Committed to UK and low-cost mix
The company manufactures mould tools for all types of applications, with the bulk of its work is aluminium, but when it does get asked to machine fully-hardened steel moulds says the Johnford machine performs extremely well
Protool Manufacturing has underlined its commitment to a twin-track UK/low-cost approach by investing in a second Johnford Super Vertical SV41 machining centre for its Havant manufacturing base.
This will provide greater flexibility for high speed machining and unmanned operation. The business should see a turnover of £2.3 million this year, evenly split between the manufacture of injection mould tools and rapid tooling at its Havant facility and a service that sources and project manages tooling in low-cost regions, especially China.
It remains committed to manufacturing in the UK, hence the investment in additional capacity to stay competitive as a UK manufacturer, supplying customers in the automotive, business electronics, medical, and consumer products sectors.
“It is vitally important that we keep our machining base here in the UK, and that is one of the reasons for our continued investment in machining capacity,” says Steve Hall, Protool Manufacturing’s managing director. “Having manufacturing in Havant helps us to maintain one of our unique selling points, namely the manufacture of mould tools from a CAD file to producing parts in a very short space of time. An important part of that is the machining of 3D forms within the moulds.”
The last three new machines bought by Protool have been supplied by Lancashire-based, Design & Technical Services (UK) Limited (DTS), which is the sole UK agency for Nicolas Correa and Johnford machining and turning centres. The first of these was a Correa machine purchased several years ago, but in the past two years Protool had a need to increase machining capacity and went ahead with the purchase of its first Johnford Super Vertical SV41 machining centre.
The company manufactures mould tools for all types of applications, with the bulk of its work is aluminium, but when it does get asked to machine fully-hardened steel moulds says the Johnford machine performs extremely well. So well in fact that when one of Protool’s Bridgeport machines needed replacing Steve Hall had no hesitation in ordering a second Johnford SV41. Both machines feature a 12,000 revs/min 7.5kW cartridge-type spindle (option of up to 24,000 revs/min), axis travels of 1050 mm, 610 mm and 610 mm in x, y and z and traverse rates of 30 m/min in x and y and 20 m/min in z.
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