Davturn cuts time and costs with MSC Edge cutting tools

Matt Birley, director at Davturn Precision Turned Parts Ltd

When you are manufacturing over 100,000 components a week, speed and efficiency are paramount. At Davturn Precision Turned Parts Ltd, based in Bromsgrove, the team is working flat out to meet demand. Matt Birley, director at Davturn, said: “We are running pretty much flat out, including nights and weekends. We have got seven ‘state of the art’ machines, including sliding head CNC machines and fixed head lathes, all with bar feeders, going round the clock.”

Founded 25 years ago by Matt’s father, Mark Birley, Davturn began life producing automotive parts and fasteners. Matt explained: “My Dad started by making automotive parts and fasteners. He had to beg, steal and borrow machines and tooling to build the company; however, we are still here more than two decades later and are busier than ever.”

While Mark continues to lead the business, his sons Matt and Ryan are now deeply involved in its day-to-day operations. Matt joined the company in 2007 and quickly set about modernising the machine shop. “When I started, we were using a lot of CAM auto and single-spindle machines. This required multiple setups and operations on different machines to get jobs done. We knew we needed to improve our processes if we wanted to stay competitive and grow.”

Pictured right: components manufactured by Davturn using MSC Edge

Ryan, meanwhile, oversees production and operations on the shopfloor. Matt said: “Ryan’s come up through the machine shop and knows the machines and our processes inside out. It is a real team effort between us, and having that trust and understanding is a huge advantage in a fast-paced environment like ours.”

Davturn purchased its first CNC machine in 2009 — a STAR sliding head—and now operates seven automated machines capable of producing components ranging in diameter from 2 to 51mm in a variety of ferrous and non-ferrous metals. While the company retains strong ties to the automotive sector, it also supplies components to aerospace, HVAC, and general sub-contract markets.

Absolute faith in your machines
With limited space to expand its machine footprint, Davturn has turned its attention to maximising productivity and reducing costs within its existing setup. Matt remarked: “Given the volumes we are working at, we do not like to experiment with tooling too much — we tend to stick to what we know. After all, when you have got 100,000 parts to make in a week, you need to have absolute faith in your machines and your tooling, as any downtime can have a massive effect on fulfilling orders.”

Recognising the need to evolve, Matt began exploring new tooling options and was intrigued by the launch of MSC Edge — a range of multipurpose solid carbide holemaking and milling tools from MSC Industrial Supply Co UK.

He said: “We have been using MSC since day one for industrial consumables, but not really for tooling. However, when I heard about MSC Edge, I was very keen to give it a go. Due to the high-volume nature of our work, we have high tooling costs, so I was looking for something that could match our current output but help bring our tooling costs down.”

Matt trialled the MSC Edge 7.5mm carbide drills and was impressed by the results. “We put MSC Edge cutting tools onto a long-term job, where we were typically getting about 15,000 parts per tool. Without really pushing it, we were able to get 13,000 parts from the MSC Edge drill. However, it was half the price of what we were previously using. So, given the number of tools we get through, this adds up to a massive cost saving for us. While it is still early days, we know that we can push the MSC Edge drill further and reach 15,000 parts per tool.”

In addition to cost savings, Davturn also saw a reduction in cycle time. “On one job, the cycle time has come down from 23sec to 20. Three seconds might not sound a lot, but when you are working with very high batch sizes, that saving quickly adds up.”

Looking ahead, Matt is keen to expand the use of MSC Edge tooling across more jobs. He concluded: “We are hoping to trial a lot more MSC Edge tooling going forward. We use a lot of DCMT inserts, so we are excited to try the MSC Edge range of indexable tools when it comes to market. Ultimately, we want to work with suppliers that can help us hit our production targets as efficiently as possible. We do that and we keep our customers happy. That is why we choose MSC.”