With desires of developing business in the micro-machining market and improving surface finishes, accuracy and productivity times at its world class manufacturing facility, Avenue Mould Solutions has invested in a Kern Pyramid Nano machining centre.

Finalists and twice winners in the ‘Toolmaker of the Year’ category in the Plastics Industry Awards for seven consecutive years and silver certified mouldflow consultants, the Sligo based toolmaker has an impeccable pedigree. However, specialising in the design and production of mould tools for the medical device industry Avenue has its sights set on continual improvement and development - and this led them to the Kern Pyramid Nano.

Managing Director, Mr Felim McNeela comments: “The purpose of acquiring the Kern machine is two dimensional. Firstly we wanted to improve the accuracies and surface finishes on the components we currently manufacture. Conducting multi-cavity machining is not only an extremely precise art, but it is also a visual thing and achieving impeccable surface finishes is vital. The second aspect for us is the aim of diversifying into the growing micro-machining industry – and to do this you need extremely precise machine tools.”

Certified to ISO:9001 and ISO:13485 (medical device manufacture) the manufacturer of inhaler and pen injector mould tools to name a few, noted opportunities in the aerospace, nuclear and optics industries as the founding basis for the Kern purchase in February 2008. Mr McNeela continues: “We have high specification machining centres that are as good as anything on the market and can comfortably deliver accuracy levels to +/- 4 microns. However, more of our work has extremely tight tolerance bands and we find ourselves making cuts then measuring the workpiece, then taking another cut and checking again and so on. This is time consuming and increases our production times. However, the accuracy levels of the Kern have completely eradicated this situation as it comfortably works to +/- 2 microns and can achieve an unbelievable accuracy level of +/- 1 micron (0.001mm) on the workpiece.”

To obtain such levels of accuracy, Avenue operates its machine tools in a temperature controlled room that maintains a constant 22 degrees C. Despite having the ideal environment for micro-machining, Avenue doesn’t have the confidence in its current machining centres to comfortably work to the ever tightening tolerances without constantly monitoring the situation. Avenue wanted to work in a tolerance band far below the 10 micron band provided by its current machines – and the Kern Pyramid Nano has delivered that, working to +/- 2 microns without the tedious checking and re-cutting process.
 
With regard to its surface finishes, Avenue demands impeccable machine finishes to eliminate hand finishing as a final operation. The company manufactures its mould tools from stainless and tool steel with a hardness levels up to 54-56 Rockwell. Hard material machining commonly causes poor surface finishes, however the concrete polymer base combined with hydrostatic drives and guideways of the Pyramid Nano delivers surface finishes to an unconceivable 0.05 microns Ra value by milling – something Avenue aims to achieve. 
 
Working to such precision levels, the exceptional Kern Pyramid Nano has initially been employed to conduct the high speed machining operations at Avenue. Fully utilising the 50,000rpm spindle of the Pyramid Nano, Avenue uses the machine for prototyping, research and development machine and production.  Workpieces are held on an Erowa workholding/pallet system which gives part interchange ability between different machine tools and this enables Avenue to comfortably produce batches of 20 to 60 components on the 5-axis Pyramid Nano.
 
“To obtain such high accuracy levels requires the correct environment, tooling, operator and machine. We have extremely skilled staff and a temperature controlled machine shop and the applicable tooling, but it is only now that we have the machine to reach the accuracy levels to take us into the micro machining sector. This is a culture change to the whole company. Our staff is undergoing training and our processes also have to change to meet the specialised micro machining industry. To demonstrate the level of change required, our new Kern machine is more accurate than our current CMM. The nature of our company is to continually drive forward. As we make steps into the micro market the Kern Pyramid Nano will be central to our machining needs,” concludes Mr McNeela.