Where do you even begin trying to install a machine like this?
By Lyndsey Vickers
“Nobody else in the UK in the aerospace industry can do this size of work.”
Installing Datum Tool Design’s 22-metre Promac twin-head gantry machine was no small feat. Before the factory walls went up, the foundations were already going in: 1,300 tonnes of concrete, 1.6 metres deep, and a substation upgrade just to handle the power it needs.
Every detail was considered – from six mist filters and six cameras to Vericut simulation software that lets the team sleep at night while jobs run for days. Lyndsey Vickers of MTDCNC joins Kevin McClements of Datum Tool Design to go behind the scenes of one of the UK’s most ambitious machine tool installations and what it means for Northern Ireland’s aerospace manufacturing capability.
