Citizen Machinery UK

MOTIVATIONAL TIME HAS UNITED MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY

Citizen Machinery UK — 22/04/2020

In the opinion of Citizen Machinery UK's managing director Edward James, the Covid-19 pandemic has united the whole of the manufacturing sector to an extent never seen before in terms of the levels of selfless application by huge numbers of people to boost production of much-needed medical equipment. In this article he describes how the company he runs, a turning solution provider, is contributing in the battle to deliver more ventilators to the front line in hospitals.

Citizen became involved early on when it was contacted by the UK government's consortium for ventilator production, which became known as Ventilator Challenge UK. The committee included representatives from the AMRC (Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre) and Renishaw, who identified Citizen as the largest supplier of bar automatics in the UK and Ireland. This type of machine tool, especially the sliding-head variety with turn-milling capability, is critical to the rapid, efficient manufacture of components in very high volumes for making the extra ventilators needed by the NHS, 30,000 being the current target.

Accordingly, Citizen was given critical supplier status for the medical as well as the aerospace and defence sectors, although priority is being given to medical applications and is the only one being serviced at the moment.

Mr James commented, "At the outset, the government was considering building a factory to make ventilators parts and assemble them. However, we and others advising them suggested that the best route would be to enlist the help of the existing pool of first-class manufacturers and their supply chains already using our lathes and production equipment from other leading machine tool suppliers. I gave them a list of about 50 companies that use Citizen turning centres, choosing firms that operate sufficient numbers of machines, hold ISO accreditation and have the right level of expertise and metrology capability. We knew many of them already make ventilator parts as well as similar types of medical and non-medical parts out of both normal materials and special alloys.

We had told all of our customers via social media that Citizen Machinery UK was still open for business and continuing to operate under government guidelines to support customers and prioritise any request for help in producing medical components."

Nearly all of the recommended contacts were approached by multinational firms, including Rolls-Royce, GKN and BAe, appointed by Ventilator Challenge UK to oversee supply chain management from purchasing through to ventilator assembly. The manufacturers were asked to change over their production to machining medical components and they immediately agreed to do so. As many of the firms recognised that additional capacity would be needed, it triggered multiple orders for new Citizen bar automatics from several companies and from additional manufacturers that became involved in the initiative through word-of-mouth recommendation.

In just over three weeks to mid-April 2020, 17 machines were prepared and delivered from stock, all of which are devoted to the production of medical parts. Transport is provided by Citizen's dedicated team, J Parrish & Son, and for the rest of April sliding-head lathe deliveries are running at one per day. Extraordinarily, each is commissioned and operating on a customer's shop floor in approximately 36 hours from receipt of the order, such is the urgency. Overlaid on this already hectic workload is a significant amount of re-purposing of existing turn-mill centres in the field to manufacture medical equipment.

There are examples of Citizen lathes having been reconfigured for making metal parts that are normally produced from stampings, forgings and castings. By far the largest proportion of resetting, however, has involved writing programs and providing tooling packages for turn-milling large quantities of plastic components from bar that are normally injection moulded, such as tubing connectors for ventilators. Often they are supplied from overseas, including China, but deliveries may have either stopped or the numbers available are insufficient.

Mr James added, "The six-week lead-time to produce a new injection mould tool is too long - the parts are needed much faster than that. Our multi-axis sliding-head bar autos are ideal for turning such components at both ends and milling and drilling them in the same cycle so they come off complete, without the need for special fixturing and with minimal material wastage.

"It is actually a lot of work to identify parts that can be re-engineered in this way and then re-purpose a lathe to make them. A significant amount of CAD effort is required, plus complex CAM programming and post-processing.

"Our applications department has been doing a lot of this in-house and at our customers' factories, outsourcing what it cannot handle. One of our applications engineers has been working pro bono at a customer's site for three weeks to help out with re-engineering medical components due to staff shortage."

There are several reasons for Citizen fortunately finding itself in a good position to ship such a large number of lathes at short notice. One was the opening last year of a new turning centre of excellence in Brierley Hill with a showroom containing many demonstration machines. These together with those on show at the Bushey headquarters are available on short delivery.

The company in any case has a policy of supplying its machines and accessories from UK stock and more were available than usual, as extra had been brought in due to the possibility of a hard Brexit. Additional machines were in the UK, including some of the very latest models, ready to be shown at the now-postponed MACH exhibition.

