CNC sliding head turning centres can accommodate parts above the traditional 32mm diameter - up to 64mm providing considerably attractive enhanced capability and capacity.

The continued success of Macro CNC, the UK and Ireland subsidiary of Miyano machine tools has seen the company appoint Bewley and Co of Warrington as its new distributor for the North of England and Scotland. This appointment serves to strengthen the sales and service operations for the increasingly popular range of Miyano turning centres. Established in 1996, Bewley and Co has quickly become one of the UK's top suppliers of used sliding head automatic lathes.

However as Peter Bewley of Bewley and Co commented: 'Ten years on and our customers find that global competition now makes it necessary for them to produce larger, more complex parts from tougher and more exotic materials'.

'Customers are now producing components too large or too complex to be produced on traditional 'Swiss Type' automatic lathes.' To meet those needs Bewley and Co can now offer the latest range of Miyano CNC turning centres with capacities up to 64mm diameter.

'The Miyano turning centres can accommodate parts above the traditional 32mm diameter of sliding head machines.

This provides the customers with considerably enhanced capability and capacity and it proves an attractive proposition,' continued Bewley.

Since becoming the new agent for Macro CNC, success has been immediate with a Miyano BNJ-42SY 7axis fixed head turning centre recently being sold to BTMA member Swissmatic of Wishaw, Scotland.

As Swissmatic managing director Jim Corbally commented: 'The oldest machine we have is a Miyano BNC-12S.

The 12mm turning centre was bought in 1987 and has been running 24 hours a day, seven days a week for almost 20 years.

With that build quality and reliability as an endorsement, we immediately opted for a Miyano when we needed a new fixed head lathe.' Swissmatic manufactures high precision components for the electronics, telecommunications, computer, defence and aerospace industries, with the company currently witnessing an annual growth rate of 15%.

Operating on a 24/7 basis with a considerable growth rate, this demonstrates the company's need for additional capacity.

A capacity that will be further extended when Swissmatic order a second Miyano BNJ-42SY this autumn.

The company employs 16 people that operate 45 machines, 20 CNC machines with another 25 CAM operated machines.

These figures highlight the height of technology employed at Swissmatic.

Employing the latest CNC technology with magazine loading and conveyor off-loading, the company can cost effectively manufacture both small and large batches; batches that currently range from 30 to 3 million parts.

Swissmatic is dedicated to the principle of 'lights out' operations, and it is this principle combined with meeting the customers exacting demands that see the continued success at Swissmatic.

Corbally said: 'More customers continually require a wider variety of components.

To meet these needs we needed to extend our machining capability to cater for parts beyond the size capacity of our sliding head turning centres.

With a 42mm capacity, the Miyano was a natural choice.' The 7-axis Miyano BNJ-42SY will be used to manufacture a wide range of parts including complex connectors and connector housings from stainless steel, copper, brass, aluminium and numerous other materials.

Corbally continued: 'From feasibility studies, the Miyano BNJ-42SY is estimated to give us productivity improvements of up to 25%.

However, these are conservative estimates and I believe the Miyano will deliver improvements of anything up to 35-40%.' He added: 'The rotating guide bush in sliding head machines has difficulty supporting bar above 20mm diameter at high spindle speeds.

This is no problem with the Miyano fixed head machine and its exceptional rigidity for larger cuts provides productivity and surface finish improvements.

This is supported by an excellent swarf removal system with an integral swarf conveyor.' Corbally said: 'The potential to operate at higher speeds combined with the overlapping feature of the BNJ-42SY that allows simultaneous back and front end machining will enable us to manufacture the added value complex parts our customers require at remarkable speed.' The significantly improved processing speeds and capabilities provided to Swissmatic by the Miyano BNJ-42SY will be matched by the excellent service support from Macro CNC and Bewley and Co 'If we ever have any problems or queries with the Miyano machines, we will have an engineer on site to resolve our issues within hours.