Supporting Automotive Reshoring from China
Jaguar Land Rover's drive to reshore tooling and components for its premium automotive products from China to the UK created an immediate need for additional wire EDM capacity at Pontypridd Precision Engineering (PPE). An Excetek V350 CNC wire EDM machine tool from Warwick Machine Tools provided the capacity shortfall solution.
Based in South Wales, PPE was established in 1988 by managing director Mal Price. From its workshop equipped with CNC turning and machining centers, the family-owned business employs 20 experienced staff, including Mike Price. The ISO 9001:2000 accredited company is well aware that quality is expected, so price and capability become the deciding business factors.
With growth coming predominantly from automotive industry suppliers, Mike Price points out that the company had "too many eggs in one basket. A few years ago a lot of automotive industry work went to China. For us the business dried up in a very short period -- just a few months and it was gone."
The company assessed its place in the market, and secured a number of new customers in diverse industry sectors. However, with recent initiatives from manufacturers like Jaguar Land Rover to source tooling and components in the UK, the automotive supply chain is witnessing a revival.
"Our customer Calsonic Kansei gave us the opportunity to quote for the tooling for a JLR project, which we were pleased to win," Mike Price explains.
Tooling Up for the WorkThe tooling required an extensive amount of wire erosion work and, while PPE had a CNC wire erosion machine, it was insufficient for the extra workload. Furthermore, maintenance issues were becoming a problem, and the machine could not be left to run unmanned. During an investigation of new machines available, Warwick Machine Tools (WMT) presented its Excetek V350 CNC wire EDM machine tool to the company.
"Although we had little knowledge of the Excetek brand, the price was extremely competitive and we trusted the support available from WMT," says Price. "We knew a few machines had been successfully installed in the UK and were running without any concerns. We got the new Excetek machine installed and it has been extremely good. Excetek's operating system is very different from our previous EDM machine, but a training package was included with the purchase. WMT's senior engineer, Paul Barry, provided the training which got the staff programming on the first day."
Providing performance levels equivalent to the Swiss and Japanese wire EDM machines currently available, the Excetek V350 offers a cost saving of between £20,000 and £25,000 (about $32,600 to $40,750) against any equivalent size machine tool, and the price from WMT includes training and installation. It can accommodate workpieces up to 700 x 500 x 215 mm,? weighing up to 450 kg. The fully equipped wire machine has U and V axis travels of 80 mm and ±30 deg? taper capability.
New Machine Integrates Easily
While future plans for PPE involve programming most of its CNC machine tools with its OneCNC CAM software, the Excetek is currently programmed at the machine.
"It is very straightforward for our staff to do this at the CNC interface, compared to, say, a lathe or machining center," as Price says.
Materials used include mild steel and hardened D2 tool steel for the running parts of the press tool. For higher volume press tooling PPE has used ASP-2005, powdered high-speed punch steel that costs significantly more but lasts far longer.
Price explains how the different materials are eroded.
"The Excetek machine can be loaded with standard brass wire, which we would use on general tool steel and mild steels," he says. "However, for Inconel or other tougher materials we would use coated wire, which will allow the machine to cut 30 to 50% quicker through this type of material. Also, a good wire machine removes most of the requirement to surface grind because the surface finish achieved is so good. This saves time and cost for the end customer."
Equipped with hydraulic forming presses and kinetic flywheel stamping presses, PPE produces the Initial Sample Inspection Report batch of 200 parts to ensure the tool is to specification; production volumes are completed by the customer.
"We have comprehensive pressing facilities, so we might be tasked with producing a few hundred components so the customer can complete the radiator build. Once the tools are proven they will be sent to the customer for the ramp up in production volumes," Price confirms.
There is usually a period of handholding for the customer where PPE will send staff to the customer's facility to ensure the tools are set correctly in the presses. Any teething anomalies are removed and PPE's experienced staff ensure that the tools bed-in as expected.
As with many automotive projects, the path is never smooth; design changes and hiccups in the planning are all part of what those in the industry supply chain expect, and staff at PPE take all these in their stride. Solid model and 2D design drawings for the finished components are sent to PPE for tool development; the onus is put on the toolmaker to develop a press tool that works.
"We now do more in a day than was ever possible as tooling delivery deadlines have to be achieved," Price points out. "We have never been afraid to invest in the necessary plant or skills required to deliver what the customer requires. If we need to invest in another wire EDM machine the package offered by Excetek would make it very difficult not to purchase another, possibly larger capacity, machine."
