Within 10 days of installing a 14-axis Citizen M32-V CNC sliding head turning centre, precision turned parts specialist C&M Precision of Maldon, Essex, completed a contract of 10,000 hydraulic connectors that involved passing some two tonnes of 1¼ inch steel through the machine.

Says managing director John Cable: “The M32 was installed within four days in the machine shop which involved a lot of work by the Citizen Machinery team due to the high specification we had ordered. It was then set up for the job and from pressing the start button, it ran continuously day and night including being totally unmanned through the first and every other night. It never missed a beat.”

But then Mr Cable and his team of setters are not strangers to the Citizen top of the-range M-Series. His company has already installed two M32-V machines over the past two years following earlier purchases of smaller capacity Citizen M16 and M12s. The decision to add the third M32 was a logical step. “We had a rising order book for components up to 32mm diameter involving complex milling operations that we could complete in single machining cycles,” he reveals. “For tasks such as this, the machine is ideal.”

He maintains that his setters are so familiar with Citizen’s M-series machines and they always specify options to ensure the maximum productivity and machine utilisation can be achieved. He adds: “This means we are able to be very competitive, maintain delivery promises and achieve the level of quality that is very consistent due to the repeatability of the machine.”

C&M Precision’s M32-V was ordered with Iemca bar feed, a special LNS Turbo swarf conveyor able to accept both stringy and chipped swarf, Absolent filtration, fully programmable robotic unload coupled to a parts conveyor plus the Coolblaster 2,000psi high pressure coolant system.

Mr Cable adds: “If you plan to run unmanned then you need confidence the machine will repeat its cycle. The last thing you want is to come in the next day and find the night’s production wasted.”

The hydraulic connector component required 10 tools to complete the part but as Mr Cable maintains, it was the added flexibility of the two Y-axis cross feeds on the machine that made the job cost-effective by allowing the single production cycle to drill off centre holes in the side of the component. As well as turning, drilling, boring, grooving and threading, each component had to be roll marked with a code number.

The Citizen M32-V is able to carry up to 80 tools of which 20 can be driven. It is able to cut with three tools simultaneously at the main and sub-spindle – an important feature that significantly reduces cycle times.

C&M Precision, formed in 1992, is a £1.5 million turnover precision subcontractor with a 4,100ft² machine shop in Maldon. It employs nine people of which six are machinists. In addition to the five Citizens, two larger capacity turn/mill centres with twin turrets are installed alongside a pair of 2-axis lathes.

Citizen UK
www.citizenmachinery.co.uk

C & M Precision Ltd
www.cnc-turning-capacity.co.uk