The largest and one of the most sophisticated Weeke CNC machining centres to be supplied in Britain by Homag UK will be installed at specialist display and interior fittings company Point Eight this month.
Dudley-based Point Eight, which supplies mainstream retailers, is purchasing the Weeke BHC 700/800 as part of a £500,000 three-year investment in design, manufacturing and materials handling technology designed to help sustain a 15% year-on-year sales growth.
The company says the investment is needed to cope with a rapid expansion in workload, with lead times constantly shortening and flexibility needed to react to an increasing number of non-standard orders.
Homag UK and Weeke engineers finalised a specification which included a 6×1.8m bed for the production of specialised items including single component counter tops used by car showrooms.
The machine, which will form the lynchpin of the company’s production, is equipped with tubeless vacuum pods supplied by two 100m3 pumps and a centre stop system for four field operation.
A 12kW liquid-cooled router motor operates a 360 degree C-axis, while the tool/aggregate changer accommodates 18 slots with a weight capacity of up to 6kg per tool.
Point Eight has specified 180mm diameter aggregates for specialised work including square corner notching. A customised four-sided drilling and routing unit includes a grooving saw and operates through 360 degrees.
The workpiece clamping system is laser guided and a barcode scanner will accept part machining operations such as panel dimensioning and edging. This is designed to aid streamlining and make one-off production as efficient as batch runs.
Paul Childs, managing director of Point Eight, says the Weeke will combine three operations into one and describes the CNC software controls are “fast and flexible”.
