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Previously, Meditech, based in Halstead and primarily focused on manufacturing equipment like resuscitators for paramedics and emergency responders in pre-hospital care, shifted significantly during the Covid pandemic. The company expanded its focus to supplying medical equipment to the National Health Service and private hospitals. This shift has resulted in over a fivefold increase in turnover since 2020, along with an expansion of its factory space. Naturally, this rapid growth has required the company to implement careful management of various business aspects, especially manufacturing.
The company’s first Citizen lathe, a Cincom L20 with 20mm bar capacity, was purchased in 2008 following a decision by Managing Director Chris Buckenham to bring all production in-house. Until then, only a few brass and aluminium items, such as regulator bodies and valve components, were machined on site using multiple setups on CNC fixed-head turning centres, manual lathes and milling machines.
The remainder were being sourced from subcontractors in the UK and overseas. However, some components supplied from Asia were proving problematic during assembly, so the goal was complete control over the manufacturing function to ensure top quality and timely delivery of Meditech products.
A further objective was to produce components in as few operations as possible, preferably in a single machine visit. Mr Buckenham had become aware of the capabilities of sliding-head turn-milling technology and visited the MACH 2008 show to find out more. After a tour of the halls, it quickly became apparent to him, from the quality of Cincom lathes, their capabilities and the ease of setup access, that Citizen Machinery would be the preferred supplier. A deposit was paid there and then for the first L20.
Its arrival on the shop floor in June that year, in the words of Mr Buckenham, “revolutionised production overnight”. It was the start of a programme of Citizen lathe acquisitions that has resulted in the delivery of a total of seven twin-spindle models over the years. A second L20 of higher specification was installed five years later. Then a third with even more capability, an L20-XIILFV with a programmable, 135-degree swivelling B-axis for complex angled machining at both the main and sub spindles, followed in August 2020 to help workload during the pandemic.
This latest-generation lathe is characterised by the integration of LFV (low frequency vibration) technology, a proprietary Citizen innovation that uses servo-controlled oscillation to break chips into manageable fragments. It drastically improves the machining of stringy materials like stainless steels and plastics, much of which are cut on-site, preventing swarf from coiling around the tool and workpiece and potentially damaging both.
Prior to delivery of the third L20, to turn-mill larger components Meditech expanded its portfolio of Citizen lathes with a fixed-head machine from the supplier’s Miyano range. It was an ABX-64THY with three Y-axis tool turrets and a bar capacity of 64 mm. Delivered in 2015, it replaced a similar machine from a different supplier that was performing badly and set the medical equipment manufacturer on the road to becoming a Citizen-lathe-only company.
A similar Miyano with enhanced speed, power and thermal stability to allow longer periods of unattended operation, including overnight, was added in 2023 to expand production capacity for larger components, some of which are prismatic in shape without any turned features. Both Miyanos also benefit from superimposed machining capability, which enables three different tools to be in cut simultaneously for elevated levels of productivity.
After the installation of the first Miyano, a larger-capacity Cincom arrived in 2019, an L32-XIILFV, to take advantage of its gang rather than turret tooling arrangement to deliver faster cycle times. This machine, which also has a programmable B-axis carrying live tools that can work on either spindle, was delivered with an expansion kit to allow bars up to 38 mm diameter.
Notably, the lathe has been operated exclusively without its guide bush in place, with the bar clamped in the spindle collet. Principal machine operator Ian Ronsky, who has an aerospace background, finds that the absence of the bush interface provides additional workpiece support, allowing more efficient roughing without risking vibration.
He said: “Deflection of a part when machining larger-diameter, stiffer bars up to 32mm is not a problem, even though the general tolerance we hold on workpieces is tight at ± 10 microns.
“For any component longer than the 80mm headstock travel, I simply rechuck. In non-guide-bush mode, we have the advantage of using less expensive bar, and remnant lengths are much shorter, saving even more cost.”
The most recent Citizen lathe to be delivered, an L12-XLFV, is the smallest machine, with a bar capacity of 12mm. About one-fifth of the parts Meditech turns are below this diameter, and the nimble machine allows their production to be significantly faster than on an L20, while also freeing the three larger lathes for other, more appropriate work. In common with the more recent Cincom deliveries, it also has the LFV chip-breaking software, as will all future models destined for the Halstead factory, such is the advantage it provides when machining malleable materials.
