A 27kW, 3m by 1m table, universal head milling centre was regarded as ideal the ideal machine tool for machining oil lubrication manifolds for automotive and marine diesel engines.

C Dugard, UK, reported that within weeks of becoming the exclusive UK agent for Spanish machine tool company, CME Maquinaria, a UK engineering company placed an order for a CME machine tool at the recent UK MACH 2008 machine tool exhibition Managing director of Lunn Engineering Company, Fred Lunn, ordered the latest Modelo FS-4 CNC universal head milling centre

The FS-4 has a 27kW machinin head, a 3000mm x 1000mm table, and was considered by Lunn to be ideal the ideal for machining oil lubrication manifolds for automotive and marine diesel engines.

Lunn said that the company already had a CME machine so had very good knowledge and experience.

He added that the MACH exhibition provided an ideal opportunity to check out competitive products.

He said: "However, when we visited C Dugard's stand and heard they had just taken on the agency and we have very successfully bought machines from them before, we were very confident to place the order of intent there and then".

The CME FS-4 will be delivered in September, 2008, to Lunn's Atherstone factory.

It was originally set up in 1938 as The Rotary Pump Company by Lunn's grandfather, Fred Lunn and father Sidney Fred Lunn.

The company progressively developed into a machine tool business producing hopper feeders and loading devices for Cincinnati centreless grinders, Herbert capstan lathes.

It was noted for its development of the Lunn Davis keyseater that sold around the world.

Later the company moved into conveyor system development and manufacture of five speed gearboxes for the Coal Board alongside the subcontract machining operation.

The company still maintains a design and development operation that includes a recent ultrasonic testing machine for turbine blades and a complete packaging line for DS Smith to suit the new EcoPallet.

With a customer base covering automotive, paper packaging, nuclear power and general machining and employing 21 people, Lunn Engineering has invested over GBP 1 million in the last five years.

Said Lunn: "Our existing CME machine lacks an automatic tool change but the new FS-4 with fully automatic head, 24 tool magazine and Heidenhain control should not only give us an immediate saving of 15 to 20%, but is also very flexible and will be able to easily hold the tight tolerance requirement on the new contracts".

One of the important factors in the purchase decision at the show was the machine's ability to accept fixtures to its 3m bed as well as a fourth axis unit.

So components will be finished complete on the same machine.

The manifold contract involves repeating batch quantities of up to 30 parts and these will be interspersed with a weekly requirement of between five and 15 component batches of complex filter heads and one-off fabrications.

Within the manifold's machining process a 57mm feed hole some 670mm deep will be produced with various cross portings each having tight geometric requirements and critical breakthrough positions.

The CME Modelo FS-1 to FS-6 range of machines is configured with the ISO 50 taper universal head carried on a large horizontal ram capable of being integrated into continuous 5-axis machining sequences.

Built by CME Maquinaria, based in Guipuzcoa in Northern Spain, table sizes are available between 1600mm by 1000m to 4100mm by 1000mm and the vertical Z-axis is up to 7500m.

Thermal compensation is included and hydraulic compensation of the Z-axis is standard.

Across the range, spindle speeds are 50 to 4,000 rev/min with an option of 5,000 rev/min.

Spindle drives can also be specified as direct or with two-speed gearbox.

A range of high speed milling heads can also be specified along with fourth and fifth axis units

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