But before discussing this latest investment and the demands of the motorsport business, he pushes a photograph across the desk of the company as it was in 1994 – the year he joined it. “I keep this to remind me what like used to be like,” Dr Kightley muses. It’s a photo of a traditional, unremarkable workshop of mostly manual machine tools.

 

The company was started by his father and some associates as a partnership in the mid-60s, and with the addition of some CNC machines in the 1980s, not much changed until the mid-90s, says Dr kightley – although the company has gone through phases, in terms of the type of business serviced.

 

Rolls-Royce was a big customer in the 70s – and the company had a rough ride in the wake of the RB211 debacle which saw the UK Government step in and rescue Rolls-Royce, of course. Next, in the 80s, came Plessey group, but which was absorbed by GEC with a subsequent negative effect on the sub-contractor once again. And then came the emergence of motorsport, in the 90s, with the company taking on this work through no great strategic decision but rather by “wandering into it”.

 

But, based in Northampton, sandwiched between local giants Cosworth Racing and Mercedes Ilmor in the heart of ‘motorsport valley’, it was probably inevitable that Taylor Kightley would be drawn into this world, as are many 1000s of others (a 2000 Motorsport Industry Association report put the numbers of engineering firms involved at over 2500, incidentally).

 

Yet at that time, the company was still locally focused, had only “a small amount” of CNC machinery and was “static”, in terms of investment, until 1995/6 “when the market became more competitive,” highlights Dr Kightley. The company started to lose work, yet at that time couldn’t invest due to partnership buy-out debt financing. But once free from that, the company’s investment profile has been aggressive, to say the least.

 

“We buy at the maximum rate that we possibly can. Always more than depreciation,” he underlines. And that has meant an almost continual investment in Matsuura machine tools, too. In fact the company’s very first machining centre was a Matsuura, and the four original Matsuura vertical machining centres “have served us very well, are still used today, not for mainstream use but for preparation and second operations,” says Taylor Kightley’s managing director.

 

Although he was not with the company when it made its first CNC acquisition, he says that the company specifically selected Matsuura because it “represented the top of the market, and the company didn’t want to take any chances as it moved into CNC”.

 

Today the company boasts nine Matsuura machining centres among its almost exclusively CNC machine tool complement – the four elderly verticals and five more purchased under Dr Kightley’s directorship (the company has installed and SNK machine, also supplied by Matsuura Machinery, Coalville, Leics). But each investment is made on its own merits. “Every time I have bought a Matsuura, I have viewed opposition machines, but there has never been enough to swing the choice. At the end of the day, you want to be able to switch the machine on and have it do what it is supposed to do. If it does that, it’s worth a lot. Matsuura’s reliability and service have been superb.”

 

Taylor Kightley has progressed from 3-axis machining centres through 4-axis and latterly to 5-axis machines, and motorsport now represents the majority of the company’s business – especially after last year when its capabilities were offered more broadly.

 

 

Prior to 2003, the company had worked almost exclusively for one large local racing company. Its investment in 5-axis machinery had been undertaken in 2000 initially and 2002 more recently.

 

“Motorsport fully exploits the technology that we have. To be in that market you have to have high spindle speeds and 5-axis capability. Without them you simply wouldn’t be able to make the parts properly, and without them you would be in a declining market place in motorsport, I have no doubt what so ever,” asserts Dr Kightley. “Each part that came through the door was more and more complex, and when we started to work for Toyota Racing in Cologne (three years ago), this set new, no-compromise challenges for us.”

 

But following this investment, the company’s main motorsport customer undertook an aggressive cost-down approach with its suppliers, including Taylor Kightley, and, after “18 months of pain” this prompted the company last summer to offer its capabilities to a broader motorsport clientele. By this time the company had 5-axis machining firmly under its belt and, says Dr Kightley: “We were too successful. The demand has been staggering.” From being told it was too expensive, overnight the company’s capabilities were eagerly snapped up by others in the same marketplace. “I could have sold our capacity two or three times over,” he reveals.

 

Just about every part was new up to December of last year and programming capacity had to be upped from one to three full-time programmers. Whether the company won the work away from other local suppliers, Dr Kightley has no idea, nor how competitive is his company. But the new work has certainly moved it away from a reliance on engine production, which is helpful with the new F1 rules regarding the reduced number of engines used per race.