Moreover, a bull run of sales had led to a backorder book of about eight weeks, with turning centres that were nearly ready for delivery able to be re-purposed at short notice and diverted urgently to medical component manufacturers. The original machine packages are being replaced from stock.

Naturally, these activities are only possible with healthy Citizen staff to implement them. Seeing the speed with which Covid-19 was spreading, Mr James had pre-empted government advice by putting on hold in February all overseas travel, isolating the Bushey and Brierley Hill centres to avoid movement between them, and instigating working from home where feasible. The result is that of the 56 members of staff, 20 are furloughed but the other 36 are able to work, including all of the applications engineers, half of the service staff and many back office support personnel.

Mr James concluded, "I am told that most of the turned parts have already been manufactured for the 30,000 extra ventilators, which is testament to the effort put in by us, other lathe suppliers and an army of willing and capable manufacturers in Britain and Ireland.

"I would like to offer a big thank you to all our staff and suppliers who are helping to make this happen. Everyone is volunteering to work tirelessly around the clock, at weekends and even through their holidays."

He added that when the country finally comes through the pandemic, Citizen Machinery UK will find itself in a stronger position than previously as he predicts that demand for new machines will grow. It will be due to companies that are acquiring modern sliding-head turn-mill centres now, where in normal circumstances they would not have done so for several years, recognising earlier the benefits of the tighter tolerances and better surface finishes achievable compared with using their older lathes.

Additionally, most of the new turning centres currently being supplied have Citizen's proprietary LFV programmable chipbreaking software built into the control's operating system. Manufacturers are seeing the productivity benefits of this technology when machining traditionally long-chipping materials such as plastics, stainless steel and titanium.

Citizen Sliding-Head Lathe Gains Patented Chipbreaker Software

Citizen Machinery UK — 28/06/2019

Citizen Machinery has incorporated its LFV (low frequency vibration) chipbreaking technology into the 12-axis, 25 mm capacity Cincom D25-VIII CNC sliding-headstock turn-mill centre. It considerably enhances the lathe's production flexibility and efficiency, especially when turning difficult-to-chip materials that traditionally produce long, stringy swarf, such as copper, plastics and steels with high alloy content. LFV can also be applied to grooving, thread cutting and drilling.

The latest D25-VIII features the Industry 4.0-ready Mitsubishi 800 CNC system with touch screen and QWERTY keyboard. Providing three axis control groups so that three tools can be in cut at the same time, as well as simultaneous 5-axis machining capability for producing complex parts, it is an advanced control whose operating system incorporates the patented LFV software.

When the technology is applied to a cutting cycle, it encourages chipbreaking without the need for high pressure coolant by rapidly oscillating the tool in two axes in synchronisation with the rotation of the machine spindle. This is in contrast to the intermittent chipbreaking action being programmed into a cycle as a macro, which can generate heat and cause tool tips to wear prematurely.

In addition to offering other advances in the machine’s operational functions, the simultaneous 5-axis control ensures the contact angle between each engaged cutter and the component is maintained during the production of complex parts, enhancing surface finish, reducing cycle times and extending tool life.

The Cincom D25-VIII LVF has gang toolposts in front of and behind the spindle centreline, with Z-axis motion provided on the rear carrier to allow balanced turning, milling or drilling, or simultaneous rough and finish turning. There is also a 135-degree swivelling B-axis on the front post carrying up to four driven tool on either side to service both the main and counter spindle. This configuration is believed to be a world first.

A manually set tilt spindle can be mounted on the rear gang carrier and the back toolpost. Together with the major advantage of programmable control of chip size, the tilt spindle has the ability to help eliminate deflection when turning very small, precise diameters. An optional, two-axis, opposite tool carrier next to the counter spindle provides a facility for reverse end machining at the main spindle.

For executing complex cycles, operational flexibility is maximised by deploying up to 59 tools in the cutting area, coupled with the advantage of being able to remove the guide bush for more economical material usage when producing shorter components up to 2.5 times bar diameter.

The main and counter spindle are rated at 5.5 kW and 3.7 kW respectively and both have a maximum speed of 10,000 rpm. The gang driven tool stations are powered by 2.2 kW drives with maximum speeds of 9,000 rpm, while live cutter speed in the back toolpost is up to 6,000 rpm. Rapid traverse rates are 32 m/min, with 24 m/min available in the Z-axis of the rear gang toolpost.

