HAAS Porsches the envelope at EB
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As a division of EB Equipment that was founded over 60 years ago, EB Motorsport has a level of experience in advanced engineering and manufacturing in the classic motorsport sector that is difficult to match. Located on a 4-hectare site in Barnsley, EB Motorsport has an operation that covers over 6000m2 with dedicated areas for shell preparation/fabrication, composite production, paint/body shop, assembly, part warehousing and of course CNC machining, which is where the company has invested in machine tools from HAAS.
With the latest manufacturing technology, EB Motorsport specialises in products and services from the supply of individual components to full restorations and bespoke builds. 
Giving an overview of the business, Mark Bates from EB Motorsport says: “We specialise mainly in classic Porsche 911’s and it’s a business that was born out of a hobby. For example, we have a 1965 Porsche that is going through a bare-metal restoration where literally every nut and bolt on the car has evolved with a lot of subtle tweaks. As we don’t want to annoy the purists, we have kept the main silhouette of the car without undertaking any drastic changes. Some of the changes may be a custom wire loom to details and fittings on the engine and even all the interior has been remanufactured with modern control gear.”
The company can pretty much manufacture anything with its HAAS UMC750 5-axis machining centre, HAAS ST10Y 4th axis turning centre and its 3D printing technology. “We are in an industry where this is a hobby, so when people have a component, it not only has to perform better it has to look right. We do everything from fastener production right up to the machining of the cylinder heads. We have developed the 5-axis port geometries for machining cylinder heads, the valve seats and even the valve guides.”
Looking at the investment in machine tools from HAAS, Mark says: “We have some endurance callipers for the Porsche 917’s and this was the calliper that made us invest in the HAAS UMC750 5-axis machining centre.” The callipers for the Martini Porsche car are manufactured from a range of materials with titanium fixtures that are machined on the HAAS ST10Y. It is the combination of the two machines that allows EB Motorsport to make these brake callipers. If these brakes fail, somebody could be in a lot of trouble, so the company makes seismic efforts to ensure the brakes are pressure tested and 100% correct for the customer.
Looking at the shop floor with a range of new and old machines, Mark continues: “The business started over 60 years ago, so we have kept a lot of our machines like some of our old presses – but we have also invested heavily in things like a 4-axis Bystronic Xpert 150 press, injection moulding machines, extrusion machines and more. With the HAAS ST10Y, we went for the Y-axis variant because, in our early days, some of the staff said we would have more flexibility if we had a turning centre and a mill. The problem with that is that you would have to remove components and reposition them, which would create an issue of misalignment. The HAAS ST10Y eradicates this as we can turn and mill and it has been a fantastic machine. We have really pushed this machine, to the point where we have fourth axis CAM software to program the machine off-line – as some of the parts we produce would be a big challenge for somebody to program at the machine.”
When it came to investing in machine tools, the company wanted to grow with HAAS and this is one reason why the HAAS UMC750 5-axis machining centre followed. “I have no reason to look elsewhere. From the quality of the components we are producing, the machines we are using are several years old and even if we do have an issue – the team at HAAS have been great. 
We have pushed the UMC750 to its limits and we have cut everything on the machine from aircraft-grade aluminium and magnesium through to variations of stainless steel. We have even put billets on the table that are so big, we have had to lock out the table and run it as a 3-axis machine, we really do challenge the limits of the machine.”
