Nakamura Hits The Spot For G-Tech

When the turning department at Merseyside-based G-Tech Engineering Ltd was having difficulty keeping pace with demand, the company recognised it needed to reduce cycle times, and lead times and add one-hit machining that could be conducted lights-out. The answer was the Nakamura-Tome AS200LMSY from the Engineering Technology Group (ETG).

As a high-precision subcontract machine shop, G-Tech Engineering has a host of machine tools from a variety of vendors, but two machines that stand out are a 30+ year-old Nakamura TW10 and an ageing Nakamura WT150. Both purchased second-hand, these machines from an era gone by justify their place on the shop floor as they still retain their precision, productivity levels and reliability. So, when it came to buying a new machine, it was an obvious choice for the Wirral company.

Founded in September 2002 with four staff and a handful of machines, G-Tech Engineering Ltd now has eight full-time staff that are dedicated to programming, setting, maintaining and operating the company’s 14 CNC machine tools. Specialising in high-precision CNC machined components for the medical, oil, gas, nuclear, aerospace and catering industries, the ISO: 9001:2015 certified manufacturer has a particular penchant for processing specialist metals and challenging materials.  As a subcontract manufacturer, batch sizes can vary between one-offs and prototypes up to ongoing production runs of 1000s-off – it is here that the flexibility, fast set-ups and productivity rates of the Nakamura-Tome brand come into their own.

Recalling the situation, Andy Kirkwood Senior Production Engineer at G-Tech Engineering said: “We needed to replace a reliable but ageing two-axis chucking turning centre with something more up-to-date. We selected a Nakamura AS200 LMSY to join our already mission-critical Nakamura TW10 and WT150 multi-axis turning centres.  We have found these machines to be very high-quality pieces of equipment with a lot of impressive features packed into a small footprint, and the new Nakamura AS200LMSY is a particularly shining example of this.”

As Andy adds: “The Nakamura has replaced a lathe from another manufacturer and the benefits we have seen in comparison to the lathe it replaces include the ability to conduct ‘one-hit’ machining of a lot more parts. This saves both the time and labour that would be required when undertaking a multitude of separate operations.  We enjoy the benefits that the high specifications of the new machine. It allows us to consistently and repeatably hit tight tolerances on production runs, such as the flatness concentricity of under 0.03mm between spindle transfers over a diameter of 150mm. Another new feature that will prove invaluable is the Y-axis travel of 80mm (+/-40mm). This is excellent for the footprint of the workstation and it will save us time by enabling us to complete a lot more milling operations in the same setup, reducing the need for secondary milling operations.”

Adding his thoughts on the new Nakamura-Tome AS200LMSY installed at the end of 2023, G-Tech Engineering Managing Director Gavin Melling says: “As we continue to grow and expand our business, investing in new flexible and reliable machinery is more important than ever to keep our lead times as tight and efficient as possible whilst being price competitive with impeccably high-quality levels – the investment in the Nakamura-Tome AS200LMSY is helping us to achieve these goals. The familiarity with the FANUC CNC interface on our new AS200 means it has been a relatively quick process to bring our engineers up to speed with the programming and setting up of jobs. Our team really like the Nakamura software suite and its ease of use. In addition, the small footprint machine has drastically improved cycle times and it continually delivers excellent precision levels – and this is something that we have come to expect from Nakamura work centres. They really are an invaluable asset to our operation and the support from ETG from day one has also been impeccable.”