The machine footprint is compact, requiring just 1.5 metres by 2.55 metres of space on the shop floor. To meet LFV technology demands, the 3.4-tonne machine is mounted on six legs and drive is through 25 mm diameter ballscrews, adding a massive 16 per cent to the rigidity factor of the lathe.

A fully opening guard gives excellent access to the work zone for easy setting and an additional sliding door is incorporated at the rear of the machine. Twin coolant pumps are included with a 200 litre tank. A 90 mm wide workpiece conveyor is standard.

FIVE SUBCONTRACTORS RESPOND TO CALL FOR MORE VENTILATORS BY ORDERING SEVEN SLIDING-HEAD LATHES IN A FORTNIGHT

Citizen Machinery UK — 30/03/2020

Edward James, Managing Director of sliding and fixed-head lathe supplier Citizen Machinery UK, posted on social media on 16th March 2020 that the company is continuing to operate under the UK Government's recommended health guidelines and was available to support firms in the production of ventilator parts. He regards this as a priority following Prime Minister Boris Johnson's appeal the same day for the manufacturing community to help urgently to make 20,000 extra ventilators.

One of Citizen's nearly 4,000 followers on LinkedIn, an existing user in the West Country with five Cincom sliding-head bar autos in operation dating back to 1999, responded at lunchtime the following day. A medical equipment OEM was asking it to increase fourfold its capacity to produce critical ventilator components.

The subcontractor ordered two additional Cincom machines for urgent delivery. The first, a 32 mm capacity L32-XLFV, was installed two days later on Thursday 19th March. Citizen's engineers worked around the clock to commission the machine so it could start making the ventilator parts. The second machine, a 20 mm bar capacity Cincom L20-VIIILFV, was installed the following Friday, 27th March and was similarly fast-tracked into production.

By then, in the space of a fortnight, Citizen had received further orders from another four customers for five more machines to be delivered at short notice for ventilator parts manufacture and there is no sign of the demand slowing.

Mr James commented, "I would like to offer a big thank you to our staff and suppliers who helped to make this happen. Let’s all work together to come up with solutions to this terrible COVID-19 pandemic.

"If any of our customers make ventilators, respirators, personal protective equipment or other medical items that are in high demand, we may be able to help them as a matter of urgency to manufacture the necessary components, as we have a number of fixed- and sliding-head turn-mill centres in stock ready for immediate dispatch and installation.

"We are also able to put OEMs and their supply chains in touch with a large number of our customers who can make ventilator and other medical parts using their existing plant.

"In particular, if a manufacturer traditionally relies on plastic extrusions or other bespoke raw materials that are becoming scarce, we are able to re-engineer items so that they can be made from solid bar and would prioritise this kind of requirement."

Edward James on Coronavirus; “I'd like to see everybody getting behind UK manufacturing.”

Citizen Machinery UK — 28/05/2020

Citizen Machinery remained open during the lockdown due to it being a ‘vital supplier’ to the Medical Sector. Speaking to the Managing Director, Edward James, we looked at how the outbreak could open the doors for a boost in UK Manufacturing.

For Citizen Machinery, the ongoing situation has been, as described by Edward James, ‘business as usual.’

Like many other companies, they’ve implemented policies to make sure their staff remain safe, from a weekly newsletter to all their staff, to the encouragement to keep social interaction high with ‘Zoom’ Coffee breaks, to observing the benefits of reduced working hours, their employees' safety has been at the forefront of every decision.

Yet despite remaining open, as marked by their status as an essential supplier, Edward spoke about the long-term impacts that might prevent the company, and to an extent other companies, from fully reopening. “Some of our staff have got children at school that are being told their school is not going to be open until September. We've got the teachers union today telling their staff not to go back to work, which is unhelpful, but the thing is I don't blame them because the guidance needs to be clear.”

This issue extends to those who are ‘shielding’ with other people in the company having social responsibilities in the care of others. “We've got people that are still responsible for looking after elderly relatives or people that are vulnerable or at risk, and I think part of our return to work has to respect all of those elements.”

However, even with these issues that the company is facing, and something that is being faced by almost all manufacturers, Edward believes that the one thing that should come out of the entire situation is a united decision to get behind UK manufacturing.

