Kit investment drives expansion plans at North East plastics manufacturer
A North East-based plastics manufacturer has invested over £170,000 in an upgraded range of cutting-edge machinery to diversify its offer in precision injection mould tooling services.
Omega Plastics has invested in an Agie Carmilles EDM drill and a Fanuc ROBOTCUT wire EDM to allow the business to expand its range of tooling services into increasingly advanced, high-precision work.
Designed to work in tandem, the new machinery will allow Omega’s skilled toolmakers to make reliably accurate cuts, and using the EDM drill, operators can cut through steel quickly to produce a hole as a starting point for the wire EDM to thread through to start the wire erosion process.
Steve Fairbairn, Tooling Manager at Omega Plastics, said: “Our new wire EDM allows us to achieve tighter tolerance, more complex shapes without distortion, and also opens up our scope of work as we move more and more into fully-hardened production tooling.”
“We have been using an older model Fanuc wire EDM for the past 19 years which has served is well, so we decided to stay loyal to the brand and purchase a new machine with the latest technology on board which provides us with more capacity in the X, Y, and Z axes.”
“By using the wire eroder in line with the new hole starter, we can actively reduce the amount of waste metal we produce. Any offcuts are able to be reused for other tools because of the accuracy at which they have been cut, helping to improve the sustainability of our entire operation.”
As well as investment in new equipment the Group has also made significant investment in its people since its strategic move to new premises in the Team Valley Trading Estate in Gateshead.
The investment has allowed the business to both further develop its in-house apprenticeship programme and provide additional capacity.
David Crone, Executive Chairman at Omega Plastics, said: “The layout of our new facility at Team Valley provides a very fluid way of working for our toolmakers and engineering.”
“Being able to handle both the tooling and moulding aspects of multi-use, sustainable plastic products under one roof has always been one of our key selling points.”
“It simplifies the process and reduces risk to our customers, whilst accelerating their time to market through a cohesive approach to Design for Manufacture knowledge and supply chain management, providing total manufacturing control.”