The Alpine F1 Team’s facility in Enstone, Oxfordshire has seen a recent investment in eight Mikron MILL P 500U 5-axis machining centres that have had a positive impact on productivity.
Alpine F1 Team currently has 11 Mikron 5-axis machines for highly complex, metal components for its racing cars and, by October 2021, it will have a further 10 Mikron 5-axis machines for composite components.
The investment in machines from GF Machining Solutions reflects the longstanding ‘Technical Partnership’ arrangement that exists between the two.
This has seen GF supply a significant number of Mikron 5-axis machines to the Enstone facility as well as a range of its latest AgieCharmilles EDM wire and die-sink machines.
Following a recent investment to upgrade its EDM capabilities, Alpine F1 Team’s EDM machines now comprise four CUT P 550 (wire) and one FORM 350 (die-sink) machine.
GF Machining Solutions initially supplied eight new Mikron MILL P 500U 5-axis machining centres in the summer of 2019. The eight new MILL P 500Us replaced six, older Mikron HPM 450U 5-axis machines from 2016. Explains Ian Pearce, Alpine F1 Team’s Head of Supply Chain: “The Mikron HPM 450Us are good machines but changing situations and circumstances, within our operations dictated that they needed to be replaced.”
Before the arrival of the new MILL P 500U machines, the team was machining front suspension uprights on its two, larger Mikron MILL P 800U machines. Ian recalls: “Unfortunately, the HPM 450U machines’ work envelopes were too small to accommodate the uprights so we had to machine them on the larger MILL P 800U machines instead. This created a production headache because work designated for the larger machines was backing up. It appears every component needed to be machined on a MILL P 800U! Consequently, bottlenecks affecting all aspects were the result.”
To alleviate pressure on its MILL P 800U machines the decision was taken to replace its HPM 450Us with a few larger capacity, high-performance 5-axis machines. Says Ian Pearce: “When we wanted to replace the HPM 450U machines we were looking for a smaller version of the Mikron MILL P 800U.” The Mikron MILL P 500U is a smaller version of the HPM 800U. Says Bruce Foster, Alpine F1 Teams’ Metallics Production Manager: “The uprights are primarily 3+2 machined from aluminium on the MILL P 500U with full 5-axis machining taking place when and where appropriate. Cycle times are about 12 hours per upright, geometric tolerances across the part are 10 microns or better and the surface finish is Ra0.2µm.”
The acquisition of eight machines including four with 7-station automatic pallet changers (APCs) has given the team the capacity to fulfil its twin machining needs. Firstly, to machine upgrades and/or replacement parts required for the current season, and secondly to machine prototypes and parts, and their numerous reiterations for the new cars.
Remembers Ian Pearce: “We had to minimise machine downtime and any disruption to our production schedules, as much as possible. We worked with GF Machining Solutions to develop an installation programme that would optimise spindle uptime. The arrival of the new machines also allowed us to re-imagine and re-visualise the layout of our manufacturing facility, making us more efficient.”
“In effect we have now created four machining cells. Each cell comprises a MILL P 500U with a pallet changer and one without. Each cell is run by one operator and, the four machines with automated pallet changers, has given us 24/7 manufacturing, allowing us to run unmanned.”