As Edward explains, this experience is a way to encourage companies to reshore back to the UK. “We're seeing enquiries from our end users who are being asked to manufacture more parts as a result of reshoring work back from overseas, not just from China, but overseas in general. I guess a lot of countries are going to consider their vulnerability in the future and how exposed they are to the unfair supply chains and instead elect to manufacture more goods in their own country.”

When asked what his personal beliefs are on reshoring, he said, “As a manufacturer, I'd like to see everybody getting behind UK manufacturing, but also to educate the consumer to think about buying British where they can, and pushing suppliers to buy British deals.”

However, there was an air of caution to this approach from Edward who said, whatever happens, a change in mindset will be needed. “What that approach is going to do is affect the economy in China and as a result, China will just become even more competitive. The risk here is that we get some short term gains that are lost long term by purchasing managers doing their jobs to try and get the parts for the cheapest possible price. So they need to see a change in mindset.”

To highlight how this could work, Edward used the Japanese Government, who have offered financial support to businesses to bring Japanese companies back to the mainland from China, as a key example of what the UK Government could be employed here.

The power of collaboration in the fight against Covid-19

Citizen Machinery UK — 28/04/2020

In the opinion of Citizen Machinery UK’s managing director Edward James, the Covid-19 pandemic has united the whole of the manufacturing sector to an extent never seen before in terms of the levels of selfless application by huge numbers of people to boost production of much-needed medical equipment. In this article he describes how the company he runs, a turning solution provider, is contributing in the battle to deliver more ventilators to the front line in hospitals.

Citizen became involved early on when it was contacted by the UK government’s consortium for ventilator production, which became known as VentilatorChallengeUK. The committee included representatives from the AMRC (Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre) and Renishaw, who identified Citizen as the largest supplier of bar automatics in the UK and Ireland.

This type of machine tool, especially the sliding-head variety with turn-milling capability, is critical to the rapid, efficient manufacture of components in very high volumes for making the extra ventilators needed by the NHS, 30,000 being the current target.

Edward James comments: “At the outset, the government was considering building a factory to make ventilators parts and assemble them. However, we and others advising them suggested that the best route would be to enlist the help of the existing pool of first-class manufacturers and their supply chains already using our lathes and production equipment from other leading machine tool suppliers.

“I gave them a list of about 50 companies that use Citizen turning centres, choosing firms that operate sufficient numbers of machines, hold ISO accreditation and have the right level of expertise and metrology capability. We knew many of them already make ventilator parts as well as similar types of medical and non-medical parts out of both normal materials and special alloys.

“We had told all of our customers via social media that Citizen Machinery UK was still open for business and continuing to operate under government guidelines to support customers and prioritise any request for help in producing medical components.”

Supply and demand

Nearly all of the recommended contacts were approached by multinational firms, including Rolls-Royce, GKN and BAE, appointed by VentilatorChallengeUK to oversee supply chain management from purchasing through to ventilator assembly.

The manufacturers were asked to change over their production to machining medical components and they immediately agreed to do so. As many of the firms recognised that additional capacity would be needed, it triggered multiple orders for new Citizen bar automatics from several companies and from additional manufacturers that became involved in the initiative through word-of-mouth recommendation.

Extraordinarily, each is commissioned and operating on a customer’s shopfloor in approximately 36 hours from receipt of the order, such is the urgency. Overlaid on this already hectic workload is a significant amount of re-purposing of existing turn-mill centres in the field to manufacture medical equipment.

Mr James adds: “The six-week lead-time to produce a new injection mould tool is too long – the parts are needed much faster than that. Our multi-axis sliding-head bar autos are ideal for turning such components at both ends and milling and drilling them in the same cycle so they come off complete, without the need for special fixturing and with minimal material wastage.

“It is actually a lot of work to identify parts that can be re-engineered in this way and then re-purpose a lathe to make them. A significant amount of CAD effort is required, plus complex CAM programming and post-processing.

“Our applications department has been doing a lot of this in-house and at our customers’ factories, outsourcing what it cannot handle. One of our applications engineers has been working pro bono at a customer’s site for three weeks to help out with re-engineering medical components due to staff shortage.”

Shipped from stock

The result is that of the 56 members of staff, 20 are furloughed but the other 36 are able to work, including all of the applications engineers, half of the service staff and many back office support personnel.

Working around the clock

Mr James concludes: “I am told that most of the turned parts have already been manufactured for the 30,000 extra ventilators, which is testament to the effort put in by us, other lathe suppliers and an army of willing and capable manufacturers in Britain and Ireland.

