Sheffield Forgemasters International Ltd (SFIL) has installed the UK’s largest five-axis vertical turning lathe (VTL), as part of a £6 million upgrade of its machining facilities designed to substantially improve its capacity and throughput for complex machining.
The commissioning of the VTL — manufactured by Spanish company, BOST and supplied by McDowell Machine Tools Ltd — was attended by SFIL supply-chain partners and delegates from Sheffield City Region Local Enterprise Partnership, which helped to fund the installation.
SFIL CEO David Bond said: “We were delighted to commission this new facility, which marks a step change in our capacity to deliver advanced manufacturing techniques.
"The improvement of our machining facilities is of particular interest to customers such as those in the defence industry, as it has superior accuracy and will significantly reduce lead times on delivery for crucial components for both the UK and US submarine programmes.
"Our new VTL will also have significant implications for the machining of domed or cylindrical components, such as those required in the civil nuclear-power and pressure-vessel markets.”
Weighing almost 250 tonnes, the BOST machine is said to be the largest and most capable five-axis VTL in the UK.
It has a maximum machining height of 4m, a maximum swing diameter of 8.5m, and a table capacity of 100 tonnes.
It also embraces Industry 4.0 techniques of process control, adaptive control, and real-time interactive maintenance protocols.
Stuart McDowell, managing director of McDowell Machine Tools (
www.mcdowellmt.com), said: “BOST hydrosphere machines offer the key benefits of being extremely heavy, rigid and powerful, yet they are still capable of the highest levels of accuracy.
“This technology gives Forgemasters a capability unrivalled in the UK — and matched by only a handful of companies throughout the world.”