Mini Mill is key to expansion for CS-Products
A trained toolmaker with experience of injection and blow moulding tooling, Robin Chisnall took advantage of voluntary redundancy in 2000 to set up CS-Products, the intention being to provide a tooling maintenance and repair service to local industry.
Situated in Telford, this small sub-contract business has since expanded its remit from the machining of modified and replacement tooling, mainly for the automotive industry, to the design and development of prototype and production tooling, components and equipment. This expansion, resulting for the most part from word of mouth recommendations, has led directly to a switch from manual to CNC machining.
Prompted by an increasing demand for the fast delivery of prototype tooling and components, CS-Products installed a 13hp/8000 rev/min XYZ Mini Mill 560 compact VMC in 2005, followed a year later by a 15hp/8000 rev/min XYZ 710 VMC. The 560mm X axis travel Mini Mill can accommodate workpieces weighing up to 300kg on its 610mm x 370mm table, while the larger VMC with its 710mm X axis travel can accommodate a table load of 500kg on its 760mm x 430mm table.
The two machines are networked, which means programs can be compiled off-line using the XYZ-supplied training package as well as at the machine. ‘We opted for the Mini Mill because it has a good-sized work envelope, it is affordable, and it is quick on one-offs as well as batch work,’ says Robin Chisnall. ‘However, as the business grew we needed a second machining centre with a bigger table and greater X axis travel to accommodate larger components and to allow for the machining of more than one component in a single set-up when fast response is all-important.’
A key factor in these investment decisions is the ease of programming afforded by the Siemens ShopMill conversational control fitted to both XYZ machines. An experienced CNC user accustomed to programming using G and M codes, Robin Chisnall says this requirement had more to do with the demands on his time than any concerns about in-house programming expertise.
‘It came down to a simple conflict of interest. If I was away on a service call and needed a replacement part machined, either I would have to stop what I was doing or have someone capable of programming that part in my absence. Highly skilled machinists are in great demand and this presented a real resource problem. However, a demonstration at XYZ’s Nuneaton showroom convinced me that programming the Siemens ShopMill was less demanding and would make recruitment easier in terms of the skill level required. It is also a Windows-based control, which allows the user to expand a basic program by cutting, copying and pasting.’
Just over a year ago, the company invested in a digitiser, having identified a requirement for the reverse engineering of tooling and components. ‘Customers with large press shops, for example, don’t necessarily have drawings of the actual press tooling or any record of subsequent modifications,’ he points out.
‘Having invested in these new XYZ machine tools and using digitised data, we can now reverse engineer replacement tooling and components, introduce further modifications if required, and machine to a high degree of accuracy and surface finish.’
