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Supplying to several industries, Parallel Precision Ltd has the capacity to produce components with a 24-hour turn around, and this is in no small part to the machine tools it specifies from Hurco.

The Lydney based subcontract machining company offers everything from prototypes through to volume production and its capabilities include 3, 4 and 5-axis machining.

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Applying advanced manufacturing technologies to undertake lights out production, MTDCNC visited the Gloucestershire company to take a closer look at one of its latest acquisitions, a 3-axis Hurco VM10i machining centre.

The company supplies a diverse range of industries.

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These include automotive, consumer, electronics, food, hydraulic, lighting, medical, motorsport, robotics and telecoms, transport and many more,.

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Parallel Precision Ltd.\u2019s Elliott Staton says \u201cWe bought the Hurco machine for its flexibility.

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As a job shop, we need to get our machines set up quickly and get the jobs out the door quickly.

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Hurco provided a great package with their machine that included tool and part setting probes and great features on the control that allow us to achieve those goals of getting things out of the door.\u201d

The 3-axis Hurco VM10i machining centre specified by the Gloucestershire subcontractor was bought with a 20-tool station and 20,000rpm spindle.

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It operates in a spacious work envelope of 660 by 406 by 500mm in the X, Y and a Z-axis.

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The company primarily machines plastic, aluminium, steel and stainless-steel components in quantities from one-off to runs upward of 3000-off.

Elliott Staton says \u201cWe recently did a batch of 250 parts for the automotive industry and credit to the reliability and accuracy of the Hurco, a batch of this size was no problem.

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During the 4 days of machining the 250 parts, we didn\u2019t have to make a single offset on the machine, which was cutting a very high-precision bore.\u201d

Elliott Staton says the innovative WinMax Mill software integrated into the C-N-C control system on the Hurco VM10i machining centre is particularly impressive.

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He says \u201cThe Hurco control has some great features on it, such as the tool numbering system that allows you to have 9,999 tools in the control memory.

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Each 1,000 number is designated to a particular type of tool and the following three digits refer to the size parameters of the tool.

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This is great when your working on everything from programming through to setting, because whoever is operating or programming the machine knows what tool belongs to a particular number.\u201d

This also creates continuity around the machine shop, as Elliott says: \u201cIt works great with repeat jobs and setting up new jobs or identifying what tools are in your carousel.

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The WinMax Mill is very easy to use and intuitive. Whilst there are other systems available, we chose Hurco because it fits in very well with the workshop.

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It\u2019s a very good control system that understands what the user wants, you don\u2019t necessarily have to know a lot of code or have an engineering background to learn how to use the C-N-C control.

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This enables the C-N-C control to help us bridge the skills gap and bring people into our business that can competently run parts through some simple programming.\u201d

\u201cFurthermore, there is an \u2018interrupt\u2019 feature. So, if there is a one-off part that has been pre-machined by a customer, we can\u2019t afford to scrap it.

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So, one example is where we recently started with a small tool offset and run it in the bore of a part and interrupted the cycle, measured the bore and adjusted the offset.

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With just two buttons, we could then carry-on and machine the part exactly how it was running.\u201d

\u201cRegarding programming a part on the machine whilst another part is running, that is another great feature that saves time.

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If we are running production of 3,500 components as an example; whilst they are running, we want to be at the control programming the next job that is in line for production.

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With the Hurco control and the WinMax Mill system, that is not a problem.\u201d

Commenting upon the back-up and support from Hurco, Elliott says: \u201cThings rarely go wrong with Hurco machines, but if they ever do, the service department is there to answer any questions.

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Additionally, Hurco has a dedicated \u2018Apps team\u2019, so if I, or any of the team are unsure of any features in terms of what the machine is capable of, the \u2018Apps team\u2019 can be called and we can ask how a feature works via phone or email and they will get back to us very quickly with a great set of instructions; and if the machine is capable of a task, the team will tell us how to implement our query.\u201d