Familiar face returns to Hexagon UK

A familiar face has returned to take charge of Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence’s operations in the UK.

David Brown has moved to head up the Telford-based metrology solutions business after a spell as a senior manager for Hexagon in Northern Europe. His re-appointment coincides with the creation of a new management team to spearhead the company’s ambitious growth plans. “In the coming months, we’re looking to invest in people in order to boost our expansion,” says Brown, whose time at Hexagon and in the industry now spans 27 years.
For further information www.hexagonmi.com

Mills takes 20 orders at MACH 2018

Mills CNC reports that over 3000 people visited its stand at the recent MACH 2018 exhibition, where the company took hundreds of enquiries and 20 machine-tool orders.

Tony Dale, Mills CNC’s technical director, says: “We took five orders for Doosan vertical turning lathes, including two for our new V8300 machines, and also secured an order each for a large-capacity Doosan Mynx 9500 vertical machining centre and a VC 3600 (twin-table) vertical machining centre. The remaining orders were for Lynx and Puma lathes and DNM machining centres.”
For further information www.millscnc.co.uk

36-session programme at Subcon

Rolls Royce CTO Paul Stein will deliver the keynote presentation at Subcon (5-7 June, NEC), one of many highlights of this year’s programme that also features sessions on digitalisation, robotics, prosthetics, motorsport, smart materials and technology transfer.

The 2018 conference is a three-day, two-theatre, six-stream, 36-session programme that is free to attend for all Subcon visitors.
A key theme of the conference is cross-sector collaboration and technology transfer with Dr Caroline Hargrove, CTO of McLaren Applied Technologies, talking about how technological expertise in motorsport can be spun out into other sectors. Furthermore, BAE Systems’ Dr Henry White, will be showing delegates how technology from the defence sector can be applied to the world of sport.
For further information www.subconshow.co.uk/conference

Robots boost profitability

A specialist in multi-axis machining is leveraging the benefits of Universal Robots supplied by RARUK Automation to load and unload its machine tools.

A mix of seven UR5 and UR10 robots have helped Rousant Sherwood maximise the productivity of its workforce by automating repetitive tasks and bidding for contracts which would have otherwise been unprofitable. One of the UR10 robots is currently serving a Nakamura-Tome Super NTJX multi-tasking turn-mill centre. The robot loads square billets of aluminium into the machine, where they are turned into aerospace components as part of a 40-minute cycle. Machine and robot are running 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“Just to be clear, we have not invested in robots to save on headcount, we’ve done it to win contracts,” says general manager Robin Salter. “We would never have been able to tender for jobs like this without automation. Using a robot makes us profitable on work where we wouldn’t normally be able to compete.”
For further information www.rarukautomation.co.uk

CAM software sells well at MACH

The recent MACH exhibition at the Birmingham NEC started in spectacular fashion for Open Mind Technologies with the CAM specialist selling three seats of HyperMill CAM software in the first two days, an additional four by the end of the show and another three in the week after the show.

Five of the seats were sold to subcontract manufacturers, including Iver-based Newmax Precision. The Buckinghamshire aerospace and defence manufacturer is taking delivery of its first five-axis machining centre in July, a Matsuura MX330.
For further information www.openmind-tech.com