Tees Business Tees Business Issue 18 | Page 39

Serving the Teesside Business Community | 39 Top tool - The Schiess Horimaster CNC floor borer has undergone full alignment and calibration. Leading the way Machine tooling expertise keeps Tees firm at the forefront W New purchase – The firm’s £50,000 Faro Quantum measurement arm. Proud – Tees Components MD Sharon Lane. ell known for its specialism in heavy CNC machining, Tees Components is dedicated to a process of continuous investment in the latest technology to machine large-scale components. The company boasts clients in a wide range of key industries, including defence, renewable power generation, new nuclear and decommissioning and marine. Its move into new markets means the company currently has a strong order book, bolstered by long-term accounts. Its continued aim is to be the number one company for the delivery of complex high- risk and large-scale components. As a result, it has one of the largest machining capacities in the UK, with the ability to machine components in a range of metals, from mild steel and duplex to Inconel and aluminium. Tees Components recently completed work to recalibrate one of its most important machine tools at its modern six-acre site, as well as investing £50,000 in a portable measurement arm for the verification of precision machined work. Its horizontal borers range up to almost 12 metres in x-axis travel, vertical borers can turn up to seven-metre diameter and, as the factory is serviced by a 72-tonne overhead crane, there are few jobs it cannot undertake on the grounds of size or weight. One machine tool the company is particularly proud of is the Schiess Horimaster, a 10m x 4m x 1.25m CNC floor borer manufactured in Germany. It features a CNC rotary table as well as extensive floor plates and has produced a wide range of components for power generation, marine, oil and gas, and defence sectors since it was installed in 2014. In addition to its size, it is trusted with many precision contracts, which means accuracy is crucial. It was decommissioned in May to allow for full re-alignment and calibration work to take place and now achieves 0.075mm over ten metres – especially suited for very large fabrications with precision machining requirements. All precision machined work must be verified, and Tees Components recently took delivery of a new portable £50,000 measurement arm, the Faro Quantum S 4.0m 6-axis arm, which replaces a previous model. The portable coordinate measuring machine is the first to be verified to ISO 10360-12:2016. The largest, most accurate model produced, its maximum permissible error over four metres is just 0.045mm (0.0018”). Sharon adds: “It is crucial to our clients that Tees Components maintain the very highest standards of accuracy to allow us to consistently machine large-scale components in a variety of metals, often involving highly complex projects, whilst maintaining the tightest of tolerances.”