Precision metal cutting service
Sawn forging blanks case study – sawing service
Cutting bars into forging billets, to carefully controlled weight and length tolerances, close to where its customer needs them, Accurate Cutting Services enables Stokes Forgings Group to run its stocks very lean. The customer receives the cut pieces only on the day they are wanted.
The company cuts a wide range of carbon, alloy, bearing and micro-alloy steels using carbide circular saws, providing input to its customer’s press and hammer forges.
The annual volume of some 15,000 tonnes will be used by Stokes Forgings to produce parts, primarily for the automotive industry, such as wheel hubs, gears, crankshafts, radius arms, steering knuckles and suspension arms. They are chosen by many leading motor vehicle and other manufacturers.
Accurate Cutting Services has proved itself very flexible and quick to respond to sudden changes in our production programme,” comments Ian Young, managing director at West Midlands-based Stokes Forgings Ltd. “Without that level of service, forging equipment would stand idle, and supplies to end-customers would be jeopardised.” Lean stocks from the company’s on-time deliveries allow us to concentrate our investment in key pieces of forging plant,Mr Young.
Stokes Forgings Group, a Mahindra & Mahindra Group company, is one of the largest forging suppliers in the UK supplying medium to large volume ferrous forgings, in the range 0.2kg to 35kg, for automotive power train, chassis, suspension, axle and door systems, including for motor-sport, commercial and off-road use, and material handling, construction and rail.
Accurate Cutting Services, established in 1969, provides the UK’s largest and most versatile subcontract sawing service, offering efficiency gains prior to machining, and after casting, forging, fabrication or extrusion. The company aims to provide the capacity to meet varying or increasing demand, all within its customers’ cost expectations.
Its Midlands-based main factory investigates component failures, offering value-recovery opportunities, and provides blade and sawing machine sales, repairs and servicing.