High End Tools for High End Machining
Located near High Wycombe, Crownfield Engineering was established in 1966 as a precision subcontract machinist. Today, the company specialises in what it describes as “high end” machining that few other subcontractors will attempt. Industries served include aerospace, defence, instrumentation and medical.
For a number of years, the 24-employee, family-owned business has relied on a large range of milling cutters supplied by ITC. These include: 2001 and 2041 Series two-flute carbide cutters for high metal removal rates; 2052 Series two-flute ballnose end mills specifically for machining aluminium; and 3011/3021 Series three-flute HSS high performance end mills to name but a few.
“ITC ensure that our essential needs are covered and that stock is replenished on a Kanban-type system,” explains the company’s managing director David Bird. “The ITC representative calls by on a regular basis and liaises directly with the machine operators to make sure everything is in hand. Placing the responsibility on ITC means there is one thing less for us to worry about in what is a very busy machine shop. Our customers are increasingly demanding a ‘total’ service from us, so we don’t see why things should be any different for our suppliers.”
Materials processed at Crownfield range from aluminium and steel through to titanium and more exotic alloys such as aluminium-bronze for certain defence jobs. Many of the parts feature complex geometry that require the services of one of the various multi-axis CNC Matsuura machining centres on site at the 10,000 sq/ft facility.
However, Crownfield realises that there is more to successful machining than the machine tool alone.
“Having a machine tool with the capability to offer high speeds and feeds that are compromised by inappropriate or inadequate tooling is not far short of a crime,” says Mr Bird. “Or, put another way, if you spend £300,000 on a machining centre and it’s labouring because of incorrect tool selection then it’s a pretty sorry state of affairs. It’s imperative we achieve maximum productivity from our investments and that is one of the reasons why we continue to use ITC. The cutters they supply never fail to respond to our demands.”
Despite the complex machining and demanding materials, Mr Bird says that the tool life offered by ITC is good, and that surface finish is impressive – many of the parts machined by the company have faces to accept seals, gaskets or O-rings where it is vital to attain a superior finish.
“Crownfield’s unique selling point is that we never compromise on quality,” says Mr Bird. “Quality has to be 100%, which is why we invest in high quality machine tools and high quality cutting tools.”
With the broad experience, capacity and resources offered by Crownfield, the ISO9002-accredited company handles all types of work from prototype and pre-production engineering through to complete production schedules (from urgent response to long term collaborative planning), which also involves moving beyond machined components into the supply of complete assemblies.
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