Based in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, Muffett Gears was established in the town over 100 years ago and has grown into what is now a world-class manufacturer of precision gears and related components.

The company occupies a 3,500m² high-tech production facility that is equipped with a range of modern CNC turning, grinding, milling and specialist gear-cutting machine tools; and in addition to regularly updating its manufacturing plant, Muffett Gears also invests in the latest quality-control equipment.

The company’s most recent addition to its quality department is a Crysta-Apex S9106 CNC coordinate measuring machine (CMM) from Andover-based Mitutoyo (UK) Ltd.

Mark Jagelman, a director at Muffet Gears, said: “Our business continues to grow and to develop new markets, and we now supply customers with not only with precision gears and gearboxes but also with a much wider range of engineering services — and electro/mechanical assemblies.

“Indeed, to more accurately reflect our much expanded range of activities, we will be changing our trading name to Muffett Engineering Solutions. The production of precision gears and associated components requires exceptional levels of precision to be applied and the most exacting quality standards to be observed throughout all stages of production and assembly.

“Many of our inspection routines are performed on a CMM, which we recently decided to replace for a number of reasons. For instance, the machine needed an upgrade that would cost about £50,000, and its running costs — including training, services and calibration — were becoming exorbitant.

He added: “After investigating various CMM brands and models, a demonstration of a Crysta-Apex S9106 CNC CMM at Mitutoyo’s showroom convinced us that this machine was ideal for our needs. In addition to providing the levels of precision that we were looking for it also had the speed of operation that could keep-pace with the high volumes of work passing through our busy quality-control department.

“It also helped that this CMM has a measuring volume of 900 x 1,000 x 600mm, which accommodates the larger components and assemblies that we manufacture, as well as multiple smaller components in automated mass-measurement routines.

“Indeed, the ability of our new Mitutoyo CMM to accurately and rapidly inspect a large batch of components has further improved our quality control department’s efficiency levels. Our inspection staff can load the CMMs bed with multiple components, quickly recall the relevant part program and instigate a fully automated inspection procedure. On completion, a detailed inspection report related to each component can then be generated.

“In addition to the Crysta-Apex’s accuracy specification making a significant contribution towards guaranteeing the continued quality of our output, its speed of operation is now ensuring the efficient throughput of work in our quality department.

“The speed of operation of our new CMM will become ever more important, as in the run-up to Brexit we were winning work from companies reshoring their work. Moreover, we expect to soon receive further contracts for work that was previously undertaken overseas.”