Supporting the automotive industry’s re-shoring drive

Jaguar Land Rover’s drive to re-shore tooling and components for its premium automotive products created an immediate need for additional wire EDM capacity at Pontypridd Precision Engineering. An Excetek V350 CNC wire EDM machine tool from Warwick Machine Tools provides the capacity shortfall solution.

Based in Ferndale, in the valleys of South Wales, Pontypridd Precision Engineering, (PPE), was established in 1988 by managing director, Mal Price. From its impressive workshop equipped with CNC turning and machining centres, the family-owned and run business employs 20 experienced staff, including brothers Mike and Jason Price. The ISO 9001:2000 accredited company is well aware that quality is expected, so price and capability become the deciding business factors.

Growth for the company came predominantly from customers supplying the automotive industry. However, as Mike Price recalls, the company had ‘too many eggs in one basket’. He says: “A few years ago a lot of automotive industry work went to China. For us the business dried up in a very short period, just a few months and it was gone.”

This resulted in the company assessing its place in the market before going to look for work in other sectors. Fortunately, it secured a number of new customers in diverse industry sectors. “It forced us to look at other sectors away from the automotive industry, so we approached petrochemical, automation, food and beverage companies. Now, the fluctuations in our business are reduced as the peaks and troughs in each sector do not overlap to any great extent,” Mike Price states.

However, with initiatives from manufacturers like Jaguar Land Rover, to source tooling and components in the UK, the automotive supply chain is witnessing a revival. Mike Price explains: “Our customer, Calsonic Kansei, gave us the opportunity to quote for the tooling for a JLR project, which we were pleased to win.”

The tooling required an extensive amount of wire erosion work and, while the company had a CNC wire erosion machine, it would not have been able to cope with the extra workload. During an investigation of the new machines available, Warwick Machine Tools (WMT) presented the Excetek V350 CNC wire EDM machine tool to the company.

One of the major advantages with any CNC EDM machine is its ability to run unmanned, overnight and even at the weekend. Once set up they can be left to complete any raw material or components loaded on the worktable. “However,” Mike Price says, “our existing machine was beginning to let us down with numerous maintenance issues. Because of this we could not run it out of hours, which resulted in our wire EDM capacity being even tighter and made the investment even more pressing.”

He continues: “Although we had little knowledge of the Excetek brand, the price was extremely competitive and we trusted the support available from WMT. We knew a few machines had been successfully installed in the UK and were running without any concerns. We got the new Excetek machine installed and it has been extremely good. Excetek’s operating system is very different to our previous EDM machine, but a training package included with the purchase. WMT’s senior engineer, Paul Barry, provided the training which got the staff programming on the first day.”

Providing performance levels equivalent to the Swiss and Japanese wire EDM machines currently available, the Excetek V350 offers a cost saving of between £20,000 and £25,000 against any equivalent size machine tool, and the price from WMT includes training and installation. It is capable of accommodating workpieces up to 700 x 500 x 215 mm and weighing up to 450 kg. The fully equipped wire machine has U and V axis travels of 80 mm and +/- 30^o taper capability.

While the future plans involve programming most of the CNC machine tools used by PPE with its OneCNC CAM software, the Excetek is currently programmed at the machine. As Mike Price says: “It is very straightforward for our staff to do this at the CNC interface, compared to say a lathe or machining centre.”

Materials used include mild steel and hardened D2 tool steel for the running parts of the press tool. For higher volume press tooling PPE has used ASP-2005, powdered high speed punch steel that costs significantly more but lasts far longer.

Mike Price explains how the different materials are eroded: “The Excetek machine can be loaded with standard brass wire, which we would use on general tool steel and mild steels. However, for Inconel or other tougher materials we would use coated wire which will allow the machine to cut 30 to 50 per cent quicker through this type of material. Also, a good wire machine removes most of the requirement to surface grind because the surface finish achieved is so good. This saves time and cost for the end customer.”

Equipped with hydraulic forming presses and kinetic flywheel stamping presses, PPE will produce the ISIR (Initial Sample Inspection Report) batch of 200 parts to ensure the tool is to specification; however production volumes will be completed by the customer. “We have comprehensive pressing facilities, so we might be tasked with producing a few hundred components so the customer can complete the radiator build. Once the tools are proven they will be sent to the customer for the ramp up in production volumes,” Mike Price confirms.

There is usually a period of hand-holding for the customer where PPE will send staff to the customer’s facility to ensure the tools are set correctly in the presses. It removes any teething anomalies and allows PPE’s experienced staff to see that the tools bed-in as expected.

As with many automotive projects the path is never smooth, design changes and hiccups in the planning are all part of what those in the industry supply chain expect, and staff at PPE take all these in their stride. Solid model and 2D design drawings for the finished components are sent to PPE for the tools to be developed from; the onus is put on the toolmaker to develop a press tool that works.

“We now do more in a day than was ever possible as tooling delivery deadlines have to be achieved,” Mike Price points out. “We have never been afraid to invest in the necessary plant or skills required to deliver what the customer requires. If we need to invest in another wire EDM machine the package offered by Excetek would make it very difficult not to purchase another, possibly larger capacity, machine.”

As well as machine investments the company is looking to build its workforce for the future, and for the first time in a few years the company is taking on a couple of apprentices with the support available from various initiatives. “I have certainly noticed a growing desire to get into engineering, and I hope that companies can take these eager youngsters on and provide them with the skills and education that we will need in the industry for tomorrow and beyond,” Mike Price concludes.