Latest News UNICUT FULLY AUTOMATES ITS SWARF AND COOLANT HANDLING WITH £170,000 SYSTEM INVESTMENT Go back Subcontract machining specialist Unicut precision has invested £130,000 in a fully automated swarf handling and coolant filtration system for its new bay at the 18,000 ft2 small turned parts production facility at Welwyn Garden City. The installation, part of a £725,000 investment programme that will include purchase of six new CNC controlled turn-mill centres over the next two years and create four additional jobs, was grant funded by the East of England Development Agency (EEDA). The Essorage Flexiline system is some 13 metres long and has been tailored to meet Unicut’s requirements of handling four different material types and to filter its neat oil coolant from the 25 Citizen, three Miyano and two Star turn-mill centres that are installed in the factory. Said Jason Nicholson, joint Managing Director: “The system gives us an important improvement to our working environment by helping to keep the working area clean. It will enable up to 700 litres of neat oil to be saved each month as 98 per cent of our neat oil will be reclaimed. The fully segregated swarf being clean and dry will be ready for immediate disposal.” The two directors Charles Kenny and Mr Nicholson researched systems available over several months to ensure the fully automated operation was not only robust and reliable, but also had a proven track record with installations throughout Europe. This investigation also provided additional awareness enabling them to tailor the system precisely to their production needs. In applying for the Selective Finance for Investment in England grant, Unicut Precision approached UK Grants Limited of Macclesfield to liaise with EEDA. Said Mr Kenny: “Our company is so busy we felt we could not devote time to prepare and follow through the application. By using UK Grants the whole process was seamless and has generated a substantial contribution to our expansion plans.” The Unicut system supplied by Haesler Machine Tools of Stevenage, has 35, 100 litre heavy duty wheeled buckets to accept oily swarf direct from the conveyor systems fitted to each machine. These are wheeled to the input conveyor of the system where the operator identifies the type of swarf and initiates the overhead gantry system to manipulate the bucket to deposit the swarf and oil into a centrifuge. The centrifuge spins off any oil residue which is initially filtered and then pumped into a holding tank and a separate two micron filtration system removes any small fines of material Meanwhile, the dry swarf is transported by the gantry to the appropriate material storage drum and the original bucket is automatically cleaned and positioned at an outfeed conveyor where it queues ready for the operator to make the next exchange of drums. The complete automated cycle takes less than eight minutes and neglecting any changes in the price of neat cutting oils, payback is reckoned by the Unicut directors to be within three years.