One of the world's most respected names in the design and manufacture of competition motorcycle equipment has opted for machine tools supplied by Mazak.

One of the world's most respected names in the design and manufacture of competition motorcycle equipment has opted for machine tools supplied by Mazak to operate at the core of its manufacturing operations. Bredbury, Stockport based Renthal Limited has an extensive product range embracing handlebars, front and rear chainwheels, chainwheel assemblies, chains, grips and a range of handle bar fittings designed for a cross section of high performance motor cycles. The company undertakes all design and manufacturing in-house and has recently purchased two Mazak Quickturn 10, 2 axis lathes with 6in diameter chucks, a Super Quickturn 200M turning centre with driven tooling and its most recent addition, an FJV 250 vertical machining centre with two pallet changer and large 1.2m x 0.5m table.

This re-equipping was necessary after a devastating fire in the Autumn of 2000 which destroyed Renthal's factory and over 100 older machine tools.

'The fact that we have re-equipped with Mazak machine tools for our manufacturing operations is testimony to the quality and capability of Mazak equipment,' explains co-founder and joint managing director Andrew Renshaw.

Renthal has over 100 World and 60 USA titles to its credit in categories ranging from Supercross, Enduro, Trials, Superbikes and Motocross and is a significant exporter with 88% of the output destined for 32 overseas markets.

As well as supplying the enthusiast and replacement market, Renthal is also an O/E supplier of key components - chainwheels, handle bars and fittings - to various Honda works teams.

The company specialises in manufacturing replacement components that offer higher performance characteristics coupled with the lighter weights and durability necessary for competition racing.

One of its innovation's is a replacement one-piece chainwheel carrier specifically designed for Ducati 916 and 748 bikes.

In competition environments where it may be necessary to change gearing at the last minute before a race, the carrier eliminates the need for time consuming rear wheel removal when changing the chainwheel - a process not possible with the original Ducati chainwheel design.

'We have a reputation for innovation and the very highest standards of component manufacture and that is reflected in our choice of machine tools,' continues Andrew Renshaw.

'We purchased out first Mazak turning centre in 1989 at an auction and it proved a real workhorse as our business grew.

More recently we had added a number of machining centres and it was not only the quality of manufacture that impressed but also the ease of programming via the Mazatrol Fusion controllers.

'After the fire, the Fusion controller's came into their own because, being in a Windows environment, the ease of translating and downloading the thousands of machining programmes was so straight-forward, much easier than other systems supplied with competitor's machine tools.

Because we have some 10,000 separate products that require turning, milling or drilling, what would appear a daunting task in programming the machines was actually more a case of plug-in and go,' he explains.

The Mazak FJV 250 vertical machining centre was commissioned early in October and will be dedicated to the drilling and milling of front and rear chain wheels.

The Quickturn machines are primarily involved in turning high precision gearbox sprockets - usually in EN36 - but there is also some turning necessary on the handlebar sets.

Batch quantities can vary from 50 to 5,000 and it is because of this batch variance that Andrew Renshaw is so enthusiastic about the Fusion controller.

'We get called upon to manufacture small quantities or short runs of components which often necessitate a modification to the design.