The purchase of a Miyano 42mm capacity two spindle, two turret compact turning centre will assist a UK subcontractor in its quest to improve value added content per employee.
At MACH 2006 HS Rowe and Partners of Kingswinford, UK, purchased yet another Miyano machine from Macro CNC. The introduction of the Miyano BNJ-42SY 42mm capacity two spindle, two turret compact turning centre will serve to assist HS Rowe in its quest to improve value added content per employee. The HS Rowe group was initially introduced to Miyano when it acquired Buxton Hays UK, a company that owned five Miyano turning centres.
From this point the relationship extended to the HS Rowe group as it became familiar with the technology and capabilities of the products.
The automotive precision turned parts manufacturer now has seven Miyano turning centres.
Following the purchase of a Miyano BNJ-42S in 2005, the new Miyano BNJ-42SY machine with Y-axis will compliment HS Rowe's current range of fixed head turning centres.
Steven Tyler, director of HS Rowe, commented: 'The BNJ-42S has been a tremendous machine and as part of our philosophy of 'value adding contributions per employee head', the introduction of Miyano machine tools to increase productivity has been instrumental.' Tyler added: 'The new Miyano BNJ-42SY will give us further flexibility and capability as we need to be providing additional capacity in the marketplace.
The Miyano BNJ-42SJ will play a significant part in this.
It will enable us to improve our service to customers, reduce our costs and possibly surpass the excellent product quality we already deliver.' Looking to the future - iIt was in 2004 that Tyler went to Japan with Miyano to start investigating the extensive prototyping and automation technology as adopted in other countries.
Tyler said: 'We looked at the robot loading and gantry systems for complete automation, this technology has not been adopted in the UK as yet and we aim to be at the forefront of technology by introducing these philosophies.' He explained: 'Some of the prototyping machines that Miyano have, particularly in the line of alternatives to sliding head machines are very impressive.
The BNJ range has been excellent, but now they have the multi turret ABX machines to compliment this.
It fills a gap where the Nakamura machines were very large; now the Miyano machines operate at very high speed and produce complex components that fit in well with the direction that HS Rowe is going in.' Tyler said: 'My purpose of visiting the MACH exhibition is to talk about what is going on in Germany, as German manufacturers have been working with automation a lot longer than their UK counterparts.
We will be looking at videos of automated Miyano machines from Germany and hoping to discuss how to implement the technologies in the UK as we are seriously looking to bring in some machines that will further enhance our value added contribution per employee.' He continued: 'We want loading and unloading machines that can run themselves and we want to tap into what is being done in Germany and take this forward.
As a subcontractor it is difficult to make long term commitments but we have to be positive and look at the complex work available and how to implement the technology to guarantee our future with this work - working with Miyano will help us with that.' Following two years of research and market investigation into the available technology, it now appears that HS Rowe is set to commit to automated production as Tyler concluded: 'I feel comfortable working with Macro CNC; this comes from the level of support we receive from the company.
This level of support gives us the confidence to move to the next level and we will undoubtedly have a very successful future working with Macro CNC.'