Progressions of power

CIMOct18Feature - progressive1
CIMOct18Feature - progressive1

In a Q&A session, Composites in Manufacturing speaks to Progressive Technology Advanced Materials managing director, Rob West to hear how the company has grown to become a market leader in CNC multi-axis machining technologies.

In a Q&A session, Composites in Manufacturing speaks to Progressive Technology Advanced Materials managing director, Rob West to hear how the company has grown to become a market leader in CNC multi-axis machining technologies.

 

As a subcontract multi-axis CNC machining specialist, Berkshire-based Progressive Technology has made high levels of investment in software and state-of-the-art machine tools, and combined with continual investment in training and development supplies high quality complex machined components to a wide range of customers from a variety of industry sectors.

The company’s site-wide process standardisation and continuous sustainable improvement programmes - coupled with a ‘right first time’ philosophy – sees the company providing shorter lead-times and a quality reputation that it says is the envy of its competitors.

Progressive Technology comprises three divisions: Progressive Technology Advanced CNC Machining, which provides high-quality milled, turned components of medium-to-high complexity including highly-complex 5-axis parts; Progressive Technology Advanced Materials, a dedicated machining division supplying pattern, prototypes and composite inserts; Progressive Technology Additive Manufacturing, which uses the latest direct metal laser sintering technology to produce highly-engineered lightweight parts that eliminate cost-intensive tooling.

Q) Please provide a brief potted history of the company?

Progressive Technology Advanced CNC machining was already a leader in subcontract machining to the motorsport industry. Many of the customers had approached us to support their pattern machining. Having gained many years of experience in pattern and composite machining from within the motorsport industry, I decided to join Progressive to set up a new company within the group after some initial discussions early in 2014.

Progressive Technology Advanced Materials, established in 2014 as addition to the Progressive Technology Group provides an advanced composite machining facility focussed on machining epoxy and polyurethane tooling board patterns and models, and also carbon fibre as well as structural foams. It’s grown over the last four years to currently sixteen staff and ten machine tools with dedicated inspection, hand finishing and production control areas.

Q) What is the breakdown (split) of your pattern & mould making and tooling making services and solutions?

The current split percentage for patterns is 80%. The remainder is made up of other work comprising Rohacell foam and carbon fibre machining. This is distributed across the following: four dedicated machine tools for machining Rohacell inserts and smaller pattern work; two dedicated 5-axis machine tools for machining carbon fibre inserts and smaller complex patterns; four CMS 5-axis machining centres for epoxy and polyurethane tooling board.

Q) Please provide a feel for the size, scope and lead-times of the pattern & mould work you do? What industries do you supply into?

The majority of our work is for motorsport - particularly Formula One customers that require short lead-times. Having the amount of machining capacity that we have, gives us the flexibility to react to our customer’s demands and short lead-times.

Q) What are the types of performance demands placed on your company by today’s customers?

We have to perform in all areas every day, with every part that we produce. Price, quality and on-time delivery are all key in maintaining long-term relationships with our customers. They need to be confident that we will achieve all of this, no matter what demands are asked of us. If we commit to a part, we will always ensure our ability to deliver.

Q) Tell me more about your CMS Antares and Ares CNC machining centres. What are they mainly used for and how happy are you with their performance?

The three CMS Ares machining centres are typically used for epoxy and polyurethane tooling board patterns and models, The CMS Antares is used for a combination of foam inserts and patterns and models. The flexibility to run programs across all machines with standardised set-ups provides consistency and increases productivity.

The Antares is our latest acquisition. CMS provides a very good product that is particularly suited for the work that we carry out. We have had great success with CMS machines - their performance and reliability has been an important part of our success.

Q) Is there a particular success story you can briefly talk about?

We won both the Composite Supplier of the Year and the Overall Supplier of the Year awards from a leading Formula One team in 2017. This was a combined effort from our small team of people and a fantastic achievement for all involved. A particularly positive end to only our third full year of operating.

Q) What do you feel are the most important assets of a successful company?

It’s a combination of many things. The right people with efficient planning and process control, teamwork, coupled with the use of technology has enabled the growth of our business. The experience to work smartly and focus on known areas enables us to continue to grow and develop our staff.

Q) Finally, what differentiates your company from the competition - why should a customer use you over your nearest rival?

It’s our experienced staff that have come directly from the industry we mainly support. Our on-time delivery and quality enable us to be a trusted and reliable source. We like to build relationships with our customers so that they see us as an add-on to their own machining facilities.

www.progressive-technology.co.uk

Company

CMS

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