Workholding system simplifies clamp production

Bestobell Aviation has replaced a six stage machining process, involving three separate machines, with a machining centre and a bespoke workholding solution from WDS.

Bestobell Aviation has replaced a six stage machining process, involving three separate machines, with a machining centre and a bespoke workholding solution from WDS.

The initiative has enabled the company to halve it's labour costs and increased production twelve-fold, resulting in sales of £400,000 from their range of high duty forged clamps for the aerospace industry.

Bestobell Aviation has been producing clamps, seals, hoses and insulation material at it's site in Slough since 1929.

The majority of the company's production is for the aircraft industry and it claims to have a component on virtually every aircraft in operation today, from the Euro fighter Typhoon to Boeing's latest 777-passenger jet.

The high duty stainless steel clamps in particular, are used by prestigious manufacturers such as Rolls Royce and BAE to secure jet pipes and accessories on or near jet engines.

The bodies of the clamps are machined in two parts from forged S150 grade stainless steel and have to be milled, drilled and slotted to accept screw-tightening latches on each side.

The process traditionally required a purpose built saddle-milling machine, a broaching machine and a horizontal mill, each machine only accommodating one item at a time.

A Bridgeport CNC is now used to take care of the machining and tool changes, while the work holding solution from WDS means that twelve items at a time can be machined.

There are twenty-one sizes of clamp in Bestobell's range and in order to produce different sizes efficiently, the workholding solution had to be quick and simple to adapt.

To achieve this, the base plate and six fixing bolts remain in-situ, only the saddles and clamps have to be changed.

As a result, the time taken for a complete set-up change has been reduced from three hours to a matter of minutes.

Tim Firth, Bestobell Aviation's Module Engineer responsible for the project comments, "The aircraft industry has recently implemented a policy of reducing supplier costs by 5% year on year, this has focussed us on finding ways of making savings in production.

Thanks to the solution provided by WDS, our production capacity has increased dramatically and the labour time reduced by at least 40%.

What was a labour intensive operation to machine each clamp piece individually has now become a ten-minute job with increased accuracy and repeatability.

The volume of work we now have has justified the investment and increased our flexibility as well as competitiveness in this area".

From a single site visit and product diagrams supplied by Bestobell, WDS Sales Engineer Nick Gautier was able to provide a completely bespoke solution.

A precision ground T-slotted WDS base plate was machined specifically to fit the Bridgeport bed, six stainless steel saddles and matching clamps were created, each to hold two forgings.

The saddles have profiled tops designed to key into a recess at the back of each component, while stainless pegs ensure each piece is precisely centred.

The machine can be loaded with twelve parts and will carry out all six machining stages, freeing a production engineer to perform other tasks.

Commenting on the WDS solution, Tim Firth added, "WDS's service was first class, they were able to provide the base plate with the first set of saddles and clamps after minimum involvement from us.

The equipment worked perfectly first time and we are now taking delivery of a set for all our popular sizes".

Bespoke work holding solutions such as the one supplied to Bestobell Aviation form part of WDS's comprehensive range of fixturing system solutions.

The range extends from machined profiles, machining beds and base plates to automated hydraulic and pneumatic clamping systems.

WDS's expertise in developing and supplying exclusively engineered products also extends to their range of standard parts where bespoke items are often created by incorporating additional features or using non standard materials and finishes.

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