Manufacturing Production Solutions

From One To Ten!

When physics graduate Paul Cobb asked his father Reg in 1997 to help him invest in a subcontract machining business specialising in CNC sliding-head turning, Mr Cobb senior groaned; he knew it would mean a sizeable investment. At the time, both father and son were partners in the family’s subcontracting firm in Stapleford, Hemlock Engineering, which specialised in producing mainly prismatic parts and continues to do so. 

Paul was keen to embark on a project of his own. He chose not to become a computer programmer or geological analyst but instead started HPC Services. A small factory unit was rented in nearby Ilkeston and a Japanese-built Citizen Cincom L25 sliding-head, bar-fed, turn-mill centre was installed. At the time it was the first of a new, updated design to arrive in the UK. 

Cable Tie Success!

A Japanese-built Makino spark erosion machine has been supplied by the manufacturer’s UK agent NCMT to the Manchester facility of cable management products solutions provider Hellermann Tyton for producing high precision plastic injection moulds. 

The company’s toolroom engineer Rob Pickup, who has 20 years’ EDM (electric discharge machining) experience, says that the super-low wear rate of the copper electrodes using the Makino has cut their usage by around two-fifths, lowering production costs and speeding mould manufacture through the need for fewer electrode changes.

Ambitious Growth

Like many businesses 2020 posed challenges for HiCi, a designer and manufacturer of high quality and innovative hand tools for joiners and carpenters under the Trig Jig brand. The past 12 months saw the Newark, Nottinghamshire-based business’s export market contracted due to concerns over Brexit and Covid, in part due to distribution issues. 

However, strong growth in the UK market compensated and turnover remained stable. With those export markets now opening again, 2021 is targeted as another year of growth for the business.

McLaren Racing get set with rapid 5-axis installation

Yamazaki Mazak has helped the McLaren Formula 1 team step up its preparations for the 2021 season by supplying and commissioning a brand new fully-simultaneous 5-axis machining centre in just four weeks.

The new machine, an INTEGREX i-100S Multi-Tasking machining centre, was ordered in December 2020 and became fully operational at McLaren’s Technology Centre in Surrey at the end of the same month.   The installation is the latest step in the Formula 1 team’s partnership with Mazak, which now stands at in excess of twenty years, and takes the total number of Mazak machines currently used by McLaren to 28.

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