Starrag cutting demos draw in crowds at Manufacturing Solutions Ireland

Starrag UK celebrated a very successful Manufacturing Solutions Ireland 2022 exhibition in Limerick where the cutting demonstrations on its just-launched Bumotec 191neo multi-axis machining centre attracted interested visitors non-stop throughout the two-day exhibition.

Galway-based precision engineering specialists Dawnlough Ltd are also very pleased with the machine – having now installed the Swiss-built, computer numerically-controlled (CNC) unit at its 50,000ft2 site to enable the company to “create a more stable and more efficient process“ for the manufacture of a variety of components for robotic surgical applications.

The company is a leading provider of precision engineered components, assemblies and custom equipment, for example, and in many cases it acts as an effective and efficient one-stop manufacturing service to a myriad of medical device and aerospace companies throughout Ireland and further afield.

Organised jointly by the UK manufacturing supply chain trade association, the Gauge and Tool Makers Association, and the Technological University of the Shannon and held at the Moylish Campus, the exhibition attracted more than 1,600 exhibitors, delegates, manufacturers and visitors from across Ireland and the UK.

“And it feels like most of that number visited our stand!,” says Starrag UK’s Director for Sales and Applications, Lee Scott. “We were busy non-stop for both days discussing potential applications for the Bumotec and, as a result, we have a long list of follow-up appointments with companies of every size. It is no exaggeration to say that we had successful conversations with a tremendous number of medical device and aerospace OEMs and sub-contractors.”

In addition to being a most cost-effective route to the machining of small, complex parts (also for the luxury goods and micromechanics sectors), the popularity of the Bumotec machine for medical device manufacturing was undoubtedly bolstered by the fact that it was powered up and machining ‘live’ during the exhibition.

The machine – which combines a host of different operations such as milling and turning with grinding, polishing, skiving, gear hobbing and diamond cutting – was producing lumbar interbody fusion cages, for spinal fixation, from 40 mm diameter polyether ether ketone (PEEK) bar, utilising up to 15 tools in a single set-up, including finishing the component fully deburred.

The ability of the nine-axis Bumotec 191neo to manufacture complex parts in a single set-up was, in fact, the determining factor in Dawnlough Ltd becoming the first company in Ireland to install the machine, as Managing Director Brian McKeon, explains:

“Compared to our existing five-axis machining route on particular processes – components for robotic surgical applications – we recognised how the Bumotec’s multi-axis, high-accuracy capabilities would enable us to create a more stable and more efficient process,“ he says.

“Dawnlough never hesitates to invest in manufacturing technology that will benefit our processes and therefore our customers, too, and the Bumotec is the latest addition to a comprehnensive portfolio of CNC machinines that do exactly that.“