Purchasing a new CNC lathe helped a subcontractor overcome the dramatic downturn affecting others in the electronics and telecommunication sectors over the last 18 months or so.
Many OEMs and subcontractors have been badly affected by the dramatic downturn in the electronics and telecommunication sectors over the last 18 months or so. One Scottish subcontractor which had to find new markets was GSW Precision Engineering in Fife. And with the aid of a Samsung CNC lathe, supplied by Yamazen (UK), the Kirkcaldy-based company has been able to secure an increasing amount of work from the oil industry, notably for large down-hol e components.

Up until a couple of years ago, GSW's main subcontracting activities were focused on the telecommunications and electronics sectors.

Telecommunications represented almost 70% of the business and this industry had been the driving force behind the company's rapid growth since it was founded in 1993.

However, with a world slump in telecoms and over capacity in this area, GSW was forced to explore new markets and further develop existing ones.

The oil and gas industry was targeted as a prime area for the company's precision machining expertise.

However, GSW needed to increase the size of work it could turn if it was to succeed in winning more oil-related business.

Once again, the subcontractor turned to Yamazen (UK), as the Kingston-upon-Thames based company had supplied all 12 of its previous CNC machines over the last nine years (including eight Fadal VMCs).

The slant bed CNC lathe recommended was a Samsung PL35A.

With a 600 mm swing over the bed, an 18.5kW motor, and a maximum machining diameter of 490mm; this model was considered ideal for such work.

Supplied with a 406mm diameter chuck, the lathe was installed in the company's 6000 ft2 factory last year.

GSW has been really pleased with the performance of the machine and it has opened up new markets in the oil and gas sector (so much so that oil-related work now accounts for 60% of the company's business).

However, as director Ian Walsh explained, there were some initial teething troubles.

'We had a problem with the lathe's chuck early on but this was tracked down by Yamazen engineers to a faulty drawbar mechanism.

Since then, the Samsung has run like a dream and we are currently working it hard for some 70 hours each week.' While the capacity of the new lathe allows GSW to handle larger turning work, it has also proved much faster on smaller parts, too.

As Mr Walsh added.

'Compared with our other CNC lathes, the Samsung has cut cycle times by some 30 to 40% due to its speed and power.

This performance has helped us to stay competitive on a number of existing contracts as well as enabling us to secure new work machining much larger components for the oil industry.' Ease of set-up and programming are other benefits of the PL35A lathe and with batch sizes ranging from just 1 to 10 off, speed of job changeover is a key factor in the production equation.