UNICUT STARTS CITIZEN REPLACEMENT PROGRAMME TO FURTHER IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY

Two of the latest Citizen C16-VII CNC sliding head autos have been ordered by precision machinist Unicut Precision of Welwyn Garden City from NC Engineering of Watford.

Said joint managing director, Jason Nicholson: "We need more flexibility from power tooling, extra endworking machining capability and more production capacity for 16 mm bar size. When we looked around MACH 2004 at the NEC in April, the new Citizen C16 gave the best combination of features than any other machine we saw and when we investigated the new processor control, which is some 20 per cent faster than the previous generation machine, that means we can get the equivalent of five days production in four days!"

Supported by Charles Kenny, joint managing director who adds: "We are continuously pushed for shorter delivery lead times so we are trading in our two oldest machines which are almost five years old. It's the way we run our business - those machines have produced parts for over 120 hours/week without problems but have served their purpose. If we are to continue to compete successfully against other subcontract suppliers in our business, we need the latest and most appropriate technology. Rows of ageing equipment, although fully paid for, will become a liability to what we need to achieve."

One important point made by Unicut is that although the new C16 machines have the latest control and new tooling layout, it will still only take about half a day to refresh machine setters and update them from their knowledge of the other eight Citizens installed at the Welwyn precision machine shop.

Comments Geoff Bryant, managing director of NC Engineering: "We know the full history of the two Unicut machines being traded-in and these will easily meet the criteria we lay down for our quality pre-owned machine sales operation."