“We have to be prepared to invest in the most viable equipment that will turn our ideas into reality – machine tools that can be relied upon to generate the envisaged results,” he says.

Over the last six years, Barker Collins has carefully invested more than £1 million each year in high-tech machines, and each installation has been to a specification directly targeted to achieve specific, planned results and, effectively, to enable the company to take methods engineering to a higher level than competitors.

“You have to develop the willingness to spend to develop each process; getting it right invariably leads to higher rates of return – both for us and our customers. Indeed, in our case, the resulting successes then create the funds required for the next equipment purchase, and this enables us to continually move the business forward.”

The machining of a 100 pairs of large clevises for off-shore platforms is one example of the approach, says Chris Carter, who points out that having a series of CNC horizontal boring machines offering machining envelopes of up to 3,000 mm by 2,000 mm by 1,300 mm in X, Y and Z axes, gives the company the freedom to properly tool up and program the parts without being hampered by constraints on capacity, power and accuracy.

“The result,” he says, “is that the customer benefited from savings in machining cycle/lead times and, as a result, lower machining costs.”

He continues: “Rather than turn a 1 m diameter, as was tradition on this part, we interpolated the diameter on the five-axis horizontal borer, milled the face and an adjacent large spigot diameter, then drilled a series of 36 holes of 20 mm diameter on a pitch circle diameter on the flange.

“The table was then indexed and the main clevis bore was rough and finish bored through twin flanges that form the outer connecting yoke of the component.

“Similarly, on a mating end cap component, in addition to producing the main bore some 350 mm diameter through the forging, the machine table was indexed 90deg to face and bore a large spigot, followed by threadmilling in the bore for a critical M280 x 4P-6H thread some 300 mm deep. The process had to maintain a surface finish within 1.6 Ra on the flank of the thread.”

Discussing the methods and techniques used on such high risk and complex components, the Barker Collins team always interfaces with customer and listens very carefully to the problems before determining solutions.

“As a result, we set out operational methods, determine fixturing to support the part correctly to eliminate vibration and distortion,” continues Chris Carter. “Then we set about developing the tooling and the machining program before deciding how the part is going to be measured and qualified.”

http://www.engineeringcapacity.com/archive101/2009/december/heavy_engineering/original_thinking_wins_business