Turning centre machines wide range of materials

With its 12-tool VDI turret allied to a 254mm chuck and 550mm swing, a 22.5kW, turning centre is ideally suited to a range of parts in ferrous and NF metals and many engineering plastics.
Larry Houghton knows what it must be like to fly at speeds up to 44 miles/h for up to 120 km attached to little more than a parachute and a giant fan. He also knows what it is like to crack a few ribs when landing, although this painful experience has in no way diminished his enthusiasm for the exciting new sport of paramotoring. His involvement with what he describes as the closest you can get to having a James Bond jetpack strapped to your back stems from his day job running Lamb Engineering, a small sub-contracting company located in South Newton, west of Salisbury.

One of his customers is Parajet, the Mere, Wiltshire, UK-based company set up a couple of years ago by 26 years-old Giles Cardozo, inventor, engineer and pioneer of paramotoring.

Demand for the 24 hp Parajet Volution that, believe it or not, features cruise control as standard, is such that Parajet now claims to be gearing up to produce thousands of these powered paragliders each year.

This, in part, explains Larry Houghton's decision to install a XYZ 250 TC turning centre alongside several other machine tools supplied by XYZ Machine Tools.

Lamb Engineering's first XYZ purchase was a manual lathe equipped with digital readout, which was followed by two turret mills, the second a manual/CNC machine equipped with the easy-to-use ProtoTRAK control, and then two vertical machining centres.

The XYZ 250 TC is the company's most recent purchase, a decision that reflects both an increasing amount of turning work and its previous reliance on a rather elderly CNC lathe.

With its 12-tool VDI turret allied to a 254mm chuck and 550mm swing, the 22.5kW, 3500 rev/min XYZ 250 TC is ideally suited to the range of parts machined by Lamb Engineering in ferrous and non-ferrous metals and many types of engineering plastics.

Between them the XYZ CNC machines produce a range of components for the Parajet Volution 170 cc motor and, says Larry Houghton, have performed well, adding that the training and after-sales service he has received from the Burlescombe, Devon machine tool supplier cannot be faulted.

His ISO 9002 accredited company, which began in 1987 and moved to its present 2500ft2 site six years ago, is unusual in that as well as precision machining it is also equipped to produce electronic assemblies as well as for welding and fabrication work.

In addition to machining precision components for the Parajet Volution engine, Lamb Engineering also manufactures the guard that encases the carbon fibre blades.

This versatility, combined with the company's in-house design expertise and its willingness to manufacture anything from prototypes to finished products, has resulted in a diverse customer base that provides Houghton with the engineering challenges he thrives on.

Although only five people are involved, including Houghton's business partner, Andy Strange, Lamb Engineering has come a long way from its 'odd job' beginnings to what today he describes as a business whose expertise in solving customers' problems: 'Is what makes us stand out from companies offering only conventional manufacturing and engineering services.' Houghton said: 'We have established a solid reputation for finding the quickest route to a solution appropriate to the application, and our business has grown through recommendations passed on by customers who already trust us to respond quickly with a competitive price, generated either from a quick sketch or a fully fledged design.

Over the years we reckon to have saved customers such as Parajet substantial sums of money by coming up with less expensive alternatives to their original design and manufacturing requirements.