Hone-All Orders Two Deep Hole Boring Machines

27 December 2014

The relentless growth at Hone-All has now seen the deep hole boring and turning specialist invest over £650,000 in two new deep hole boring machines from TIBO Tiefbohrtechnik. The Leighton Buzzard subcontract machining company has purchased the German built TIBO B250 and B80 units to increase capacity and extend the maximum boring dimensions from its existing 200mm diameter up to 250mm with a length capacity of 3.2m.

Set to be delivered in the new year, the acquisitions mark a significant investment, as Hone-All Director, Andrea Rodney says: "We have witnessed exceptional growth in the last couple of years from customers in all industry sectors and the new machine investment will enable us to alleviate any capacity issues whilst providing the opportunity to win new business previously beyond the capabilities of our plant list."
The largest deep hole boring machines at Hone-All prior to the new arrivals, had a capacity of 200mm diameter and 2.8m in length. The TIBO B250 will give Hone-All a 250mm diameter capacity with 3.2m machining length whilst the TIBO B80 will provide 80mm diameter machining with a 3.2m length.

As Hone-All Managing Director, Mr Rodney says: "Our size restrictions limited our ability to quote for jobs and we were losing work that was just beyond the size limits of our existing machines. The new TIBO machines will increase our productivity, sales, capacity and extend our product offering for end users. Simultaneously, we will reduce our costs, cycle times, energy consumption and eliminate any inefficiencies throughout the deep hole boring department. To ensure we obtain all these benefits from new plant, we have undertaken significant feasibility studies and visited a number of high-end machine tool suppliers across Europe to find the best fit for our business."

Highlighting why the TIBO line was the supplier of choice, Mr Rodney says: "The TIBO machines have been uniquely designed to eradicate the pre-machining preparation of billets unlike machines from many suppliers. At Hone-All, all large billets would pass through the turning department for a pre-boring 45 degree chamfer prior to loading on the boring machines. This will no longer be the case. The sheer size of the billets and the logistics meant that we could be losing up to 40% of our CNC turning capacity each month. The new TIBO machines will allow us to machine sawn billets with no pre-machining, so we instantly gain 40% capacity in the turning department."

The first of the two machines to arrive will be the TIBO B250. This colossal deep boring machine has a 9.5m bed length and 14,000kg payload that is encapsulated in an FEA developed base that guarantees thermal stability, stiffness and accuracy.

The result is a highly robust base that supports a drill spindle motor output of 71kW and a workpiece spindle headstock motor with 15kW. For Hone-All, this means that diameters beyond 200mm diameter can now be drilled in a single pass rather than 3 or 4 passes. Essentially, this will reduce cycle times by upwards of 75% as the company moves forward. In addition, this robust foundation will also improve precision and surface finishes for Hone-All.