“I would like to offer a big thank you to all our staff and suppliers who are helping to make this happen. Everyone is volunteering to work tirelessly around the clock, at weekends and even through their holidays.”

He added that when the country finally comes through the pandemic, Citizen Machinery UK will find itself in a stronger position than previously as he predicts that demand for new machines will grow.

It will be due to companies that are acquiring modern sliding-head turn-mill centres now, where in normal circumstances they would not have done so for several years, recognising earlier the benefits of the tighter tolerances and better surface finishes achievable compared with using their older lathes.

Additionally, most of the new turning centres currently being supplied have Citizen’s proprietary LFV programmable chipbreaking software built into the control’s operating system. Manufacturers are seeing the productivity benefits of this technology when machining traditionally long-chipping materials such as plastics, stainless steel and titanium.

LATHE WILL PAY FOR ITSELF IN 18 MONTHS

Citizen Machinery UK — 13/08/2019

Installation by Citizen Machinery of a fixed-head Miyano BNE-51MSY twin-spindle, twin-turret turning centre at electrical wiring conduit manufacturer ABB Cable Management Product, Coleshill, heralds a fundamental change in the way the company turn-mills its cable end fittings.

Cycle time savings of up to 70 per cent with more to come, reductions in manufacturing cost, scrap and returns, and elimination of the need to outsource 10 per cent of production to subcontractors will combine to amortise the cost of the Miyano well within 18 months of its installation at the beginning of January 2019. Manufacturing unit manager Andrew Fellows describes this payback time on a major item of capital expenditure as “brilliant”.

Every week, 100,000 metres of flexible metal conduit and 65,000 metres of nylon conduit find their way predominantly into the automotive, rail and mining industries across Europe, the Middle East, China and as far afield as Australia, while some are destined for installation in the parent group’s robot systems. From these numbers, it is clear there is a high demand for the mainly brass fittings, plus some stainless steel, aluminium and plastic varieties, that are needed at both ends of every length of the conduit.

Fittings needed in large volumes are produced in-house on six cam-type multi-spindle autos, while the shorter runs are completed on four single-spindle, single-turret CNC lathes and now the Miyano twin-spindle, twin-turret turning centre, which replaced a similarly specified, ageing model on which one of the turrets was defective.

Comparing the performance of the latter two lathes, Mr Fellows advised, “In the first two weeks of the Miyano arriving, we transferred onto the new machine the manufacture of four fast-moving products, all of which benefitted from drilling on both end faces simultaneously at the main and counter spindles.

“Average cycle time saving was 59 per cent. The largest reduction was 70 per cent in the case of a fitting that previously required 133 seconds to produce. The turn-mill cycle now takes 40 seconds to complete on the Miyano.”

Senior operator Dan Gardner added, “We have only taken advantage so far of cutting with two tools at a time, but the superimposition function in the Mitsubishi M730VS control, coupled with Y-axis movement of the upper turret and X-axis travel of the counter spindle, allows three tools to be in cut at the same time.

“After five days’ training from Citizen, both on- and off-site, we carried out a time study on a complex fitting that will see an 80 per cent reduction in cycle time from 230 to 46 seconds.”

He went on to describe a further benefit that comes from the ability to have 6,000 rpm live tools with 20 Nm of torque at all stations in both turrets, a total of 24 positions. Whereas 85 per cent of production on the single-spindle lathes is currently from hexagonal bar, the plan is to reduce this to zero in favour of round bar over the coming years as the machines are upgraded and powerful driven cutters are able to mill the flats economically. This process is starting with the Miyano.

The main advantage will be the longer service life of the lathes and of the bar magazines feeding them due to the absence of interrupted cutting of hexagonal stock and hence lower vibration levels. In the case of the Miyano, it will also allow round bar at the full 51 mm diameter capacity to be rotated in both spindles at the maximum speed of 5,000 rpm, whereas it would need to be backed off by 75 per cent to run the largest possible size of hexagonal stock. For this reason, such material currently machined on the BNE-51MSY at Coleshill is restricted to 38 mm, which can be rotated at full speed.

Mr Gardner advised that despite utilising mainly hexagonal stock at present, the rigidity provided by the Miyano machine’s bed, hand-scraped box slideways, spindles and turrets is nevertheless sufficient to allow total tolerances down to 30 microns to be held on fittings, a level of accuracy needed for explosion-proof and watertight conduits.

