Parts made on XYZ Machines help Metallic Elephant to grow
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The alternative American rock band REM once had a hit with the song Shiny Happy People. That song would be the perfect anthem for Karl and Ros French, the founders of Metallic Elephant. Working out of a secluded set of farm buildings in the village of Frating in Essex, this husband-and-wife team along with their employees have become the benchmark when it comes to the manufacturing of hot foil presses. Producing these machines along with the supply of associated equipment allows everybody from greetings card manufacturers at home to multi-national corporations to emboss and deboss a wide range of materials to, as the partnership say in their words, “make it shiny”.
Having been introduced to engineering by a teacher at school, Karl embarked on a career where his desire to learn as much as he could led him to be effectively running the business he was employed at. Upon Ros’s suggestion, they decided to go it alone and began the journey of Metallic Elephant by firstly refurbishing presses which operate by having a die, usually manufactured from brass but can be produced in magnesium, heated to between 90- and 110-degrees Celsius pushing against coloured foil and a backing material up to a back plate for a few seconds. When released the result is the coloured shiny initials or logo of the die being left embossed or debossed on the backing material.
The big break for the business came when a well-known fashion house, famous for their iconic check / tartan patterns, visited Metallic Elephant with the intention of purchasing 10 presses to allow them to personalise items purchased in store. They requested that the Metallic Elephant badge located on the side of the press was removed but against Ros’s wishes, Karl stuck to his guns and refused to remove the manufacturers identification. They still got the order which opened the opportunity that their product was seen in major high streets but, with such a large order manufacturing of the presses had to be carried out from scratch rather than refurbish old presses.
When discussing their journey Karl states “When we started out things were tight. We didn’t have a great amount of capital but needed to manufacture parts when we were refurbishing the presses and outsourcing proved to be an issue for several reasons. A manual turret mill and pre-war manual lathe were all we had, and it was amazing what we produced on these machines but a visit from the Health and Safety Executive put a stop to us using this equipment.”
He continues “it was time to re-invest and we knew the guys in the business were comfortable using the manual machines, but our volumes had increased so knew that CNC was an option that had to be investigated. It was at this point we were introduced to XYZ Machine Tools and the ProTURN range of flatbed lathes. They sounded perfect for our requirement because when we needed a 10 off, we knew every part would be identical but importantly we could still use it in a manual mode for the odds and sods that we manufacture. We purchased the SLX 355 and it has delivered far more than XYZ told us it would and proved to be a game changer for the company”.
The business now has a range of XYZ products in the machine shop. Alongside the original SLX 355 stands an RMX 2500 CNC bed mill with the ProtoTRAK 15” touchscreen control, three 1000 LR vertical machining centres fitted with Siemens 828D controls and a CT 65 LTY Mill Turn lathe again with the Siemens control.
“Because XYZ delivered on their promises with the SLX 355 and the support that was provided in our early days of using a CNC machine, it made sense for us to return to them when we needed to increase our manufacturing capability” comments Karl. “As demand increased, we needed to be more efficient, so we knew we had to have automatic tool changing machines. The capacity that the 1000 LR offers (X axis 1000mm x Y axis 500mm) along with the 24-station arm type tool changer accepting BT40 tooling means we can walk away from the machine during the cycle and partake in other activities in the shop. To aid our efficiency and one of the reasons we went for the 1000 LR machines rather than take a smaller footprint machine from XYZ’s LR range was that we can easily fit 3 vices on the bed. Although the materials we machine are not tough, the 15Kw (20hp) spindle with 8000 rpm is more than adequate for manufacturing the component parts that we need for the press bodies”.
As the 1000 LR machines started to make an impression, attention shifted to looking at turned parts. Due to the automatic feeding system of the foil on the presses there was an increased demand for rollers and pins. Again, efficiency was important for the business going forward so the XYZ CT 65 LTY machine was installed in the workshop. Offering a maximum turned diameter of 220mm and a turning length of 490mm the rollers could be tackled with ease. The Sauter 12 station driven tool turret allowed for both static and driven tools to be loaded into every station providing the opportunity to not only turn parts but also carry out milling, drilling and tapping all in one set up. Karl states “making this investment moved us on from the original ProTURN machine, which is still an important part of our machine shop. It allowed us to reduce the need for 2 or 3 operations on our rollers but with its 17kW (23hp) spindle, driven tools and the barfeed fitted pushing bar up to 65mm, we could produce multiples with greater ease”.
The machinists that Metallic Elephant employ are full of praise for the CNC control systems fitted by XYZ. Levi Battiste previously worked at a large multi-national company who had a range of different machine tools. Levi observes “coming to Metallic Elephant I was a little unsure about using the Siemens control. To be honest I was more of a G code type of programmer but, it’s been a pleasure to use the Shopmill and Shopturn conversational software fitted to our 1000 LR’s and CT65LTY machines. I have been impressed with how simple it has been to produce our parts, and the machines construction has given me the confidence to push our tooling to be able to produce more in less time”.
Jack Marciniak visited Metallic Elephant as part of his schools’ program of work experience. This encounter was the catalyst for him to join the company when he finished full time education. He states” I never dreamt that after this short time I would be programming and running CNC machines. The Siemens control has been intuitive and easy to learn. With the support of the company and XYZ, I have learnt so much in such a short amount of time”.
Product development continues at a pace at Metallic Elephant. With larger presses on the horizon and development of different methods of applying the die pressure, Karl, Ros and the team are keen to emphasise that they are much copied but never mastered. With Ros’s eye for detail in the design side of the business derived from many years working in the print industry and Karl, being proud of his engineering heritage, even the company name has an edge about it (metallic refers to the shiny foils used in the process and the elephant from a childhood gift that has brought good luck to Ros over many years), with a portfolio of customers that really are the who’s who of luxury brands and the help from XYZ Machine tools they continue to be great a British design that meets the benchmark of British engineering.
XYZ Machine Tools
