ACE stands out of the pack

Citation

(2002), "ACE stands out of the pack", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 74 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2002.12774cab.003

ACE stands out of the pack

Keywords: Aircraft industry, Technology, Manufacturing

It was 2.30 on the Friday afternoon just before a British Bank Holiday when Ian Ward, one of the Proprietors of ACE Precision of Rushden, Northants, took a phone call from an Irish aerospace manufacturer that wanted 36 aluminium parts for aircraft seats to be machined, treated and despatched to Ireland ready for assembly first thing on Monday morning (Plate 1).

Plate 1 At ACE Precision Hitachi Seiki vertical machining centres are key to fast delivery

By 4.30 on Saturday the material had been sourced, the method programmed and 36 parts completely machined ready for despatch to Ireland. Such is the determination of this young company, less than 12 months old, that it often beats a delivery promise of 48 hours from initial enquiry. As a result, it is finding itself with a high customer rating in the telecoms, aerospace and Formula One industries.

Ace Precision was formed by Ian Ward and financed by his partner Goe Giammasi in September 2000 with two Hitachi Seiki VS40 vertical machining centres. The objective was to primarily service the telecommunications market but long-term ambitions were to break into Formula One and aerospace. It was part of this experience that led to the choice of machine tools based on meeting the quality, reliability and speed of operation objectives demanded by the industries being served.

However, in selecting a machine tool for the type of work to be undertaken, swarf control was highly critical. Here, the company comments how great it is to have 12,000 revs/ min at the spindle to help achieve high cutting speeds, but if there is no decent swarf removal then you simply run into problems. They reportedly found that this was one area that Hitachi Seiki vertical machining centres scored because swarf is angled away from the worktable and down to two screw conveyors, at the front and rear of the machines. Ace Precision also invested in the optional 70 bar high pressure coolant delivery system to help wash any swarf away from the working zone. As a result the machines run day-in, day-out without problems.

The company maintains the performance of the VS40 must be one of the fastest vertical machining centres on the market with its "look ahead", control, rapid spindle acceleration by the 11 kW drive to the maximum 12,000 revs/min in just two seconds and tool-to-tool change time under one second.

Its engineers comment that the rapid traverse rates are very quick at 40 m/min in X and Y and 30 m/min in Z, while positioning accuracy of &#177 0.0025 mm over the full stroke with a repeatability of ± 0.001 mm, matches their need for precision. In addition, because of the inclusion of automatic tool. length compensation and touch probing, set up times are short.

That Ace Precision is successful can be judged from the fact that by September 2000, after just one months operation, it had over £80,000 of orders queuing on its books with enough work to occupy the two VS40 vertical machines well into the next year. With the rapidly building workload, the directors then decided to order another Hitachi Seiki machine, but this time, the twin-pallet VM40

Production demands were forcing the issue, they could not wait for delivery to which Hitachi Seikils managing director Mike Legg reacted and provided a VM40 on loan until the new one could be installed in November. But, even that was not enough to satisfy the swelling order book and so in December, a third VS40 was quickly delivered to the Rushden factory.

The company now feels the four machines give them the ideal balance for sub-contract work. The VM40 with a pallet change of 12 seconds is ideal for longer production runs and because two of the VS40s, each have a fourth-axis rotary table, this allows more intricate components to be easily machined.

Within just three months of its incorporation, ACE Precision invested over £500,000 in its four vertical machining centres plus a class-leading CADCAM system, tooling and inspection equipment. By any stretch of the imagination ACE's achievement and confidence proved impressive to customers.

"It is our capability to respond that has earned us a reputation for fast delivery," insists Ian Ward, most customers understand if it is urgent, we will do all we can to deliver on time."

This reputation is earning the Rushden company a growing customer base, not only in the UK and Ireland but also Canada and the USA. In motor racing, Jordan Formula One has become a big customer, ordering body, fuel supply, and suspension components mainly in aluminium but also in plastics and exotic materials. Some parts are highly complex such as a titanium suspension component that involved four operations including milling a 3-D surface profile and boring a compound angle hole to a 10 micron tolerance. Each of these 12 parts required nine hours of machining on the VS40.

With the company philosophy to always produce the parts on time and normally deliver early on repeat orders, the capability of the Hitachi Seiki machines and Hitachi Seikils support is seen as vital.

Details available from: Hitachi Seiki UK Limited. Tel: +44 (0)1784 433711; Fax: +44 (0) 1784 437691.