Data collection and display on dashboards of overall equipment effectiveness has been instigated by Mr Fellows since his arrival at the factory in July 2018. Optimisation of every aspect of around-the-clock production has resulted in 24 per cent more output in five days than was achieved before in seven days, lowering manufacturing cost by 17 per cent and raising competitiveness.

Installation of the Miyano, with its elevated level of productivity, will improve these figures further. So also will the imminent arrival of a presetter for off-line tool setting, which will cut two-thirds to three-quarters off the present 60-minute changeover time for the next batch run, which can be as low as 50-off.

According to Mr Fellows, selection of the Citizen Miyano BNE-51MSY was down to the capital cost being 30 to 40 per cent less than two alternatives considered by ABB Cable Management Product, in line with company policy. Lead-time from order to delivery was also the shortest at just 12 weeks.

Citizen Machinery UK Helps Boneham's Efficiency with Latest Investment

Citizen Machinery UK — 19/10/2021

Made in the Midlands members Citizen Machinery and Boneham and Turner have built an honest and transparent relationship over the last 7 years that they have been working together. Edward James, Managing Director of Citizen Machinery, and Charles Boneham, Director at Boneham & Turner, both say that this has been thanks to networking through the Made in the Midlands. In their latest collaboration, Citizen has helped Boneham improve their efficiency, with Boneham’s latest investment into an L220-VIIILFV sliding head mill turn lathe from Citizen.

World-leading CNC machine tool manufacturer - Citizen Machinery partnered with leading precision engineering tool provider - Boneham & Turner back in 2014. The initial interaction saw Boneham purchase two more Citizen machines. The investment meant that Boneham could finish their components to order, rather than hold unnecessary amounts of stock taking up time and resources. Charles Boneham, Director at Boneham and Turner, said:

“When we first purchased these machines from Citizen, we knew that we wanted to work with them again. We thought they were very supportive from installation to when the machines were producing products.”

This year Boneham purchased an L220-VIIILFV sliding head mill turn lathe machine, replacing one that had been used for over 30 years. The more recent collaboration began with Citizen identifying what Boneham wanted to do and then finding a suitable machine to fit their needs. Boneham were looking for a machine that used less energy to produce smaller parts and one that could produce parts quicker and more accurately.

The L220-VIIILFV sliding head mill turn lathe seemed to be a perfect match for the firm, with LFV technology that creates a more stable and faster process, as well as being user friendly. LFV stands for Low Frequency Vibration meaning the machine can cut tiny parts without being distorted. A machine with LFV, a technology exclusively on a Citizen machine for 5 years, can run 24/7 and can chip any material. Another great advantage of having a Citizen machine is its eco-friendly energy usage where energy is stored when the machine slows down using regenerative technology.

This machine from Citizen has proved to be very effective for Boneham, since replacing their older machine they have managed to save on energy by using more efficient machinery for small parts. With a machine that is more accurate and easier to use, it is set to achieve Boneham’s return on investment in just 18 months. Edward James, Managing Director of Citizen Machinery, said:

“Our aim here at Citizen is to become a partner to manufacturing SMEs and businesses alike. Rather than employing sales managers we employ sales engineers, who can help a customer through their journey. Ensuring UK manufacturers are more efficient from shop floor space by investing in a smaller machine or being able to use less energy, creates more opportunities for them and therefore creates a more stable and greener economy.”

Boneham’s new machine was delivered in record breaking time, after long lead times were affecting the business. Thanks to the great relationship built between Citizen and Boneham, with help from Made in the Midlands, the machine was delivered within weeks of the first engagement highlighting the importance of maintaining industry relationships.

Renishaw Installs Five More Citizen Sliding-head Lathes

Citizen Machinery UK — 25/03/2019

Metrology equipment producer Renishaw has raised its tally of Citizen Machinery-supplied lathes to 58.

Renishaw has purchased five more Cincom CNC sliding-headstock turning centres from Citizen Machinery, helping to boost its annual output of components from the machines to more than 2.5 million.

Three of the latest 12 mm capacity Cincom B12 lathes fitted with Iemca Elite 112 bar magazines were installed at Renishaw’s Miskin plant in South Wales, where 20 Citizen sliding-head turn-mill centres were already in use, while the other two went to the company’s Stonehouse factory in Gloucestershire.

