model is a reactive one, in which we have to respond quickly to demand from our suppliers and customers, so one of our main tasks is to iron out peaks and troughs in production to deliver a managed service and — where possible — avoid any unexpected issues.

“The amount of machining that we do is limited, but we may have over 2,000 holes to drill and tap on a major project, and we can only do that at a certain speed with our existing equipment.

“The option to out-source this work was considered, but the loss of control over deliveries and quality saw us look to expand our in-house capability.”

In order to justify the investment in new machining capacity, Mr Goodall needed to identify efficiencies through in-depth time and motion studies; with limited machining experience, he called on Burlescombe-based XYZ Machine Tools (www.xyzmachinetools.com) for assistance.

Mr Goodall had initially thought of doubling up on an existing XYZ SMX 2500 bed mill, as the control was familiar and easy to use.

Taking a step up

However, talking through the needs of R&M Assembly with XYZ’s area sales manager Keith Ellis, it became clear that a machine with a tool changer and fourth-axis unit would bring greater benefits.

Mr Goodall said: “If we had gone with another SMX, we wouldn’t have required any training, which would have made our life easier initially.

“However, following discussions with Mr Ellis, it became obvious that a step up was required, and that the new XYZ 500 LR vertical machining centre would have a significant impact on how we do business.”

R&M Assembly’s projections, based on a major customer project valued at £1 million, suggested that the addition of the XYZ 500 LR would generate savings of up to six weeks in labour.

“On this basis, the machine would have a payback period of just 16 weeks.

“Our projections also indicated that the addition of the tool changer would allow much greater unmanned machining, freeing up as much as 6.5hr of operators’ time every day, during which they could be doing other tasks.”

These projected savings were enough to justify the investment in the XYZ 500 LR, which has a 13kW 8,000rev/min spindle, a 12-position tool carousel and a 510 x 400 x 450mm work envelope.

This specification, combined with the ‘agility’ of the linear-rail technology on all axes, meant that R&M Assembly saw an immediate positive impact on efficiency.

Typically, a batch of 200 electrical junction boxes would have taken two to three weeks to produce, with drilling and tapping multiple holes being the bottleneck. With the XYZ 500 LR, machining is completed in two days, and the batch is fully processed within a week.

Machining efficiency has seen an eight- to 10-fold gain.

A sales tool

The benefits of investing in new machining capacity go beyond simple cycle-time savings and efficiencies, because the machine is being used as a sales tool to drive new business for the R&M Electrical Group.

Typical of this is a partnership with Hawke International, a major manufacturer of cable glands and electrical enclosures.

Mr Goodall said: “With the investment in the XYZ machine, Hawke has recognised our commitment and is supporting us as an extension to their manufacturing capability.

“This allowed us to gain EAC certification, which will differentiate us from our competitors — all by buying an XYZ machine tool.

“The investment in the machine, along with our relocation to new premises, has also allowed us to review many processes and techniques.

“These developments are also being seen as a sign of the confidence we have in our business — especially by customers serving the oil and gas sector, which is coming out of a downturn.”

The XYZ 500 LR is part of the recently introduced range of linear-rail machining centres from XYZ Machine Tools.

The company says that these machines make use of the latest developments in linear-rail technology, which blend machine agility with machining capability, while providing “a cost-effective entry into the world of vertical machining centres.

These machines provide a natural progression or complementary solution for customers moving from manual or XYZ ProtoTrak-controlled machines”.

The LR range is in addition to (and complementary to) XYZ’s newly extended HD (heavy-duty) range of vertical machining centres.

These are designed to allow maximum metal removal rates to be achieved, thanks to their substantial Meehanite cast beds and columns, along with induction-hardened, ground and Turcite-coated box slideways. X-axis travels range from 660mm through to 3,000mm.