K+K moves to expand machining business

Bletchley-based subcontractor K+K Specialised Engineering has moved to new premises to accommodate extra XYZ CNC machine tools and allow for future growth.

Prototype electronics box milled from solid aluminium block by K+K Specialised Engineering

The company currently machines precision components for the automotive development, motorsport, microwave communications and mechanical handling industries, as well as making jigs and fixtures for UK-based metrology companies.

Commenting on the move K+K director Keith Pain explains: “We would not have done this if it did not make sound economic sense. Our problem, if you can call it that, was that we had become the favoured supplier to several businesses that had also flourished by being responsive to their customers. We were regularly being asked to produce small batches of components instead of just one-offs in extremely short timescales.”

The fact that, typically, there is a very high percentage of metal removal from the raw material is key to the solution that has been adopted by K+K.

“In this situation additional machining centres are able to increase the output without any increase in the workforce,” says Keith Pain.

A significant part of K+K’s recent investment involves two new compact vertical machining centres supplied by XYZ Machine Tools Ltd. These are installed alongside an identical XYZ Mini Mill 560 that K+K has operated for several years. During urgent batch production all three are typically machining similar components, with the cycles phased so that the operator can tend each machine in turn as required. In fact, there is often spare time during which the operator can progress jobs on one of the other, slightly less automated, mills.

The choice of two more XYZ Mini Mill 560s was not only because of the good value that made the economics viable but also the experience gained with the existing machining centre. “Our machine tools have progressed according to the needs of the work and drafting technology,” says Keith Pain. “When we started nearly all drawings were manual and most jobs were one-offs, so manual machines with digital readouts were all that was really necessary, and indeed all we could afford.

"When economic CNC machining arrived we were aware of the benefits, particularly in the case of small batch work, although we investigated several options before investing in a basic XYZ ProtoTRAK-equipped CNC/manual lathe and then a ProtoTRAK CNC/manual mill."

With ever more information arriving as CAD models, and the increase in repeat components, the Mini Mill 560 was the logical next step.

Ideally suited to the type of work and batch sizes typically undertaken by K+K, the concept behind the XYZ Mini Mill 560 is a compact VMC configuration capable of machining the widest possible range of components within the smallest possible machine footprint. A 560 mm (X) by 400 mm (Y) by 500 mm (Z) working envelope is contained within a 2000 mm (width) by 2060 mm (depth) footprint.

www.xyzmachinetools.com

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