 

And following an autumn lull, the company is again testing the limits of its capacity in the pre-season F1 rush. As of mid-December last year, orders for repeat work have been arriving by fax at a rate of knots and the company’s order book is now “50 per cent larger than it has ever been”. Challenging Toyota work is now much more in evidence, because although the company has worked with the company for three years, “this is our first big year with them,” Dr Kightley highlights. And Toyota Racing recently unveiled its new TF104 car.

 

Taylor Kightley has gone onto a two-shift system – 7 am to midnight five days/week, Saturday morning’s overtime plus a 4pm start on Sunday (93 hours of manned cover). As for the MAM72-35V, it is putting in as near a seven-day week of full production as makes no odds, with an 8 am Sunday morning check and replenishment. From November 2003 to Machinery’s mid-February visit, the machine had run every day – including Christmas day!

 

And in an effort to boost capacity further, an ‘emergency’ investment in an additional, high-speed 3-axis Matsuura vertical machining centre has been made. This will take the load off the 5-axis machines, leaving them to do only those parts that critically need their capabilities, with the next step to transfer to the new machines some of the roughing operation currently undertaken on the 5-axis units. Ordered on a Wednesday, first parts were delivered off the new machine to a customer on Saturday!

 

But this machining centre will probably be part-exchanged for another pallet-loaded 5-axis model in due course. There’s no shortage of targets within the company for 5-axis machining’s greater application, and there’s no shortage of customers for the company’s expertise with it either. But the order book is still only six to eight weeks. That’s like in the 5-axis fast lane.

 

The first 5-axis machine installed in late 2000 was a Matsuura V.Max-800 5AX vertical with the optional rotary table/tilting cradle set-up. Table diameter is 500 mm, rotation speed 25 rpm and the maximum weight on the table is 200 kg. Taylor Kightley went for the optional 20,000 rpm spindle to obtain a good compromise between higher spindle speed and torque. The 30,000 rpm unit would not have delivered the torque required for the variety of parts which takes in steel, hard steels, titanium, as well as the more easily cut aluminium and magnesium.

 

Along with the reduction in operations and set-up time, the major benefit has been the “porting” of engine components such as inlet manifolds under full 5-axis interpolation.  “The results were extremely impressive. But when we went for 5-axis, we went for full 5-axis simultaneous machining not simply 5-axis positioning.” A big jump, admits Dr Kightley, adding: “Anybody who goes into this won’t be any good at it for a year. You can buy the machine, the CAM software and post processor, but you then need experience.” And that experience is not widely available from external sources so it has to be internally gained.

 

Already using Mastercam CAM software for programming, when the company went looking for 5-axis CAM, Mastercam was one that could meet the specific challenge of supporting simultaneous machining with ‘lollipop’ tools – internal machining of difficult-to-access bore details which demand tilting of the tool axis but with control to avoid collision with bore walls. The CAM software and associated post processor – final tweaks for which were made in-house – are considered key in supporting the fullest use if its 5-axis machinery. And Dr Kightley suggests that the company is now one of the most proficient Mastercam 5-axis users in the country.

 

But once the company had the V.Max-800 5AX, the managing director explains that application of 5-axis machining could be seen in many more jobs, and that led to a requirement for more capacity. The MAM72-35V is a vertical spindle unit fed by 32, BT60 taper location, 130 mm diameter pallets and once again featuring a 20,000 rpm spindle. It also has a similar rotating table/tilting cradle design to the V.Max-800 5AX. Fitted with Renishaw NC3 laser probe for tool measurement, the machine offers unmanned automated running of a wide variety of small components such as bracketry, water inlets, and so on. As at Machinery’s visit, eight different jobs were set up and running on the MAM72-35V. A single coolant from CNC Fluids, Bristol supports the variety of work and material processed.

 

 

The need for fixturing is completely eradicated with blocks of raw material located onto pallets via either one or two screws and two dowels. Indeed, the company’s four original Matsuura verticals are being used to prepare raw material for the MAM72-35V.

 

Parts are machined from solid and remain attached to the original material by tangs. They are then removed manually with blend machining undertaken if required. But latterly a Fanuc wire-cut EDM unit has been used to automate the removal of parts from stock, and which neatly complements 5-axis machining in its ability to cope with challenging parts.

 

Taylor Kightley currently utilise 8 Matsuura Machining Centre’s & a Matsuura supplied large capacity 5 face SNK RB2N.

 

For more information about Taylor Kightley, please visit their website at www.tke.co.uk

 

This story was first published by Machinery (Findlay Publications) in March 2004.