Ward CNC Hartford Machining Centre Heats Up Production At Specialist Heat Exchangers

The installation of a Hartford Mirage vertical machining centre has not only meant that Specialist Heat Exchangers is now able to produce components quicker than before, but the extensive 3 metres by 1.4 metres working surface available on the new machine supplied by Ward CNC (www.wardcnc.com) is also allowing the company to tackle larger workpieces in a single set-up.

Engineering Director Mike Evans explains that the investment in the new machine was prompted by the company's need to increase its ability to process larger stainless and mild steel headers (which accommodate tubes and plugs), integral components of the range of industrial heat exchangers produced by the company for blue chip customers the world over.

While he explains that the Hartford performs a range of "fairly simple" drilling, tapping and counterboring operations, "its overall fantastic specification has cut machining times" through having higher spindle speeds (6,000 revs/min via an 18.5/22 kW motor) and feed rates (8,000 mm/min) than the machine it replaced (a unit of mid-90s vintage).

With Y and Z axes of 1,500 mm and 780 mm, respectively, the Hartford Mirage HEP-3150 can accommodate workpieces of 6,000 kgs "and, importantly," says Mike Evans, "with an X axis of 3,250 mm, the machine has immediately allowed us to process components up to 3 metres long compared with 2 metres formerly".

This, he confirms, is proving immensely important in servicing customers in industry sectors like automotive component, power station, process plant, compressor, off-road vehicle, military and rail transportation as well as hydraulic applications.

Specialist Heat Exchangers has since 1967 been designing and manufacturing bespoke, compact and efficient cooling equipment for industrial and petrochemical applications. The key to its success in achieving a most compact cooling solution is attributed to the use of high efficiency internal and external extended surfaces that are balanced to achieve maximum heat transfer performance.

The company's 65,000 ft2 facility in Lincoln is very much self-sufficient in terms of in-house thermal and mechanical design and manufacture (including finned tubes) facilities, and is capable of producing a wide range of high performance internal and external surfaces as well as innovative ‘bonded' turbulators, for example, for the low-noise products successfully used in extreme temperature applications.

SOURCE: Ward CNC