Permanent display at new centre of excellence

Floyd demonstrates sliding head expertise at Citizen

After supporting users of Citizen sliding head turning centres for almost 30 years, Floyd Automatic Tooling now has a permanent presence at the new Citizen Machinery UK facility in Brierley Hill. The company recently hosted its first Open House event at its new Midlands turning centre of excellence.

The new facility welcomed over 300 visitors over the three days and Floyd Automatic Tooling is naturally delighted to support this major manufacturer of sliding head turning centres on a more permanent basis beyond events. Like many Open House events, the Citizen Machinery UK was supported by no fewer than 20 equipment suppliers, but Floyd Automatic is one of just four companies to unusually have a permanent display booth presence adjacent to the new showroom.

Floyd Automatic Tooling’s managing director Richard Floyd says: “We have a long-standing relationship that dates back 30 years and down the years, our innovative tooling solutions have extensively supported the Citizen customer base. Moreover, the expansive range of collets, guide bushes, grippers and machine accessories are continually expanding into specialist solutions that can solve issues for sliding head turned part producers that no other UK company can supply.

“Our ability to provide industry leading tooling packages along with ‘problem solving’ solutions have been acknowledged by Citizen with this permanent booth. We probably have the most comprehensive range of tooling and accessories for sliding head machines in the UK and the ever closer partnership will provide opportunities in the future to combine the resources of Floyd Automatic Tooling and Citizen Machinery product presentations, machining trials and project support and assistance with special applications.”

As well as having a ‘partnership booth’ provided by Citizen, Floyd Automatic was also present in the main showroom during the recent Open House event, where Citizen presented four product launches with an additional 11 machines conducting live machining demonstrations. The 300 visitors were deeply engrossed in the machining technology and there was a huge level of interest in the new compact EVOCUT line parting-off program from Applitec. With the work envelope of sliding head centres becoming increasingly compact and machine kinematics seeing tools clamped ever closer to the workpiece, the improved accessibility of the EVOCUT parting-off program offers simplified and faster insert changes for end users. The range also offers part-off up to Ø44 mm and through coolant supply.

With event visitors clearly focused on reducing non-machining times, the HEB Mini-Plug quick change adaptors for High Pressure coolant also proved a point of interest among the show visitors. The extended HEB Mini-Plug quick change adaptors now include the new Type 1 & Type 2 hose designation that supports hose diameters of just 5 mm, making them perfect for small machine tools. In addition to the need to reduce non-cutting times, event visitors placed an increasing focus on precision. Floyd Automatic recognised this with a high level of interest in the MASA Microconic™ sub-spindle ultra-precision collet system. This revolutionary Microconic system improves precision component machining when holding workpieces from 0.15 to 10 mm diameter in most popular sliding head machines using a sub-spindle dead length collet like the F20, F25 and F37.

The system consists of two major components: the Microconic cartridge, which fits into the sub-spindle collet sleeve, and the Microconic collet that fits into the cartridge. No modifications to the machine are required. The Microconic system has unsurpassed concentricity, produced with a manufacturing tolerance of 3 µm with cartridges guaranteed to be within 5 µm. Over-gripping collets that are so often an issue for standard collets, are also available.

Visitors from throughout the UK and Ireland, as well as Europe were welcomed to the event, taking in the opportunity to see the latest Citizen machines working in tandem with tooling, collets and adaptors from Floyd Automatic Tooling. For further details on how Floyd Automatic can boost your productivity, contact:

Floyd Automatic Tooling Ltd
Tel: 01462 491919
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.floydautomatic.co.uk