Miyano lathes keep YPEL turning

Established as a sliding-head turned parts subcontractor in 2001 by Michael Laybourne, Yorkshire Precision Engineering Ltd (YPEL) diversified into fixed-head turning six years later with the purchase of a new, Japanese-built Miyano BNJ-42SY twin-spindle, twin-turret lathe. The 42 mm bar-fed machine was supplied by the sales agent at the time, Macro Machine Tools, which became part of Citizen Machinery UK in 2011.

YPEL was so impressed with the lathe’s performance that when a similar, second-hand machine became available a year later, Michael and his financial director wife Lynda snapped it up. Both machines have served as workhorses ever since, running virtually continuously on weekdays, including a considerable amount of lights-out production, and frequently at the weekends too.

The family way

In the intervening 20 years, a lot has changed at the Keighley, West Yorkshire factory, which is now run by Michael and Lynda’s sons Sam and Jack, both time-served engineers, like their father. In November 2024, they bought a modern, larger Miyano of 65 mm bar capacity, a BNE-65MYY.

Managing Director Sam Laybourne comments: “Parts come off the BNE twice as quickly as one of our BNJs can produce them, while the two Y-axis turrets mean we can finish components of higher complexity in a single hit. The new Miyano is also more rigidly and accurately built, and more thermally stable than other lathes on the shop floor.”

He states that a key feature of the BNE is its box slideways, which are hand scraped to near-perfect smoothness and flatness. Furthermore, box ways rather than linear guideways provide better rigidity for selecting higher cutting data when turning and especially when milling. This construction contributes substantially to the machine’s productivity, particularly as prismatic machining frequently accounts for between 20% and 50% of a cutting cycle.

Service with a smile

YPEL has been in contact with Citizen Machinery UK since 2011, when the company took over responsibility for Miyano turning centres. Jack confirms that the service received over the years has been consistently reliable. Indeed, it prompted him and Sam to visit Citizen’s stand at the MACH 2022 exhibition, where the company was demonstrating a BNE-65MYY. The seed was sown and the lathe arrived in Keighley a couple of years later.

There are many attributes of the latest Miyano that both brothers appreciate. Principal among them is the machine’s stability, both mechanically and thermally, which results in holding tolerances down to ±10 microns.

Investment continues

The successful implementation of the Miyano BNE-65MYY recently prompted the subcontractor to upgrade its capacity further by investing in another new Miyano: a BNJ-51SY7 LFV model delivered in May 2026.

The 51 mm capacity lathe benefits from Citizen’s simultaneous four-axis LFV (low-frequency vibration) chip-breaking technology, which is capable of operating on the X and Z axes of both the main and sub spindles at the same time. The machine is therefore suited to the reliable, lights-out manufacturing of parts from malleable materials that create long, stringy swarf.