BK Tooling
'...time-served toolmaker Bob Tunks says he always wanted to be more than a 'Fred in a shed.'
Hardware
Five fold productivity increase
It took a 120 mile commute around one of the busiest sections of the M25 to convince Bob Tunks that it was time to set up his own business nearer to home. Several years later BK Tooling, based in Little Hallingbury, Hertfordshire, is a thriving sub-contractor, specialising in the machining of mould tools and prototype/low volume plastics injection moulding.
A time-served toolmaker, Bob Tunks says he always wanted to be more than a ‘Fred in a shed’ and his latest investment, a 12,000 rev/min, 43 m/min rapid traverse XYZ 1060 HS vertical machining centre, is clear evidence of his determination to stand out from the crowd. A long-standing customer of XYZ Machine Tools, he cites the service and support provided by the Burlescombe, Devon machine tool distributor as one factor in his decision to buy this high-speed VMC. More significant, though, is the 20 hp spindle equipped with ceramic bearings and oil cooling; the rigidity imparted by a solid Meehanite ribbed cast iron construction; and the 1020 mm (X) by 610 mm (Y) by 620 mm (Z) machining envelope.
“Much of the mould work we do here is complex 3D machining involving a lot of small cuts using radiused or bullnose cutters. However, because I prefer to replace ‘old’ technology rather than simply add to my plant list, I need a machine that can be all things to all men. I need to rip pockets out of steel bolsters as quickly as I can using carbide-tipped cutters; I need to machine copper and aluminium for EDM electrodes and prototype ‘soft’ tooling; and I need to rough out cores and cavities, and then to finish machine mould tools when they come back in their hardened state. On top of this, I have to be sure that these demands will not affect the accuracy of the machine or, worse, cause a breakdown.
“So it’s not just about spindle speed. It’s about the overall rigidity of the machine, the quality of its build, and the way in which it accelerates and decelerates. High-speed machining is about all these things and more, and what we found when we were putting the XYZ 1060 HS through its paces was a huge increase in machining performance. It’s predecessor, also supplied by XYZ Machine Tools, could drive a 6 mm diameter cutter at 500 mm/min with a 0.1 mm step-over and produce two halves of a mould tool that fitted together perfectly on a three-dimensional split line. The 1060 HS is equipped with a Siemens 840D ShopMill control that looks ahead to convert a multitude of straight lines into a smooth curve and can do the same job five times faster!”
In terms of justifying his latest purchase, Bob Tunks says he was aware that keeping the new machine fed with work would be crucial in terms of securing a return on his investment. For this reason, although the Siemens 840D can be programmed at the machine, virtually all programming at BK Tooling is off-line using Vero International’s VISI-Series CAD/CAM software, with completed programs downloaded ready for each new set-up. Everything is geared to achieving maximum productivity without compromising quality.
Bob Tunks acknowledges that the trend towards replacing metal with plastics may not necessarily result in more orders for BK Tooling or that work currently outsourced abroad will eventually return to the UK. He is, however, optimistic about the longer-term prospects. “People requiring high volumes of moulded components will always tend to go to lower cost economies, but there are others in the UK who may be looking for, say, a high-quality branded plastics box to put their high-value product in and they may only be looking for a couple of thousand mouldings a year. They still need a mould tool and they still want high-quality mouldings. The same is true of UK companies researching possible applications for hybrid metal-replacement materials, who are finding that these materials place much greater demands on the injection moulding process and the skills of the people involved in every stage of that process. These are the types of customer that can benefit most from our expertise.”
