MTD CNC’s Joe visited Jason at Luff Engineering, a reputable sub-contractor company who are specialists in manufacturing cast iron parts for a cast iron foundry and have recently began to manufacture aluminium work.
The business was formed fifteen years ago, fundamentally focused on machining parts for a customer who was building pumps and required many cast iron parts, leading to company growth ever since.
With the company already owning three twin-pallet horizontal machines, they found it increasingly difficult to maintain and find spares, with the option of going up the roots of a new horizontal unaffordable, they opted for a 5-axis ROMI.
Jason states that this was an excellent decision as ROMI have a reputation for building large, robust and heavy machinery, something which has helped Luff Engineering complete genuine milling with cast iron work with great cycle times and plenty of options for the operator. The 5-axis machine compliments the company as they have a lot of 5-sided work.
Luff Engineering are also very pleased with the Siemens software, claiming that it is very user friendly and even with limited knowledge, minor training was necessary for the company where used to using FANUC previously. Jason told MTD that the software also gives users the ability to use old school G codes, something which he used until he discovered the simplicity of the training required.
Unlike other companies who see 5-axis work when buying a 5-axis machine, luff Engineering have been fortunate enough to be kept very busy with servicing existing clients, but as Jason explained, it is not something they will rule out for the future.
The entire buying process was straightforward from service to installation, with minimal issues the machine was up and running in days, and ROMI tend to respond to any queries through WhatsApp within an hour!
