How Specialist Tool Manufacturer Westcut Engineering Revolutionised Productivity By Adding State Of The Art Waterjet Cutting Machinery To Their Fleet.
How Techni Waterjet Revolutionised The Productivity At Westcut Engineering
Since it was established in 1991, Westcut Engineering has grown from being a specialist tool manufacturer to one of the leading engineering suppliers and manufacturing companies across the UK. Manufacturing a wide range of quality press components the driving factor behind Westcut Engineering’s growing success is their commitment to improving the machinery they operate with.
It was back in 2005 that Westcut Engineering decided to broaden its capability by investing in advanced waterjet cutting technology. This investment enabled Westcut Engineering to produce increasingly complex and intricate shapes manufactured from virtually any material their customers were after. With the introduction of this new machinery granted WestCut Engineering extreme flexibility when meeting order requirements from rapid prototyping for development work to full volume production.
As Time Progressed, Their Technology Fell Behind
While the move to new waterjet technology was a revolutionary step toward functionality and flexibility for Westcut Engineering, the machine they invested in required employees to strip it down every 50 minutes for a period of 30 minutes to change the high-pressure seals. While this may have been the price to pay for the sake of using superior technology in 2005 it was less than ideal for the productivity of the production line. Thankfully, over the past 15 years, waterjet cutting equipment has advanced a lot. Now, waterjet cutting manufacturing equipment offers higher levels of capability, increased productivity and higher quality cut parts with far less maintenance.
“With the growth of our waterjet department increasing year on year, so were our maintenance costs. I decided to research how the market has changed and what new technologies were available going forward.”
– Mike Scott, operations manager at Westcut Engineering
By the middle of 2019, the management team at Westcut Engineering knew it was time to invest in the latest state-of-the-art abrasive waterjet package from Techni Waterjet in order to continue to produce the highest quality products for their customers.
The Difference An Upgrade Can Make
In order to exceed their capabilities and increase productivity, the Techjet TJ4100 was the obvious choice for Westcut Engineering’s waterjet upgrade. Offering a 4 by 2-metre cutting area, the Techjet TJ4100 offers the latest generation of Quantum Electric Servo Pump (ESP), an abrasive removal system, premium and flexible underwater water jet cutting capabilities and also includes the all-new PAC60 5-axis cutting head which is capable of creating up to 60-degree bevels and includes a taper compensation feature. The PAC60 5-axis cutting head was a particularly important feature for Westcut as it gives them the capability to continue to significantly grow in the future.
10x More Efficient, Flexible and Cost-Effective
Thanks to the modern and efficient design of the Techni Waterjet Gen4 Quantum ESP pump, Westcut Engineering can now cut for a minimum of 500 hours without any maintenance intervention. That’s an increase of 10 times the amount of cutting that can be achieved without intervention.Previously taking 30 minutes, changing the high-pressure seal now takes less than 10 minutes. The Techjet TJ4100 leads to higher machine productivity and ensures that Westcut Engineering has a shorter turn-over period and can get orders shipped to customers sooner.
Regardless of quantity requirements, the waterjet cutting technology produces components to a consistent cost-effective, high-quality standard. The Techni Waterjet Gen4 Quantum pump is also driven by an electric servo motor which lowers running costs while yielding higher efficiencies during a virtually silent operation.
An Investment Toward Their Future
It’s only been a couple of months since the Techjet TJ4100 has been installed and Westcut Engineering has already seen an improvement in their production quality and efficiencies. Now Westcut Engineering can produce complex shapes with precision at a low cost. Their turn around time has decreased to a maximum of 4 days and from abrasive metals and stones to glass, there is no limit to the materials they can work with.
“Having the Techjet TJ4100 has freed the machine shop up extra hours each week to take on more work as well as reducing the lead time on orders. Our goal moving forward is to grow all aspects of the business and the investment in our waterjet department will offer new profiling methods with the capability of supporting many of the high-tech industries based in our region.”
– Mike Scott, operations manager at Westcut Engineering.
AMC Jets Ltd who is our authorised UK distributor for Techni Waterjet systems has had a consistently healthy working relationship with Westcut Engineering over the past decade. AMC Jets will continue working with Westcut Engineering to ensure their waterjet cutting technology keeps them running as efficiently as possible. AMC Jets has been supplying high-quality spare parts and machine services to the UK market for over 28 years and made the decision to collaborate alongside Techni Waterjet for waterjet sales and service in early 2017.
