The FANUC ROBODRILL sells itself

Founded almost 100 years ago, Milton Keynes based Dyson Diecastings Ltd initially started as a casting business; nowadays the company offers a complete multitude of services, something that is supported by the recent acquisition of a FANUC ROBODRILL B-Series machining centre.

Evolving from a ‘cast, clip and ship’ business in its early days, Dyson Diecastings moved into adding simple operations such as drilling and tapping holes in its castings.  Paul Savage of Dyson Diecastings says: “As technology has evolved, so have customer demands and the capabilities of our company. We have moved from just drilling and tapping to adding a CNC machining department and we now conduct profile milling, facing and much more. In terms of value adding processes, we do painting, plating, polishing and more to offer a ‘fully finished’ product.”

As a business, the Buckinghamshire manufacturer also undertakes design for manufacture, project management, design optimisation, high pressure die-casting and CNC machining for high-profile brands such as Aston Martin, Jaguar, Siemens, TRW, Vent Axia, Turner Powertrain, Honeywell and many others. Dyson Diecastings has two sites that encapsulate over 200,000sq/ft of the latest manufacturing technology. At these sites, daily output can vary from 10-20 off components for prestige automotive customers through to a weekly output of 10,000+ on large volume projects that could include anything from automotive centre consoles, air and oil cooling assemblies, engine brackets and valve bodies through to hi-fi speakers and hand dryers for public conveniences.

The latest investment is a FANUC ROBODRILL B-Series D21LiB5 with an extended bed length that accommodates the variety of components that pass through the machine shop. As Mr Savage continues: “Usually, we would go for a 1m bed length machine and also have a 600mm FANUC machine alongside, but this 800mm bed length FANUC is ideal for what we need. A key factor in selecting the B-Series FANUC is that we bought a FANUC ROBODRILL T21iF about 6 years ago and its reliability has been outstanding, spare parts are sourced locally and the cost of running it have been kept very low. The new machine comes with a new interface whilst the spindle speeds and indexing unit all match what we’d been running previously. The programs transfer simply and it ticks all the right boxes. We purchased three machines last April and the order is already in for another three that will arrive in a matter of weeks.”

“We cut a lot of aluminium and only take cuts that can be as little as 0.2mm, the more we take off the more it costs us. We have one part on the machine that has been running for 12 years and it requires some long series drills and taps to avoid key features in the component. Additionally, we do some milling with 120mm diameter face mills, so machine tool rigidity is as critical as performance and precision. The surface finish has to be very good and the tolerances are quite tight, so a rigid platform is a must. This part is transferred to an electronics production line, so if any swarf falls out of holes, there is a major problem.” Thankfully, the new machine has through spindle high pressure coolant that eradicates the issue and it ensures that swarf issues that would make parts non-conformant are eliminated.

From a maintenance perspective, the company has PPM sheets that give each operator a check list on daily, weekly and monthly duties to be undertaken. These specified tasks will encompass certain machine tool maintenance issues that can prove challenging to undertake when the FANUC machines are running anything from 22.5 to 24 hours a day. The company employs a FANUC approved engineer and the manufacturer of the impressive ROBODRILL is only scheduled for annual maintenance visits.

Referring to the selection process and justifying why the company opted for the FANUC ROBODRILL range, Mr Savage concludes: “The machine we bought in 2012 had proved itself and that helped the purchasing process as we moved forward. With subsequent machines the price has been right, the delivery lead-times are right and the justification is that the machines have reduced cycle times. Additionally, we are trying to move from three shifts to two because of the night shift cost-premium and the wage pressure on businesses like ours. FANUC is supporting us with these issues and whilst you have to conduct your due-diligence on machine tool selection, the FANUC ROBODRILL sells itself.”