R.M Tool and Die (RMT) was founded in 1987 to provide a rapidresponse service to industry. Then, as now, lead times aredecreasing and on-time delivery ever more critical. UKtoolmakers' are also constantly under threat from thestrength of the pound and labour intensive Far East toolroomspromising the earth.

However, specialising in tools for theautomotive industry, RMT has steadily expanded, and now occupiesfour sites at the heart of the Midlands communications network inCoventry and achieves a 98% on-time delivery.

RMTs expansion hasbeen remarkable considering the economic climate and theresultant threat from toorooms worldwide.

Organised in four'Unit Cells', the ability to produce a high qualitymould mirrors the company's portfolio of automotive clients- Aston Martin, Ferrari, BMW, Honda, Rover and Volvo.

Patternmaking, detailed CNC work, and EDM operations, are situated inthree of the 'unit cells'.

However, the main site, isdedicated to the design and manufacture of a wide range of presstools, resin injection mould, blow mould, P20 tool steel RIMmoulds and so on.

It houses three CME BF03 bed mills, installedby Yuasa Warwick Machinery to cater for the expansion and aidon-time delivery, as RMT Managing Director, Mike Waltonexplained.

'All the units are served by the expandingCAD/CAM facility here in Unit 2.

Electronic data currentlyaccounts for the majority of incoming designs, although we havethe facility to handle 'old-fashioned' paper designs.Typically, we will examine the design data and discuss relevantdetail with the client.

Unlike most companies our CNC machiningtechnicians are involved at the design stage using Catia 4.2,Delcam Power Shape and Work NC.

Not only does it give us greaterflexibility but the operators gain a closer understanding of eachproject.

As well as our 'blue chip' automotive clientswe have seen a growth in moulds for fast-moving consumables, theleisure industry and the defence sector.

However, weproject-manage each job, and aim to deliver the component,whether for a top-secret military project or a prototype for aninternational sweet manufacture, in the required time frame.Although our strength is in producing a variety of automotivemoulds, we can produce a twin impression aluminium blow mould fora garden slide using the latest machine tools and manufacturingtechniques in less than five weeks.

We can also use traditionalmanufacturing techniques with CAD/CAM technology to producecost-effective blow mould tooling.

In all cases the three CMEBF03's are essential to our business, machining the bulk ofthe tools.' In Unit 2, one of the CME BF03s was machining aresin prototype model held in bespoke jigs and fixtures whilst asecond was machining out the cavities for an aluminium bumpermould.

In the latter the BF03 was 'water lining',machining small cuts very quickly, utilising the Lemoine systemfitted to two of the machines - allowing travel up to 8metres/min at speeds of 10,000rpm.

Aluminium bumper tools aremanufactured for low volume manufacture such as the Aston MartinDB7, whereas steel tools are required for larger production runssuch as BMW and Rover.

'All our customers are happy for usto generate our own NC paths without referral.' statesWalton cutter paths are networked to PC's situated by themachines and NC data is 'drip fed' to the relevantmachine.

The BF03 can take a table load of 5500kg and with amachining capacity, 2 metre x 1metre cubed, it is ideal for thework we carry out.

Although our automotive tolerances aretypically +/- 0.1mm we can rely on the machine's inherentaccuracy - repeatability and positioning to +/- 0.01mm - whenmachining blow moulds to tighter tolerances.

We will also carryout finished quality control checks using a Stiefelmayer 3Dco-ordinate measuring machine, plotting out a picture of eachcomponent and outputting a record of achieved tolerances.''We pride ourselves on our technical back-up and to date ourcontrolled growth has seen us purchase the technology that hasmet the increased capacity and aided our on-time delivery ethos.To that end, the machining technology and 'toolroomknowledge' at Yuasa Warwick is invaluable as we meet thecontinuing needs of our customer.' concluded Mike Walton.