The recent ‘freak’ weather in the Mediterranean has seen unprecedented cold temperatures and levels of snow across Southern Europe, bringing a huge crop shortage of everyday fruit and vegetables to the UK. Whilst a rare occurrence, it makes one ponder as to why more crops aren’t grown in the UK. This would benefit farmers, rural economies and also manufacturers like Bayliss Precision Components.
Founded by Albert Bayliss in 1930, Bayliss Precision Components has been designing and manufacturing its own range of automatic window opening mechanisms that are primarily for green houses and external buildings since 1964. To reduce costs, improve productivity and precision, the Ashbourne Company has just invested in its first sliding head turning centre, a Tornos CT 20.
The family owned Derbyshire business is a subcontract specialist with over 10 CNC turning and machining centres from Biglia, Mori Seiki and Kia machines that supply precision components to the motorsport, hydraulic, home fitness and general engineering sectors. However, over 50% of the business at 20 employee Bayliss is focused on its own ‘Autovent’ brand of window opening devices. It is here that the Tornos CT 20 is slashing production times.
Commenting upon why the company opted for a sliding head machine and also the choice of brand, Mr James Bayliss, the current Managing Director and grandson of company founder Albert, says: “We realised that we needed to invest in new technology and sliding head lathes had been on our radar for a long time. We met the leading suppliers at MACH 2016 and quickly realised that the flexibility and fast set-up times of sliding heads was a mile apart from the myth of long set-up times and limited flexibility. We needed a machine to produce a family of up to 10 different parts and it was Tornos that had by far the best package for our needs.”
“We needed a flexible and productive machine at a reasonable cost and the machines from the other vendors were over specified and over priced for our needs. Whilst Tornos also supplies very high-end machines, we only wanted something with a set number of tool positions and axes and Tornos was the only supplier flexible enough to have a machine that fitted our requirements.”
Bayliss Precision opted for the 20mm bar capacity Tornos CT 20. With 5 linear axes, two C-axes, two independent tool systems and 26 tool positions that are configured on modular tooling platens, the twin-spindle Tornos with a FANUC CNC control fitted the bill and the budget for Bayliss.
With 25 core Autovent product ranges being produced to an annual quantity beyond 80,000 units, Tornos was initially invited to run trial parts prior to machine purchase. As Mr Bayliss continues: “We gave Tornos eight trial parts and they slashed the cycle times by almost 50% on all eight parts. We made our decision and the CT 20 was installed in November. The benefits of installing the Tornos machine have already been huge in a short period of time”
Tornos Cuts Costs For Bayliss
Family owned Bayliss Precision wanted a new machine for a number of reasons and the Tornos has more than fulfilled the company’s ambitions. Firstly, the company was subcontracting out up to £40,000 of turned parts each year. The Tornos CT 20 has immediately given the company the capacity to bring this work back in-house, making a huge financial saving whilst giving the company greater control over its inventory. In the process, the Tornos has replaced two aging machines and freed-up extremely valuable floor space.
“We are using the Tornos CT 20 to manufacture 5-6 different types of brass gland for our Autovent system. Each of these different parts are produced in batches from 500 to 10,000 with an overall quantity of beyond 70,000 a year per part type. The design of the Tornos means the cutting tools are close to the workpiece, the traverse times are faster to reduce non-cutting times and with an extremely rigid design, we can push the machine very hard. The result is that machining times for parts has been cut from 3 minutes to 1 minute for complex parts whilst more simplistic components are turned out in 30 seconds instead of 1.5 minutes. Throughout the factory there are regular jobs that used to have an output of 200 to 300 parts a day; the Tornos has doubled this productivity.”
From a productivity perspective, the cycle times are only one element of how the Tornos benefits Bayliss. With a 3m barfeed and high-pressure coolant integrated into the machine, tool life and swarf evacuation is significantly improved and these elements permit lights-out machining. As Mr Bayliss says: “We set the Tornos in the evening and it will run lights-out until the morning. On more than one occasion, we have set the CT 20 and let it run non-stop for over 24 hours. For a subcontract manufacturer this is priceless, as it improves productivity, profitability and capacity. In fact, the Tornos has freed capacity from some of our other fixed head turning centres, giving us more capacity across the shop-floor.”
Fast Set-up Times
With a variation of parts running through the Tornos CT 20, the set-up times have astounded the subcontract manufacturer. As Mr Bayliss continues: “Our fixed head CNC turning centres will take 1-2 hours to set up for each job and despite the common misconception surrounding set-up times on sliding head machines, the Tornos matches the set-up times of our fixed head machines. In many instances the Tornos is faster to set-up as it has tool platens that are configured for almost all our parts. We also specified the CT 20 with a FANUC CNC control as all our machines run FANUC, so the operators were instantly familiar with setting. Furthermore, the work area is very easy for the operator to access and this further enhances machine setting times.”
Concluding on the Tornos acquisition, Mr Bayliss says: “We are delighted with the Tornos CT 20 and also the service and support from Tornos. The flexibility and setting times have been an eye-opener for us; as has the productivity rates. It has improved our surface finishes, quality and consistency significantly. The benefits of the Tornos are huge and we’re still in the process of getting used to what the machine can do.”
Web : www.tornos.com