Senior production engineer Robert Horsley said: “The latest investment in Citizen lathes, which raised the number we use by nearly 10 per cent, was driven by increased worldwide demand for our measurement technology.

“The B12 lathes are mainly devoted to ultra-fast turning and milling of 303 stainless steel bar to manufacture styli and other components for our probes, which are needed in large volumes. We normally produce a month’s worth for stock, which can be anything from 1,200- to 30,000-off, before we change over a machine to start a new batch. Run times are at least eight hours.

“All of our Cincom turning centres have live tooling and most are twin-spindle models to enable single-hit production. However, we also have three single-spindle F-series lathes of 12 mm and 16 mm capacity in Miskin dating back to the mid-80s. They still make high quality parts in relatively low volumes, such as those needed for some of our metal 3D printers, position encoders, laser calibration products and spectrometers.”

An extensive variety of materials is processed, ranging from mild, stainless, carbon and low alloy steels through brass and aluminium to corrosion resistant copper-nickel-zinc alloys.

According to Mr Horsley, all of the lathes hold tolerances down to ± 20 microns parallelism and squareness and ± 50 microns on milled features. Surface finish down to Ra 0.4 is easily achievable, doing away with the need to cylindrically grind cosmetic features on products.

Siemens NX CAD is used by Renishaw to design components and GibbsCam to prepare programs offline for transfer to the Mitsubishi controls on the multi-tasking Cincom machines, which are of 12, 16, 20 and 32 mm capacity.

Some have seven CNC axes with a Y-axis on both spindles, others offer 15,000 rpm at the main spindle, while several deploy 53 static and driven tools in the working area and up to three tools cutting simultaneously for turn-milling highly complex parts in short cycle times.

Chris Pockett, head of communications for Renishaw, said: “We have standardised on Citizen sliding-head turning machines since the 1980s, when the company demonstrated what at the time was groundbreaking technology.

“The commonality of lathe layout ensures ease of training and complete flexibility for our production engineering staff to develop processes and program any machine.

“Similarly, operators are able to migrate between different turning centre groups and optimise productivity to meet our business needs. Having common platforms also benefits our maintenance operation.”

Threeway and Citizen ‘Reshoring Mission’ Partnership

Citizen Machinery UK — 04/01/2021

MIM Members Threewaypressings and Citizen Machinery have collaborated on a project thanks to business leaders Phil Stanley and Edward James meeting at Made in the Midlands networking event. Citizen has gone above and beyond to service and maintains a second-hand Citizen CNC machine TWP outsourced to help reshore manufacturing back to the UK.

The two business leaders, Phil from TWP and Edward from Citizen Machinery, met back in 2019 at a Made in the Midlands Breakfast Morning with Patron Brewin & Dolphin. After introducing themselves, the two exchanged cards and agreed to meet. Phil said:

“We mentioned that we did CNC turning and the relationship started from there. After, two of the team from Citizen Machinery came along to our facility to see our capability and gave a proposal on how we could reduce lead times.”

TWP purchased its first sliding-head twin-spindle lathe, a 20-year-old Citizen Cincom M32 equipped with an Iemca Boss 432r barfeed as a result of the meeting. The company previously outsourced a lot of their turned parts in the Far East. With the help from the new Citizen Machine, TWP are now able to cope with higher volumes as well as have more control overproduction.

Citizen has since visited the TWP site numerous times to offer staff training and support on the new machine, Phil added:

“We plan to continue working with Citizen as the service, maintenance and support have been unbeatable.”

Edward James, Managing Director at Citizen Machinery, feels it is important for manufacturers to support local companies. Since the collaboration TWP have managed to reshore 200,000 parts back to the UK and at more competitive prices with China. Edward said:

“It is everyone's responsibility to establish supply chains in the UK and here at Citizen we support all customers in their mission to reshore work. We try to give our UK customers a chance to be competitors on a global playing field with a good return on investment. This has benefits for both us and them as we apply our experience and gain the knowledge we need to further support our UK customers.”

Both Phil and Edward feel that without being part of the Made in Group, this important partnership may not have been established. Since the partnership, both have realised they have the same goal of keeping British manufacturing in the UK.

Edward concluded:

“MIM creates the opportunities for like-minded individuals to meet and connect, when you belong to a trade association everyone has the same mind set - to challenge the erosion of British industry. This has been beneficial for Citizen in particular as it allows us to align ideas and find valuable connections.”

