Now entering its fourth decade of business, Horndean-based precision engineer, Di-Spark puts its success down to the founding values of the business, in particular partnerships and using the best available technology.
Beginning life as a small, sub-contract, supplier of wire eroded components to meet the needs of the local toolmaking sector, Di-Spark invested in two Fanuc wire erosion machines. As time passed the company added spark erosion technology to its portfolio creating a need for the manufacture of electrodes and fixtures and the addition of other metal cutting machine tools.
This addition of milling and turning technology opened up new opportunities for Di-Spark and, under the guidance of David Light, the machining of components became an increasingly important part of the company’s turnover. From what was 100 per cent electro discharge machining when the business was formed in 1980, the split last year was even, with the prediction of advanced metal cutting generating 60 per cent of Di-Spark’s turnover during 2012.
In recent years investment has focused on five-axis and multi-tasking machine tool technology driven by customer demands to reduce costs and to re-engineer manufacturing processes. “We have made significant investments for a company of our size,” says David Light, Di-Spark’s Managing Director. “However, I view it as essential to continue to buy what I see as the best equipment for the job. We could have bought more, less capable machine tools, but that would have been short-sighted in my view as it would have required more labour and a greater number of set-ups to machine the same parts that we can do in one-hit now.
“We have always based our philosophy on, striving for world class performance . One area where my father, who started the business, varied from a traditional toolmaking perspective was that he was adamant that to succeed you had to take labour out of the job, that is why we have always looked to our machine and tooling partners to support us.”
Mr Light’s analogy of his machine tool investment is that of a football team. The EDM equipment is the equivalent of the seasoned journeyman professional footballer, while the multi-axis metal cutting machines are the star performers that will win games in a moment of brilliance. These star performers include eight Mikron five-axis machining centres, and the latest ‘signing’ is a multi-tasking Mazak Integrex j-200.
This convergence of two machines into one is allowing Di-Spark to produce complex, high value, components competitively and move itself further up the supply chain. It is doing this by creating a competitive advantage through new skill sets and adding value, rather than driving prices down. This has seen the business reorganised into four distinct manufacturing cells, each of which focuses a high proportion of their endeavours on a small number of key customers in a variety of industry sectors.
In the same way Di-Spark has also concentrated its efforts on a working with a small, specialised, group of suppliers that are capable of providing the levels of support and technology that enhances Di-Spark’s offering to its customers. WNT (UK) is part of that supply base and has been so for almost four years. “In order for us to develop we have to be in a position to manage and control the production of high quality products using good systems and this requires good supplier support,” says David Light. An example of this is on-time delivery, which is crucial to Di-Spark’s customers and about four years ago Mr Light was becoming frustrated by the lack of availability of cutting tools from its then supplier, this led to a need to over order tools, just in case.
The solution was to install WNT’s vending system and make full use of the ability to stock these machines at no cost to Di-Spark, paying only for the tools used. Tooling costs reduced dramatically, availability of tooling is virtually 100 per cent and the vending machines are now installed in each of Di-Spark’s four business units. “Vending seemed so obvious to me,” says David Light “It followed the exact same principles that we were working to, namely using technology to remove labour from the process and ensuring continuity of production.”
WNT (UK) not only supplies the cutting tools, but also toolholders, which on the five-axis Mikron machines is HSK-based. These toolholders played a role in the specification of the Mazak Integrex j-200, as this was available with an HSK spindle as an option, so existing toolholders could be used for the milling operations. However, turning was another issue. At the time of ordering the machine WNT had just introduced its full range of HSK-T toolholders, specifically designed for turning applications on multi-tasking machine tools.
Up until the arrival of HSK-T, users of multi-tasking machine tools had been limited in their choice of spindle interface. This has had the effect of increasing costs of tooling a new machine tool. Therefore, the development of the ISO standard HSK-T tooling had the effect of opening up the market and creating a more competitive toolholding environment. Users of multi-tasking machine tools now have a choice of spindle interface that is compatible with existing HSK spindles and toolholders creating a more cost-effective solution.
The key factor with HSK-T is the ability to guarantee the centre height of a turning tool when it is being used in a rotating spindle, such as the B-axis found on many multi-tasking machine tools such as the Mazak’s Integrex at Di-Spark, with insert position guaranteed to +/- 0.11 mm on an HSK-T100 toolholder. The manufacturing tolerances, particularly surrounding the drive slots have been reduced by as much as 50 per cent for HSK-T holders, additionally as the key d1 and l1 dimensions comply with ISO 12164-1 (HSK-A form) ensures that HSK-T toolholders can be used on spindles already designed for HSK tooling.
“The arrival of HSK-T from WNT was perfect timing as the ability for us to deal with one company to supply all of our cutting tool and toolholding needs at the right quality and when we need them, fits perfectly with our concept of manufacturing. With WNT taking responsibility for our tooling we are left free to concentrate on producing quality components, on time and to the highest standards,” says David Light.
WNT’s HSK-T toolholders in the carousel of the Maxak Integrex J-200 at Di-Spark
WNT has supplied all of the HS|K toolholders for the new Mazak Integrex J-200 recently installed at Di-Spark
WNT tooling is used throughout Di-Spark, including on the five-axis Mikron machining centres
Di-Spark’s Managing Director, David Light, is a strong advocate of partnerships between suppliers and customers.
