Quaser Fits the Bill for Beechwood

As a family-run business that started trading from a small unit near Blackpool town centre, Beechwood Engineering Ltd has evolved into a major local manufacturer with a capital investment of more than £1m in the last 12 months. Part of this acquisition trail has seen the company invest in a Quaser MV184EH machining centre from the Engineering Technology Group (ETG).

Founded in 1977 and now managed by the third generation of the family, Beechwood is predominantly a 5-axis machine shop with ambitions of implementing automation throughout the shop floor. Despite manufacturing everything from simple to complex 5-axis parts for the F1, nuclear, offshore and food industries, the company that is now located in Poulton-le-Fylde needed a 3-axis VMC with a Heidenhain CNC control unit – ETG answered the call, delivering the Quaser in August 2023.

Labelling itself as a ‘one-stop-shop’ for machined components, Beechwood has a plethora of high-end machine tools. As Managing Director at Beechwood Engineering Ltd, Stewart Churchill summarises: “We produce everything from one-offs to batch runs in the thousands, machining materials from plastics to exotics. Whilst the majority of our machining is complex 5-axis work, we do machine quite a lot of jigs, fixtures and parts that do not warrant 5-axis machining – for this we wanted a new 3-axis machine to replace an older machine as part of our continuous improvement programme.”

With Heidenhain CNC control systems on its machining centres throughout the machine shop, Beechwood wanted a 3-axis Heidenhain-controlled VMC with a rapid delivery time that could fit into the floor area of an ageing outgoing 3-axis machine. As Stewart continues: “We have bought machines from ETG down the years and one of those machines was a Quaser MV204CPL machining centre that we bought back in 2012. Whilst that machine has since been moved on, we were very impressed with its performance, rigidity, stability and reliability. So, when it came to buying a new 3-axis VMC, we didn’t have to look any further than ETG.”

The 23-employee ISO: 9001 certified manufacturer still has other machines on its shopfloor from ETG such as a Nakamura-Tome NTRX-300 multi-axis turning centre, so it is fully aware of the quality and service from ETG – both factors in the latest acquisition. As Stewart adds: “The Quaser MV184EH has been brought in to replace an older 3-axis machine that needed to be upgraded. The key drivers in installing the new Quaser were an updated and more productive platform for programming, setting up jobs and holding tight tolerances. Since the machine was installed, it has been running day and night shifts, machining parts such as complex jigs and fixtures as well as valves, plates and other more simplistic parts for the oil & gas industry. This has alleviated capacity from our 5-axis machines whilst adding the production efficiency we need with maximum machine uptime.”

As standard, the Quaser MV184 has a spacious 1,200 by 600mm bed with X, Y and Z-axis travel of 1020 by 610 by 610mm with BT40 taper spindle options from 9,000rpm to 24,000rpm. From an optional extra perspective, the Quaser MV184 is available with 30, 48 or 60-position ATC, spindle oil chiller, BBT spindle attachment, 4^th axis preparation, linear encoders, tool and workpiece probing, a choice of high-pressure coolant systems, filtration unit, oil mist collector and much more.

Concluding on the latest addition to the company’s plant list, Stewart says: “ETG has always been a supplier we can rely on with their choice of high-quality machine tools that are backed by exceptional service and support. The Quaser has been bought to specifically fill a position on our shop floor, which is to alleviate capacity from our 5-axis machines and provide a fast turnaround service for some of our simple work. The machine is more than fulfilling this role – and it is doing so with reliability, precision, quality and consistency. Consistently long-running machine hours were a challenge for us on ageing machines before we bought the Quaser. In the future, this machine will also fill the role of being a training machine for our apprentices – and I couldn’t think of a better machine to train the next generation of engineers on.”