Kingsbury helps Haigh Engineering slash cutting cycles by 50%
British designer and manufacturer, Haigh Engineering, knows how pressing it is to optimise every inch of floor space – ensuring your production is working as hard, and as efficiently, as possible to fulfil orders.
Primarily manufacturing bedpan macerators for healthcare institutions, and sewage treatment systems for municipal water companies, Haigh Engineering sought a machine upgrade to help them shrink their cutting cycles without compromising on component quality.
They turned to Kingsbury – the UK and Ireland’s exclusive agent for pioneering CNC machine centre manufacturer, Hermle – to find a machine capable of fulfilling the brief.
Kingsbury exceeded their requirements by installing a state-of-the-art Hermle C 42 UMT 5-axis prismatic machining cell at their Ross-on-Wye headquarters.
How did Haigh Engineering partner with Kingsbury?
Conversations began in 2021 when Haigh Engineering identified a need, and an opportunity, to upgrade their CNC machining portfolio.
The business conducted extensive research and shortlisted three suppliers based on their expertise in the required metal-cutting applications. They chose to work with Kingsbury partly because of their exclusivity agreement to sell and distribute Hermle machining centres in the UK and Ireland, but more so because of their unwavering commitment to supporting UK manufacturing businesses like theirs.
Kingsbury’s UK-based support, commissioning, installation, operator training and aftersales services were all intrinsic to swaying the decision for Haigh Engineering, and the business’ consultative approach was instrumental to pairing the Ross-on-Wye manufacturers with the optimal Hermle solution.
How successful has the Hermle C 42 UMT been for Haigh Engineering?
The Hermle C 42 UMT delivers on all fronts, helping Haigh Engineering to remove outdated machines that took up time and resources and make their precious floorspace work even harder than before.
The multi-level tool magazine holds 50 tools, in addition to the standard 42, making a total of 92, paired with a six-pallet storage system that is served by a 3-axis HS Flex Heavy robot.
The robot is robust enough to automatically transfer pallets with a maximum capacity of 1,200kg into the working area, and return them once components have been machined.
This means the levels of engineer interference and downtime have been vastly reduced – improving safety and efficiency across the machining operation, on top of a whopping 50% reduction in cutting cycles.
Haigh Engineering’s production manager, Neil Phillips, has been thrilled with the new time, cost, and productivity gains since installing the automated mill-turn cell in 2022.
“When buying new machine tools, we always look for the best equipment available. We’re delighted to have added this Hermle C 42 UMT cell. As well as allowing for future capacity increase and improved reliability, the Hermle C 42 UMT has also enabled us to take two, less efficient machine centres offline,” said Mr Phillips.
Overall, the actual metal cutting time has been halved compared to the equivalent machining cycles of the older, now disconnected mills.
Moreover, only one inversion of the component at the HS Flex Heavy set-up station is required, rather than the three subsequent re-handlings, saving even more time, energy, and effort.
Haigh Engineering has also been enjoying the previously shrouded production benefits of lights-out manufacturing. That’s because the automated Hermle C 42 UMT mill-turn cell can machine long after regular working hours without engineers needing to nurse it.