Samsung lathe from Dugard – ideal for intermittent cutting

Bolton based Beldam Crossley are innovators in their industry and have been since 1876. They have a solid track record of providing industrial sealing technology that protects lives, investments and environments.

They manufacture gasket and sealing products and supply a broad range of sealing solutions to the industrial, marine, aerospace and military markets. Beldam Crossley limited are part of Pexion Ltd, a holding company involved in supporting the market in the manufacture and supply of components within the aerospace/defence/powergen/oil and gas/F1 markets.

The Pexion group supply and manufacture products to incredibly high standard operating to internationally accepted standards including BS EN ISO 9001:2008 and BS EN ISO AS 9100 RevC, therefore failure to achieve specification  is not an option. With that kind of quality mind set enshrined within the business, it should come as no surprise that the same quality ethos is applicable to suppliers.

So, when the group were looking to increase production output and productivity within the machining section of the business it was almost inevitable that they’d end up sourcing it from East Sussex based Dugard, who are the agents for Samsung machine tools in the UK. The management team was supported by Dugard in the decision making process regarding the investment of a suitable machine, with Dugard specifying a Samsung PL25MC Turning Centre with driven tools. The machine was to complement the businesses current skills and machining capabilities supporting the continued drive towards customer expectations on cost, quality and delivery.  The fact that the Samsung PL25MC machine also incorporated the driven tooling function, enhanced the ability of reducing manufacturing times and on time delivery of components due to single processing manufacturing.

The group have excellent machining capabilities with a variety of CNC Lathes and CNC Milling machining centres, machining a range of polymers and steel based exotic materials, but this was the first time they’d worked with Dugard.  The relationship between Dugard and Pexion was a result of  Beldam Crossley senior managers attending the MACH 2012 exhibition in April 2012 at The NEC, Birmingham.  They had visited various machine supplier stands but at the Dugard stand they met John Morning (the Dugard Sales Manager for Scotland).  John is an exceptionally experienced salesman with 22 years in sales under his belt and John’s knowledge of machining and applications impressed the Beldam Crossley team which was a great start for Dugard.  The Samsung PL25MC machine that John demonstrated also met all the specifications required by the business which included robustness, reliability and versatility to machine both polymers and steel components.

Parts machined by the group are 50% Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and 50% steel and they anticipate machining of these materials are set to increase. The business also expects to machine castings and rough forged steels.  Machining castings is not straightforward; it requires the right cutting tools, the right work holding and, most importantly, a machine tool that can handle intermittent cutting and still produce components to the close dimensional tolerances and surface finish.  Most of the steel materials are also manufactured from exotic steels with irregular shapes prior to being machined which is a challenge to any machinist and machine; the Samsung PL25MC handles all this with relative ease.

Giuseppe Ponti, Operations Manager at Beldam Crossley, said, “‘The machine we bought from Dugard was the right choice for us; we wanted a lathe that was both heavy duty and also available on a short lead time; as well as a machine that offered both an abundance of power and also had a 1metre bed-length for our larger parts.  The machine installation has been a real success and the machine handles all of our more difficult applications as well as the easy ones.  We know that we made the right decision and would have no hesitation in ordering another – as and when the work requires it.”