Leading roll tooling and equipment design and manufacturing specialist, Bowers & Jones, increases, and strengthens, its in-house machining capacity and capabilities by investing in a new DN Solutions’ large-capacity, ram-type vertical turning lathe.
The machine, a VTR 1216F, was acquired, primarily, to fulfil an order from a new steel mill customer located in the US to machine batches of high-precision straightening rings.
Additionally, owing to the machine’s size, power, precision and versatility, the new investment will also help generate new business opportunities and growth in the US and other markets, consolidate its supply chain position with existing steel mill customers, and increase and improve its UK precision subcontract machining operations.
Mills CNC, the exclusive distributor of DN Solutions’ and Zayer machine tools in the UK and Ireland, has recently supplied Bowers & Jones Ltd., a market-leading design and manufacturing specialist of high-precision roll tooling and equipment for steel and copper mill customers across the world, with a new DN Solutions’ VTR 1216F – a large-capacity, rigidly-designed and built, wide-column ram-type vertical turning lathe from Mills CNC.
The new machine was installed at the company’s modern and well-resourced 15,000sq. ft. manufacturing facility in Bilston, near Wolverhampton, in May 2024 and joins three, previously-acquired (Doosan and DN Solutions’) machines Mills has supplied to the company over the last four years.
These machines, comprising a Doosan Puma 5100B lathe (installed in 2020), a Doosan DNM 750 II vertical machining centre with a 4th-axis unit (installed in 2021), and a DN Solutions’ GT 3100L box guideway lathe (installed in 2023) provide clear evidence that Mills CNC enjoys a preferred machine tool supplier relationship with Bowers & Jones.
“We have built strong relationships with Mills CNC.
“The depth and breadth of the machine tool ranges they supply combined with the company’s first-class pre- and after sales service and support means that when we are looking to invest in new machine tool technologies, Mills is invariably our first port of call.”
Jane Sommerville, Managing Director at Bowers & Jones
Background
Bowers & Jones, under new ownership since 2020 and led by managing director, Jane Sommerville, and her team, is committed to continuous improvement and, as such, regularly monitors and benchmarks the performance of its manufacturing operations in order to identify and address current and future production inefficiencies and bottlenecks.
The roll-out of the company’s improvement programme, first initiated when the change of ownership occurred four years ago, has been instrumental in Bowers & Jones streamlining and strengthening its in-house machining capacity and capabilities as a route to helping it achieve real, planned and sustainable growth.
The acquisition of new machine tools has been instrumental in helping Bowers and Jones strengthen its supply chain relationships with existing customers and secure new roll tooling business contracts with new customers.
The new investment rationale
Bowers & Jones supplies its high-performance roll tooling and equipment to steel and copper mills in the UK and throughout the world (i.e., in Taiwan, Germany, France, Luxembourg etc).
The company has recently made inroads into the US steel market and, via direct sales approaches aided by a third party agent, is actively expanding its presence in North America where, according to Jane Sommerville, “significant business growth opportunities lie.”
Indeed the company’s new VTR 1216F investment was made (primarily) to meet the needs of a recently acquired US customer whose products (i.e., rail ‘I’ beam sections, medium bar sections and angled bar sections etc.), are used extensively in the (US) rail and construction sectors.
“We needed a new large-capacity vertical lathe, specifically, to machine large diameter straightening rings for the customer.
“We won the business in Autumn 2023 and, as a consequence, ordered the new VTR 1216F from Mills last October expecting the machine to be delivered and installed in Spring 2024 – just a few weeks before production of the rings was due to start.”
Jane Sommerville, Managing Director at Bowers & Jones
That was the plan.
A bump in the road
However, owing to geo-political issues (late 2023 – early 2024) affecting the safety and security of transporting freight through the Suez Canal, the machine’s delivery was unexpectedly delayed.
“We had to quickly revert back to Plan B. The customer’s deadlines didn’t slip, so we had to use our existing machines to manufacture the first batch of rings – basically ‘holding the fort’ until the VTR 1216F eventually arrived.”
Jane Sommerville, Managing Director at Bowers & Jones
Fortunately, the delay wasn’t that long.
Instead of arriving in March 2024 the machine was delivered in early May (2024). To save time and minimise further disruption, the machine was delivered directly to Bowers & Jones’ facility from Felixstowe with Mills CNC performing its PDI, machine build and installation on-site…in double quick-time.
Operator training followed soon after the machine was commissioned and the VTR 1216F was cutting metal at the beginning of June (2024).
The VTR 1216F investment decision
“We had been looking at investing in a vertical turning lathe for some time – partly to take pressure off an older, large-capacity Berry & Binns horizontal lathe that we had acquired some years earlier, and partly to help spearhead new business growth, particularly in the US market.
