Major new aerospace contract and capacity requirement initiates 3 machine Unicut order at NC Engineering open house.

Having just won a massive export aerospace contract from America and facing the running out of 20 mm turn/mill capacity at the Welwyn Garden precision machine shop, led Unicut Precision's directors and key employees to the NC Open House at Watford where a GBP250,000 order was placed for three citizen cnc sliding head autos. Says Jason Nicholson, Unicut's joint managing director: 'We had already checked the market for comparable machines but the capability of the Citizen for our type of work still cannot be matched'. 'This is proving a big advantage for us when quoting for new business and a major factor in winning this export contract that will involve three machines running around the clock'.

The sliding head machine order placed by Unicut was for two Citizen K16 VIIs and a L20 VIII.

Unicut Precision already has three of the latest generation Citizen L20-III machines, one installed in February 2006 and two in June 2005.

The company also has two of the previous generation L20 machines that are now four years old but gave a direct comparison on cycle time when using the same program to machine parts.

Joint managing director Charles Kenny points out that the new control and operational software immediately returned up to 30 per cent reduction in cycle times on some parts.

'The roll-on effect has been to improve our productivity and especially our competitiveness that has enabled us to secure new business - hence the need for another L20 machine,' he said.

The Citizen L20-III with main and subspindle can carry up to 21 tools of which nine can be driven.

The machine can cut with two tools simultaneously which, with the new software and control system is able to reduce idle time by some 40 per cent.

Meanwhile, the latest servo control technology, giving a torque improvement of almost a third, enables cutting times to be significantly reduced.

The two K16 machines with 19 tools and eight driven tools are able to produce parts, like the L20 with two tools simultaneously.

This was an important contributor to Unicut winning the US contract for machining the components made from special steel.

Over the last five years Unicut Precision has installed 21 new machines of which 16 have been Citizen.

The company policy is to maintain a plant list of equipment that is under five years to continuously improve competitiveness, maximise return on the investment and maintain high spindle utilisation while running around the clock.

The company now has its biggest ever order book, up by more than 25 per cent over last year's record trading and is currently recruiting two additional machine setters to fulfil the contract requirements.