Two subcontractors pursuing 'single hit' turn/mill strategies ordered a sliding headstock auto and a high specification multi-axis turning centre direct from the exhibition stand of C Dugard at MACH.

Two precision subcontract companies pursuing 'single hit' turn/mill strategies ordered a sliding headstock auto and a high specification multi-axis turning centre direct from the exhibition stand of C Dugard at MACH 2006. Said Eric Dugard managing director: 'The stand was buzzing right through to closing time on Friday and while we took several orders and a host of enquiries, both these exhibition machines were ordered at the show and delivered straight from the stand to the customers.' Atlas Precision Engineering of Sturminster Marshall in Dorset, a company that installed the first Dugard Eagle 25 sliding headstock lathe in the UK six months ago, had already filled its capacity so managing director Paul Francis used the show to hunt for a second machine. This time to satisfy his aerospace, plastic moulding and fuel system customers, he wanted a larger capacity machine and decided the Eagle 32 with subspindle best met the need and budget available to perform single cycle operations.

Said Paul Francis: 'Both machines have interchangeability of tooling and it's ideal for small batch sizes and production runs we have between 100 and 72,000 parts in materials that vary from plastics to stainless steels.' Also in the south, aerospace contractor Williams and Co (Southampton), a producer of complex hydraulic components, many for pumps and motors, was attending the show seeking out a high specification turn/mill centre with Y-axis crossfeed.

David Fripp, managing director of the Southampton company, is looking to enhance the company's existing production techniques of machining larger quantities with fewer operations for customer draw-off from stock to a 'machine to order' system where parts would be made with quick set up in batches of between 50 and 100.

To do that he used the MACH show to discuss how best to combine operations and then sought out the best overall package of machine specification, tooling and supplier support to perform the task.

The machine that best met his brief was the Hyundai Kia 210 SY with subspindle and Y-axis crossfeed.

With the order placed on the Wednesday of the show, it was installed on the next Thursday after the show closed, commissioned the next day by C Dugard engineers and David Fripp's team, drawn from the workforce of 20 people, sent to Hove for training the Tuesday after Bank Holiday.