Basingstoke-based LG Motion Ltd — a leading designer and manufacturer of electro-mechanical motion control systems — has developed partnerships with customers in many industry sectors, including aerospace, defence, pharmaceutical, energy, packaging and motor-sport.

The company’s in-house machining capability has recently been updated with the arrival of three machines from XYZ Machine Tools (www.xyzmachinetools.com): two SMX 3500 ProtoTrak bed mills (brought in to replace two older machines) and a ProTurn SLX 425 lathe.

Gary Livingstone, LG Motion’s managing director (www.lg-motion.co.uk), said: “The nature of our work is generally small batches and bespoke systems, so quick change-over is very important to us.

“The XYZ machines give us reliable and high-quality performance, while providing maximum flexibility for operators and ever-changing requirements.”

With their increased spindle speed capability and 40 ISO taper spindle connection, the SMX 3500 machines are improving cycle times and the finished quality of the components being machined.

The ProTurn SLX 425 lathe is also delivering productivity improvements.

Rob Kirrage, LG Motion’s manufacturing engineer, said: “Around 90% of what we machine is aluminium, so upgrading to the SMX 3500 bed mills has helped, as we can run the spindle 20% faster than on our previous machines.

"The 40 ISO taper spindle, combined with the robust construction of the machine, means we can use higher feed rates and achieve better surface finish and flatness. Another advantage of the SMX 3500 bed mills is their table capacity.

"As business has developed, some of the projects we get involved with have increased in scale and we were pushing our old machines to the limit.

"We machine a lot of base plates, and flatness is key to these; with the larger table size on the SMX 3500, we can fly-cut bigger plates and achieve flatness of 0.01mm.”