Excetek EDM investment provides productivity for Key Plastics
Originally established in 1986, Key Plastics employs 40 staff at its imposing 35,000 ft2 facilities in Bray, Co Wicklow Ireland. From here the company operates injection moulding machines up to 650 tonnes to produce components for customers in variou
s industry sectors, including aerospace, automotive and medical device technology.
Supporting the moulding department Key Plastics has always operated a toolroom. However, it has essentially tripled its size during the past three years. It has grown to such an extent that a significant area of the facility has been given over to toolmaking. The decision to expand this service is providing rewards; in 2013 the company completed around 30 tools.
As Company Director, Ciaran Downes, explains: “In the face of global competition the mould tool industry has been forced to restructure. There is now a shortage of companies building and maintaining mould tools in the UK and Eire. The fact that we have invested to offer a complete service in-house has secured a number of contracts for us. From component concept to tool design through to tool manufacture and component sampling, we can offer the customer support at every stage of the process. While some tools produced will stay with us, others will be sent to the OEM or even other injection moulding suppliers.”
Today, the extensively equipped toolroom allows the company to offer precision machining of complex components for both low and high volume quantities. Seven machining centres with up to 2 m travel, a number of CNC turning centres, as well as full grinding capability provide the machining capacity. A precision laser welder is available on site for maintaining mould cavities and cores welding down to 0.3 mm without affecting the parent material of the tool.
Following recent purchases, the EDM department now has four CNC die sink EDM machines and two CNC wire EDM machines. As well as a new V350G Excetek wire EDM machine, Warwick Machine Tools (WMT) also supplied a fully refurbished ONA Techno H 400 die sinking EDM machine to Key Plastics.
Business costs have to be managed at every opportunity as Ciaran Downes says: “Getting your pricing right is a very fine balancing act; we have to compete with global competition and also offer a technically superior support service. Of course we can’t beat the hourly rate of a low cost economy, but we are offering high quality tooling at economic costs so the customer can appreciate the total value we offer. Helping us achieve this, the Excetek V350G provides the latest EDM technology at a competitive price.”
Both the large ONA die sink and the compact Excetek wire cut machines have been readily accepted by the operators, even though they have different NC systems to the existing Japanese and Swiss machines. With over 25 years’ experience on wire cut and die sink EDM machine tools, WMT’s local Field Service Engineer, Paul Barry, conducted the training with the staff that now operate the machines every day at Key Plastics.
“Both of these machines use logically intuitive conversational-based questions and answers to create programs, so most operators pick it up quickly and can be producing parts within a day. The Excetek’s NC system is Windows-based running on an embedded 64-bit PC with the company’s HMI formatted for easy operation. It retains a lot of the Windows functionality, so it is very easy to learn how to build a program. Here, they program at the machine tool, so the logical programming layout was very important,” Paul Barry says.
With Paul Barry now based in Ireland, local support is first rate. “Engineering backup is important because this service is vital to keep the machines running at their peak. Having a service engineer based locally was a massive positive when choosing the machine” Ciaran Downes states.
An unknown machine prior to the investment the V350G Excetek has been well received by all the staff at the company. Another key factor was the compact size of the machine, which has a footprint of only 2m by 2m but is fitted with a 600 litre tank, capable of accommodating workpieces up to 700 x 500 x 215 mm and weighing up to 450 kg. This fully specified wire machine has U and V axis travels of 80 mm and +/- 30o taper capability and an accuracy of 3 micron over 100 mm.
Product designs are usually sent to the toolroom as solid models. Using its Delcam and Solid Edge software the company operates a paperless 3D environment, other than the paper general assembly drawings which are sent out with the completed tools. As a full service provider Key Plastics works with its customers to carry out feasibility studies on moulded parts. This allows changes to be suggested, which will improve the productivity of the mould tool prior to it manufacture.
Working in most materials, including most engineering polymers such as Delrin and nylon, the toolroom also produces the copper electrodes used by the die sinkers. Most mould tool steels, including P20, H13, D2, Stavax, and so are machined depending on the customers preference. “Most medical tools are stainless, but general moulds are H13 hardened, or P20 if an economical solutions is required,” says Ciaran Downes.
The diverse mix of materials being loaded onto the Excetek V350G highlights its high speed cutting capability, as well as productivity enhancing functions such as its Auto Wire Threading (AWT). A very sophisticated design, the Excetek AWT provides continuous unmanned operation day and night. Unlike other systems it can thread at the point of the wire breakage, and a water jet function enables the machine to thread submerged workpieces.
Ciaran Downes concludes: “We have invested in these EDM machines from WMT for the future improvement of the business. Now, with the number of machine tools available in the toolroom, we can support the demand from the various industries we support.”
Established in Taiwan in 2006, Excetek Technologies focuses solely on wire cut electro discharge machine tool technology. Employing 75 highly skilled staff the company builds around 200 EDM machines per year.