Friday 21 November 08 - 18:42
 

Turning & Milling

New Business was Won After Diversification into Sliding Headstock Work

Wilco Manufacturing, Birmingham, specialises in the sub-contract manufacture of precision turned parts and, to broaden the scope of its manufacture, has supplemented its 100 or so single- and multi-spindle cam automatics, sprints and fixedhead CNC lathes with three slidingheadstock, multi-axis turning centres from Star Micronics GB.

Wilco's original Star SR-20RII lathe was purchased in October 2003, followed in autumn 2004 by the purchase of two further, identical machines.

Between the first Star machine coming in and the installation of the other two, in excess of £100,000 of new work was won as a direct result of having sliding-headstock turnmilling capability.

Furthermore, the second and third machines are currently sampling new orders from back inquiries and if these also come to fruition, a further £150,000 of business will have been won partially as a consequence of having bought the first Star.

All work going through the machines tends to be high accuracy, complex components that would traditionally require multiple secondary operations, so the powerful cross machining and reverse endworking capabilities of the Stars are nearly always employed to extract maximum benefit from the machines.

By the mid-1990s, over 90% of the company's turnover was in the automotive sector, principally the Rover Group. Today, while the proportion of automotive work has dropped to 60%, other areas including electronics, leisure and hydraulics, now account for 15% of the company's £1.4 million turnover.

Tel. 0121 772 6212

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Wilco Manufacturing Ltd

Stevens Rowsell is a specialist precision sheet metal engineering company in East Sussex