“We approached Mills and two other suppliers to discuss our requirements and, looking at the proposed investment package as a whole (i.e., cost, availability, machine design and configuration, operator familiarity and after-sales service and support), decided to place the order with Mills.”
Jane Sommerville, Managing Director at Bowers & Jones
VTR 1216F – a closer look
The Fanuc-controlled 50” chuck VTR 1216F is a beast of a machine boasting a maximum turning diameter of 950mm and a maximum turning height of 1600mm.
Equipped with a powerful, high-torque and thermally-stable spindle (45kW/400rpm/20557N-m), a servo-driven ATC (12-tools) and an innovative quad tool holder with fast indexing (that enables the use of four tools directly via the ram), the VTR 1216F delivers impressive processing speeds, improved machining flexibility, high accuracies and repeatability’s, and increased productivity.
The machine supplied to Bowers & Jones also included a working platform (for quick and easy part load/unload and operator visibility), a manual 4-jaw chuck, linear scales and an automatic tool setter.
Straightening rings – general
Straightening rings, like all roll tool types, are performance-critical components. They are also consumable items – although Bowers & Jones’ rings, rolls and equipment have performance and longevity built into them.
Rings are used in metal forming processes to enable metal stock (i.e., steel) to pass through one or more pairs of rolls, located on stands, in order to reduce the material’s thickness, making it uniform and consistent and, where required, give the ‘rolled’ material additional mechanical and application-specific properties required by the ultimate end-user.
The rings are used to process the material into different products (i.e., bar stock, rails and structural steel beams, angle stock and channel stock etc.), which are used across many industries and sectors i.e., construction, rail, energy, oil and gas, automotive etc.
However, because rolls operate in steel and copper mills’ harsh and demanding environments, they are subject to high wear, thermal stress and mechanical fatigue. As a consequence, they need to be monitored regularly and, to maintain their dimensional and profile quality and consistency, need to be replaced over time.
Straightening rings – VTR 1216F
The straightening rings being machined on the VTR 1216F are made from D2 – a high carbon, high chromium, molybdenum vanadium alloy tool steel – an abrasive material that is difficult to machine. They are machined from solid (round bar cut to size) in relatively small batches with part cycle times being long and turning operations performed at low revs.
Roughing operations, to date, have been undertaken on the company’s Berry & Binns lathe before the rings are then sent away for heat treatment – a process carefully monitored and regulated by Bowers & Jones, and undertaken by a number of hand-picked, preferred suppliers.
When the rings return, they are finish machined on the VTR 1216F to tight geometrical and dimensional tolerances and super-fine surface finishes.
The heat treatment process gives the D2 rings their compressive strength, high wear resistance, toughness and shock resistance properties – all crucially important for delivering high-performance and long life in a demanding (steel mill) environment.
Bowers & Jones
Established in 1954, the company’s knowledge of metal forming processes is second to none.
With 70 years’ experience of designing and manufacturing high-precision rolls for steel mill customers involved in the production of steel tubes, pipes, rails and sections, and rolls and wheels for customers producing copper rods and wires, the company works closely with all customers to design and manufacture bespoke and tailored replacement roll tooling and equipment.
Bowers & Jones’ success is built on its considerable know-how and expertise, and the care and attention it brings to roll design, the quality of roll material selected and machined, and the methods of manufacture adopted: all are critical to a roll’s performance and to its life span.
The company works in partnership, and collaboratively, with its customers and can design, manufacture and test (via simulation) roll tooling for customers’ new products, as well as help improve the efficiencies of established and existing product lines.
The bottom line is that Bowers & Jones’ roll tooling solutions last longer and perform better than its competitors.
“Our high-quality designed and machined rolls may cost a little more, but they are an investment and help customers save time and money by reducing re-profiling and replacement costs, limiting potential downtime (caused by tooling changeovers), and by ensuring that customers’ mills keep rolling.”
Jane Sommerville, Managing Director at Bowers & Jones
Future
Bowers & Jones’ current five year plan (2020 – 2025) is coming to an end and has delivered on all its objectives.
The company’s new five year plan will be rolled out from next year and promises to be equally exciting and, hopefully, just as successful as the last.
Additional upgrades to its machine shop are planned and the company is looking to further capitalise on new business opportunities in the US. The imminent change of administration in the United States, with its ‘Make America Great Again’ mantra, may well see the US steel market (and the American construction and transport sectors) become stronger and more buoyant.
An increase in demand for Bowers & Jones’ roll tooling and equipment could well follow as a result.