Full steam ahead with just one brand

Founded in 1947, Howells Railway Products Ltd remains an independent, family-run firm that offers a wide range of fully approved, own-designed and manufactured products for the railway infrastructure in both the UK and overseas. All engineering and assembly work is carried out under one roof at the company’s facility in Wythenshawe, Manchester; this incorporates a 40,000ft² purpose-built machine shop that is filled exclusively with Haas CNC technology — 28 machines in total — from Norwich-based Haas Automation Ltd.

David Howells, Howells Railway’s managing director, said: “When setting up our CNC machine shop, we thoroughly examined the machine tool market and concluded that Haas machines offered us the best combination of accuracy, dependability, and value for money.”

He continued: “The first batch of machines was installed in late 2013, and we have continually expanded our capabilities by investing in more Haas equipment, with every machine carefully selected to address our growing requirements; and with the help of the Haas applications team, we have tweaked our processes to be as efficient as possible.

“Indeed, by changing the order of operations and adjusting certain cycle times we have increased machine runtime to its optimum level. One operator can comfortably run three machines; and because of the shared Haas control our operators are equally at home on both the mills and lathes.”

Howells Railway’s more recent investments have been on a large scale, with an ST-45L long bed turning centre, a VF-11 50-taper large-frame vertical machining centre, and a UMC-1000 five-axis universal machining centre being added since 2020.

Mr Howells added: “Our earlier VF-9 gave us 2,134mm of X-axis travel, but the VF-11 has taken our capabilities to another level. With its 3,048mm X axis, 50-taper tooling, high power, and a high level of machine stability, we have been able to completely change our processes, halve cycle times, and free up three VF-4 machines.

Turning capacity
Justin Johnson, Howells Railway’s machine shop manager, said: “It is the same with the ST-45L lathe, which has a maximum capacity of 648mm and a maximum turning length of 2,032mm. What was a two-stage process for us is now completed in a single cycle, halving production time. With this machine’s greater capacity compared with our earlier one, we can maintain a more accurate concentricity and consistency within the different diameters along the profile — and we have freed up an operator as the process can be run by one person.”

He continued: “Moreover, the newer machines include as standard, extra features that help in their day-to-day running. For example, increased memory enables us to run more complex programs and edit a program while the machine is running, while the touchscreen hand pendant makes manual jogging simpler. The spindle body has been improved for better clearance and the automatic doors relieves strain for the operator. Everything is designed for ease of use.”

Mr Howells explained: “Most of our VF-4SS verticals are equipped with Haas rotaries and are used to cut component parts for our ‘motion units’; and because these need to line up when assembled, precision is crucial. We have found the rotaries to be extremely accurate — within 0.25deg over the dozen or so turns in the final operation.

“Apart from forgings, which we source from a UK company, everything is manufactured in-house, allowing us to keep a close eye on quality at every stage. All parts go through numerous safety sign offs and assembly checks; and as with aerospace, there is a double documentation trail to ensure traceability and compliance.

“The two UMC-750s we installed were not part of our original plan for the machine shop re-fit, but the value and capability offered were simply too good to ignore and we decided to future-proof ourselves and are glad that we did. We have worked with a combination of three- and four-axis setups on the existing VMCs, including multiple four-axis drives on the same machine, but the UMCs gave us fully synchronous five-axis capability that provides a rapid turnround when machining the fixtures used on our robotic fibre laser welder. They also simplify some of the longer multiple-operation machining on our traditional product lines to single operations.

“The UMC-1000 has enabled us to take on an even larger part. This has a series of bored holes, slots and profiles on each face that have critical dimensions; all of these can be achieved on the UMC-1000 in one operation. As an aside, when we recently checked the accuracy and spindle wear on our oldest and most heavily used machines, all were within original tolerances of a new machine.”

In conclusion, Mr Howells said: “We have changed more in the last few years than in the previous sixty; and while the rail sector remains our major client, we are now looking to move into other sectors and have formed a division within our company — Howells CNC — to cater for non-rail customers. As our range of products has become more technologically advanced, so has our approach to their production. Thanks to the Haas machines and the changes we have made as a company, we are doing things quicker, better and more efficiently — and improving quality.”