Precision Engineering

UK companies working in manufacturing industries such as precision engineering are bullish about the future of their business, with British businesses expecting to recover better than their American counterparts. It is argued that US firms have cut deeper into their headcount and as a result, the UK companies are better-placed to deliver better services in the CNC machining market in the coming months.

What is more, 72 percent of British precision engineering businesses expect there will be a number of acquisition opportunities in the sector over the course of the next 18 months. The relatively smaller size of the UK’s manufacturing firms compared to the giants of China, the US and elsewhere has made them more able to adapt quickly to the changing environment. Many UK manufacturers have generally taken strong, sensible measures and are surviving and even thriving. UK machine tools manufacturers have sought out contracts further afield in Eastern Europe with some success. Machine tool companies currently identify aerospace as a target market.

CNC machine shop services.

Domestically in the UK, government too plays a part, with grants to purchase equipment such as CNC lathes and milling machines. It does so under the Grant for Business Investment programme. Typical of the industries that benefit are expert CNC and EDM precision machine shops, producing complex or difficult to machine components that need very close tolerance machining, including 5 axis machining, micromachining, wire EDM, and 3 4 and 5 axis CNC machining. All of this is achieved via state of the art machines and a highly trained and motivated workforce. 5 Axis CNC Machining is for incredibly demanding machining of complex designs to execute a very accurate component. True 5 axis machining. CNC Machining – 3 and 4 Axis CNC machining services are for close tolerance applications. While precision engineering companies boast specialism in 5 Axis work, 4 Axis Milling is for the truly discriminating needs of the aerospace and fibre industries. Precision Machining is defined by exacting tolerances of.00004″ to.004″ (one to one hundred microns). Read the rest of this entry »

When it comes to engineering, precision is everything. There are different types of engineering of course but they all come back to two central themes, which are measuring and cutting. Sometimes the distances that are being measured are large, such as when building bridges or other large structures. But even with the large structures there are a lot of small measurements to be made and accurate cutting is necessary.

Engineers call on a set of tools that while they can be quite simple, have to be very accurate. Many of them could be part of a language of their own, as the average person has probably never heard of them, such as micrometers, vernier calipers, and even dial indicators.

There is an old saying that is more famous among carpenters, which goes ‘measure twice, cut once’. What that means is if you take the time to measure accurately, then you should cut in the right place. And it is much easier to measure twice than cut twice. It is also often much cheaper to only measure one time.

Much of an engineer’s job is done on the drawing board. But they also have to do a lot of other work such as strength testing, making sure builders are following plans and making sure parts are assemble correctly.

An example of firstly how accurate some engineering tools are, and also of how little known the tools used by engineers are, would be micrometers. I am fairly confident that if you are not an engineer, that you don’t know what a micrometer is used for. It is a tool that can measure very, very small distances, up to one millionth of a millimeter. They are used to create things such as precision cutting tools, medical devices, and other delicate objects that need to be extremely accurate. Read the rest of this entry »

Outsourcing has emerged as a feasible strategy to cut cost in matters related to complex tradeoffs. However, it became popular only during the recessionary phase. Subcontract engineering also figures in the same domain. It is also a type of outsourcing, which aims at reducing the overall engineering cost of a firm. In the field of international business, it is considered a kind of technological cooperation between the two parties.

What Is Subcontract Engineering?

Generally, it is a relationship between two firms that is based on partial or complete production of goods and services. To be more specific, it is a situation in which a firm offers a subcontract to another independent body to undertake the processing or full production of a component, part or material as per the given guidelines.

Why Subcontract Engineering?

There may be various reasons for subcontracting a part of your business to some other party. For instance, due to lack of space in your own engineering facility, you may approach a subcontracting firm for developing specific engineering solutions as desired by you. Cost may be another important factor for such a decision. There is every possibility of getting a better deal, which saves both your time and money. Lack of expertise in a particular area may also be an influencing factor behind your decision. Whatever the case may be, many firms have started availing these services. Read the rest of this entry »