Delivering Growth With OPEN MIND
Long & Marshall Ltd | Havant, United Kingdom
Long & Marshall Ltd has seen its fair share of downturns and recessions over the last 35 years. However, the Havant based subcontract manufacturer to the aerospace, medical and F1 industries believes its investment in technology and highly skilled staff will not only maintain but generate business.
With an increasing number of 5‑axis machine tools Long & Marshall realised it had a bottleneck in the programming of some of its complex components. The company needed to improve its CAD/CAM software to resolve the situation, so it set about reviewing the market. Mr Long attended a DMG Open House. At the event, an application specialist from an F1 engine manufacturer was delivering a presentation on how hyperMILL® had improved production and processing times for the leading F1 team. Following the glowing endorsement and witnessing the exceptional speed of programming at a demonstration at Long & Marshall, Mr Long acquired two seats of hyperMILL®.
Complex drill heads for the oil and gas industry
As Mr Long continues: “We witnessed immediate benefits with hyperMILL®. We produce a number of different complex drill heads for the oil and gas industry. However, the hyperMILL® system has feature recognition and it allows us to program 50 holes at any geometry in minutes as opposed to hours. We have taken the programming time for drill heads from 10-20 hours to less than 6-8 hours with the feature recognition tool on the hyperMILL® system.” From drawing to complete part the drill heads previously took over 30 hours, with hyperMILL® the overall production time has been cut by around 50%.
Instead of having a man and machine on-stop, parts can be programmed in the office whilst the machining centre is running.
“We have taken the programming time for drill heads from 10-20 hours to less than 6-8 hours with the feature recognition tool on the hyperMILL® system.”
Vince Long, Managing Director
Accuracy, productivity and surface finishes have improved
Another major benefit of the OPEN MIND system to Long & Marshall is the ability to conduct programming off-line. The hyperMILL® system enables the company to verify its tool paths and watch the part being cut on-screen and in such detail it highlights any issues prior to the program being loaded to the machine. With less time spent programming on the shop floor, the machine tools spend more time conducting actual machining than on-stop being programmed. Reflecting upon the OPEN MIND acquisition, Mr Long states: “Our accuracy, productivity and surface finishes have all improved since purchasing the OPEN MIND system.”
Gallery
The machining strategy of hyperMILL® has further enhanced productivity.
Aerospace part
Customer Story
Long & Marshall Ltd
Havant, UK