Six Of The Best

With 75% of its turning centres bought from Dugard Machine Tools, it is safe to say that C&K Precision Engineers Ltd is reaping the rewards of working with the South Coast machine tool specialist.

The Stoke-on-Trent manufacturer is a subcontract machining, assembly and fabrication business serving the medical, aerospace, surveillance and general manufacturing sectors. Working in these high-end segments, C&K Precision demands machine tools capable of delivering high-quality, tight-tolerance workpieces from the most challenging material grades. 

Matthew Kelsall from C&K Precision Engineers says: “We moved to a new large facility in 2017, and since then, we have continually grown. We’ve invested in new machines with a better working environment and aim always to increase productivity. There is a skills shortage, and we are lucky to have a good team around us, but we have to maximise that with the most productive machines.”

This is why six of the company’s eight turning centres have been purchased from Dugard Machine Tools. Alluding to why the second-generation business founded in 1969 keeps returning to Dugard, Matthew says: “One of the main things is reliability. The first Dugard machine we bought has been with us for six years and has been remarkably reliable. It’s a very robust and rigid machine with box guideways, and we need that as we machine many exotic materials – we have a lot of faith in the machine.”

The turning centres supplied by Dugard are all fitted with a Siemens CNC system. “With a lot of machine tool manufacturers, if you want a machine built to order, it typically takes twelve months to wait, and we simply could not wait for that. Dugard had a machine in stock with many additional bells and whistles, such as a sub-spindle, that we never had before. The success of that machine led us to buy two more machines. That’s because if something serves you well, you stick with what you know.”

“Since we purchased the first machine, we found that we could get more and more work through it, which eventually created a bottleneck. We had to do something about the bottleneck, so we bought a second machine with a Y-axis last year. We have now just had the third machine installed,” says Matthew.

As a turner operating four machines at C&K Precision Engineers, Matthew Gerrard adds: “The machines are built extremely well, and they perform brilliantly on materials like inconel 625 and titanium – they fly through the material. You can make massive cuts on the Dugard SMEC machines, whereas others can stall. This is due to the really high quality and high specification motors and the box way construction. We also love Siemens control as it is very user-friendly and has a lot of technical add-ons. If we are doing jobs out of titanium that may have just a 0.9mm wall thickness, the Dugard SMEC machines ensure that you don’t get any vibration. Additionally, the machines have BMT65 toolholders that are very large and robust for heavy-duty cutting.”

Looking at why the company has chosen the models that it has, Matthew Gerrard adds: “Looking at the first machine we bought with the Y-axis, it’s just so much more versatile and capable than our other machines. We have other machines with live tooling, but the Dugard Y-axis is perfect for opening slots and counter-boring holes. We were so impressed by the sub-spindle on the SMEC SL2500SY that we purchased a SMEC SL2500Y, which is an almost identical machine except for the sub-spindle. We purchased this as we only needed one machine with the sub-spindle, but we still needed a machine with a Y-axis for doing one-off jobs.”

“We have just added a SMEC SL2000, and my son, who is just starting his apprenticeship, is on that machine. It doesn’t have the live tooling facility, but it has a Siemens 828 CNC control and is perfect for learning.”

Concluding on the fleet of machines purchased from Dugard, Matthew Kelsall says: “When you buy a machine, nobody wants to be stuck at the end of a phone talking to someone you’ve never spoken to before, but when you speak to Dugard, from great relationships that work well.”