OSG supports the manufacturing scene in the UK by providing leading cutting tool technologies to the advanced and competitive British engineering industry
Hirozumi Kubo | OSG UK
Today, world engineering topics tend to focus heavily on countries such as China, the United States, Japan and Germany. However, companies like Clarkwood Engineering is proving to us that manufacturing in Britain is alive and in good shape. Brexit? “You can see that we are flooded with work and we are not affected at all,” Clarkwood Engineering Head CNC Programmer Steven Hall comments.
Founded in 1974, Clarkwood Engineering Limited is a manufacturer of high-quality special fasteners for a wide variety of applications located in Wolverhampton, United Kingdom.
The United Kingdom has been the number one manufacturing powerhouse during the 18th century, and currently ranks 9th in world manufacturing output, according to a 2015 study by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. There is a good chance that sometime, somewhere, directly or indirectly, you already are a benefactor of British products. Having this statistic in mind, have you ever wondered what a day-to-day manufacturing scene is like in the UK? Well, Clarkwood Engineering is one of the representative subcontracting engineering shops that supports the United Kingdom’s competitive engineering industry.
Founded in 1974, Clarkwood Engineering Limited is a manufacturer of high-quality special fasteners for a wide variety of applications. Its key products include bolts, nuts, plugs, socket cap screws, turned parts, washers, and more. Employing 77 staff, Clarkwood Engineering is located in the city of Wolverhampton in the United Kingdom, with an estimate land area of 50,000-square-meter.
As a company that prides itself on superior quality, Clarkwood Engineering continually invests in the latest machinery to enhance accuracy and efficiency. Along with being a registered ISO 9001 company, Clarkwood Engineering has also earned the BSL-3 in the American Petroleum Institute (API) specifications 20E and 20F, which is most rigorous bolting specification level available. So how does Clarkwood Engineering achieve successful sales of their high-end products? This is where OSG comes in.
Today, Clarkwood Engineering employs OSG products for a majority of the machining processes required in the production of various nuts. For face milling of large nuts, the company uses the OSG Phoenix PSTW 6-corner shoulder milling cutter.
OSG is grateful to play a small part in the manufacturing of Clarkwood Engineering’s successful products. One of Clarkwood Engineering’s core products consists of nuts that are specialized for heavy duty subsea and the petrochemical industry, which the company has been manufacturing since its foundation. Super duplex, Inconel and titanium are some of the commonly employed materials and are notoriously known to be highly abrasive to carbide cutting tools. When OSG first visited Clarkwood Engineering, the company was already using premium and expensive cutting tools from well renown global brands. The company is always under pressure to increase production output while achieving cost reduction. Due to quality assurance, OSG products also rank on the higher spectrum in terms of price. However, OSG UK Area Manager Neil Lane straightaway noticed the potential improvements in many of Clarkwood Engineering’s applications.
The production of nuts made of super duplex (30 HRC) that requires side milling is one of such application. The super duplex wears the cutters very quickly and Clarkwood Engineering was actively seeking to reduce cost and improve cycle time. The company was originally using a competitor 4-flute carbide end mill that was approximately 40 percent more expensive than OSG’s UVX-Ti 5-flute cutter.
A nut made of super duplex (30 HRC) that requires side milling. Clarkwood Engineering’s key products include bolts, nuts, plugs, socket cap screws, turned parts, washers, and more.
The UVX-Ti carbide end mill series is one of OSG’s latest milling innovations designed to excel in titanium alloy applications. It features unequal spacing and variable lead geometry to suppress chattering. With its optimal flute shape, smooth evacuation of cutting chips can be achieved at ease. The end mill’s web taper geometry further enhances rigidity to allow high-efficiency milling. The UVX-Ti series is available in 4-flute, 5-flute and long style configuration.
The UVX-Ti carbide end mill series is one of OSG’s latest milling innovations designed to excel in titanium alloy applications.
The competitor tool was able to complete 500 parts at a material removal rate (MRR) of 25 cm3 / min on a Mori Seiki VMC40 vertical machining center. During the cutting trial, OSG’s 16 mm diameter UVX-Ti was able to complete more than 700 parts with a 53 cm3 / min MRR. By matching the tool life alone would have already made the UVX-Ti more superior than the competitor tool based on cost. Not only did the UVX-Ti nearly doubled the tool life and production output against the competitor tool, it also doubled the MRR to enable an even faster cycle time.
OSG’s UVX-Ti variable lead carbide end mill enables faster cycle and longer tool life in Clarkwood Engineering’s super duplex milling application.
A few months later, Clarkwood Engineering CEO Roger Wood showed OSG UK Area Manager Neil Lane the cutter bill and commented that “the UVX-Ti has blown the other tools away, both on cycle time and price.”
From left, OSG UK Area Manager Neil Lane, OSG UK Engineering Manager Hirozumi Kubo and Clarkwood Engineering Head CNC Programmer Steven Hall pose for a photograph at Clarkwood Engineering’s manufacturing facility in Wolverhampton, United Kingdom.
Today, Clarkwood Engineering employs OSG products for a majority of the machining processes required in the production of various nuts, such as the OSG Phoenix PD indexable drill for holes, the AT-1 one pass thread mill for thread milling, and the OSG Phoenix PSTW 6-corner shoulder milling cutter for the face milling of large nuts. All of these tooling are provided with sincere intention to add values for local manufacturers and the high-end British engineering sector.
For more information on OSG’s UVX-Ti carbide end mill series and Clarkwood Engineering
You must be logged in to post a comment.