Citizen Machinery Unveils £3m Turning Centre of Excellence

Citizen Machinery UK — 14/05/2019

The British and Irish subsidiary of Japanese CNC lathe manufacturer, Citizen, has opened a new centre of excellence on a 1.1 acre site at Hurst Business Park in the West Midlands.

The Brierley Hill facility houses a showroom, international conference area, customer training school, applications engineering department and administrative offices.

Additionally, the 1,660 square metre building provides extra space for preparing an increasing number of high-value, automated turnkey installations complete with programs, tooling and accessories.

Both at home and overseas, OEMs, first-tier suppliers and subcontractors are asking for production solutions to be delivered in weeks rather than months to fulfil new business requirements.

Citizen Machinery UK’s headquarters remains in Bushey, Hertfordshire, where a similar range of activities takes place. It is also a distribution hub for sales of machines in France, Spain, Portugal, Scandinavia, the Middle East and Africa.

Deputy managing director Darren Wilkins explained: “Our headquarters, where a majority of office-based staff is located, was designed for the traditional Cincom sliding-head business. Now, however, following the UK merger of Citizen and Miyano in 2011, additional space is needed to support growing demand for the latter’s fixed-head, 51 mm and 64 mm bar capacity turning centres.

“We have become a victim of our success, which saw Citizen grow to be market leader for sales of bar-fed CNC lathes in the UK and Ireland in 2018. Our sliding-head auto market share has increased, while we also had our best ever year for fixed-head machine sales.

“It is a resounding endorsement of the health of UK manufacturing and a sign of the confidence that Citizen Japan has in the new UK management team that our head office has decided to invest more than £3 million in developing this market further, despite the turmoil of Brexit.”

The iconic premises in Brierley Hill is well known in the area and is the flagship building on the estate, as the 980 square metre offices were built for and formerly occupied by the local newspaper, Express & Star.

Adjacent to it is a newly constructed, 680 square metre showroom and technical centre that has increased the available floor space and transformed the facility to suit a machine tool business, including the installation of a 16-tonne internal crane. Partner companies, such as those offering tooling, workholding equipment and CADCAM, are being invited to set up permanent demonstration areas within the extension.

New personnel to add to the current headcount of 54 are being recruited to work in the new centre, including staff for software development, applications engineering and machine servicing. These will be in addition to four people already working at a pre-existing building nearby, the former home of Miyano UK before the merger, which will remain a satellite facility as forward orders are so high that the space will be needed to prepare installations.

It is notable that more of Citizen Machinery UK’s customers are closer to these Midlands facilities than they are to the headquarters and southern showroom near London, so service back-up for a majority of users will be enhanced.

To mark the opening, Citizen is staging an open house at the new facility for customers and press. The event, from 14th to 16th May 2019, will see the UK launch of four new lathes, all fitted with Citizen’s patented, 2-axis LFV (low frequency vibration) chipbreaking software integrated into the operating system of the control. There will be live demonstrations on a total of 20 Cincom and Miyano machines and an opportunity to meet with many supplier companies.

Citizen Machinery Appoints European Sales Manager

Citizen Machinery UK — 15/04/2019

Owen Gibbons has been appointed by Citizen Machinery UK to take over the role of European Sales Manager.

Based at the firm’s Bushey headquarters, showroom and technical centre, he is responsible for supporting the activities of the dealer network that markets and sells the Japanese parent company’s Cincom sliding-head and Miyano fixed-head turn-mill centres into countries around Europe.

In addition to the UK and Ireland, Citizen Machinery UK is currently responsible for sales in France, Spain, Portugal, Scandinavia, the Middle East and Africa. A further remit of Mr Gibbons is to expand the network into other European countries.

Mr Gibbons said: “I am delighted to join Citizen at a time when its patented LFV (low frequency vibration) chipbreaking technology has helped propel it to market leader in Europe for sales of sliding-head lathes, with deliveries well in excess of a thousand units per year.

“The company is also highly innovative in seeking ways to introduce different features into its machines. A good example is the current development of laser cutting technology for integration into Cincom lathes, which is eagerly awaited by the medical sector.”

Mr Gibbons has spent virtually his entire career in the machine tool industry, both in sales and sales management. In all of his previous positions he has had detailed experience of launching and selling fixed-head turning machines in the UK, and most recently sliding-head lathes as well, including complex twin-spindle multi-turret product lines.