“We are extremely pleased with MetLase’s efforts and professionalism throughout this fast track project. The tables received are well engineered and very robust. It’s great to see such design, engineering and manufacturing at its best.“
Published: 9th July 2021
The MetLase team took on the 1000km challenge during June in tribute to their friend and colleague, Toby Unna who sadly passed away in April following a long battle with leukaemia.
“Toby was an inspiration at MetLase, he was a highly proficient Principal Engineer who used his outstanding abilities to solve the most complex of engineering problems surrounding a passion of his, aerospace. His charismatic charm, generous nature and wit were well-loved by everyone at MetLase and he will be sadly missed by all.” said Andrew Mather, Chief Engineer
In remembrance of Toby, the MetLase team ran, walked and cycled a total of 1745.2km. Between them, they have raised an impressive £1,438 for the Leicestershire and Rutland Hospice, who cared for Toby.
“Halfway through the challenge we had reached our target distance so decided to raise the bar and aim for 1000 miles (1609km) to really push ourselves. My legs were definitely feeling the effects of the challenge in the last week, but it felt great when we completed that last run!” said Liz Hayden, Office Manager, who coordinated the challenge.
She added, “We did it, well over 1000km completed….in fact over 1000 miles completed and we smashed our fundraising goal too! Thank you to all our supporters, it means so much to us. We did Toby proud. Thank you, love Team MetLase”
To donate, go to https://bit.ly/3woGQXD
LOROS is a charity whose aim is to enhance the quality of life of adult patients with cancer, progressive neurological conditions and end-stage organ failure for whom curative treatment is no longer possible. Patients are treated at the Hospice and in the community based upon clinical need, regardless of background and the ability to pay.
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We met up with Laura Hinks, one of our Design Engineers on developing SmartGauge and what MetLase Digital Manufacturing Solutions means to our customers…
In a world dominated by smart technology, MetLase offers a variety of solutions to everyday manufacturing problems. But what does this really mean? If we want manufacturers to invest and adopt our technology, we need to give a clear insight into the real benefits that can reduce costs, improve your processes and be first to market. Who better to ask, but the Engineers who developed the product…
Laura Hinks has worked for MetLase since 2019 as a Design Engineer, “What’s really exciting is Digital technologies have rapidly changed the way we work and problem solve in MetLase, using a variety of digital disciplines to enhance the fixtures that we design on a daily basis. By utilising the fundamental principles of Industry 4.0 technologies, we offer our customers so much more accurate and repeatable data to help with any processes they are looking to improve.
What is SmartGauge?
I’ve been involved in the development of the SmartGauge product from the initial concept stage and we have now designed a standard, modular, digital gauging station which can be adapted specifically to suit the individual customer needs. The station can either be placed in line with current manufacturing or assembly lines, or it can be used as a standalone station to suit any situation.
We, as a team, identified from the start of the project that we needed to create the ability to validate manufactured parts in a matter of seconds using a number of pneumatically operated measurement towers. By simply placing the parts into the fixtures, seconds later the user receives a Go/No-Go light confirming the validity of the parts. It was from this basic concept that we continued on as a team to develop a solution that gives a huge amount of data in real-time.
Digital Design
We designed the SmartGauge bench because we recognised that a solution that greatly reduces design and manufacturing time translates to a cost-saving for the customer. The bench features – CMM style top plate, measurement towers, electronics and pneumatic systems – have all been developed into a robust base for the bespoke element to be applied to.
Customisation
At MetLase I’m one of a really diverse group of Engineers, and we all come from different backgrounds which really lends itself to creating the bespoke elements to each fixture. Utilising digital technologies when problem-solving and designing allows us to make each fixture as smart and efficient as possible.”
With the launch of our new Challenge Us campaign, we are supporting our manufacturing customers, helping turn concept and design into reality. If you are interested in further information and want us to take a look at your manufacturing challenges, do not hesitate to contact us today.
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MetLase – Digitally-led & Manufacturing Solutions
> The Customer – Rolls-Royce plc
> The Project – Maximise process efficiency and control quality
The Outlet Guide Vanes (OGV) on an aero engine are located behind the rotating fan and are designed to guide the working air efficiently into the rest of the engine. The OGV has discrete components that need to be welded to very high integrity.
Existing tack welding fixtures used to pre-align the OGV foot and vane required a high level of manual intervention, which can introduce part-to-part variation.
MetLase were asked to develop an alternative fixture solution, with cycle time reduction and reduced variation as primary objectives.
Close engagement with the customer during the initial stages of the project allowed MetLase to propose solutions that would maximise the cycle time reduction. A complete understanding of the existing process and its limitations were key to understanding the wider benefits that were possible through alternative fixture solutions.
The non-value-added time associated with repeated part removal, re-location and welding set-up operations was captured. This was used to establish a fixture concept that could minimise operations while maximising part quality and Right First Time (RFT) manufacture.
MetLase designed a single fixture solution that incorporated the entire tack welding process (including integrated inert Argon gas backers), welding of part sides and addition of run-on/run-off tabs for subsequent Electron Beam Welding operations.
Our customer can complete the OGV tack welding process using a single production standard fixture, with process time reduced by 40%. The manufactured outputs have improved part consistency, minimised non-value-added time and reduced H&S risk associated with handling operations.
The fixture contains specific location features to support the part during all stages of tack welding. Product-specific identification features were integrated to improve the visual identification of the fixture and guarantee its use for specific component manufacture. Everything necessary for the set-up and welding operations is self-contained within the solution, maximising flexibility for the manufacturing teams by allowing it to be located in different welding cell locations across the factory.
“By working closely with MetLase we’ve secured a fully optimised and production standard fixture solution for OGV manufacturing operations. Now complete, we expect to reduce operation time by 40% – that’s really significant for us”
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MetLase – Digitally-led & Manufacturing Solutions
> The Customer – Aerospace Engine Manufacturer
> The Project – Design and manufacture a highly repeatable system for controlled argon delivery within shielded welding
The welding process often requires inert gases to improve the quality of the weld. Gas shields provide a controlled atmosphere, protecting the weld from atmospheric gases such as oxygen or water vapour, to better than 10 parts per million.
A major aerospace engine manufacturer approached MetLase to design and manufacture a customised system for controlled argon delivery within shielded welding with application to R&D and full production.
Using our precision laser cutter and patented joining methodology, our engineers were able to manufacture an innovative solution using a metallic foam material that dissipated the argon gas in a precision manner, providing an almost perfect inert atmosphere for the welding process. Providing a transferable solution to other welding applications, this was chosen due to the robustness required to meet the customer’s stringent acceptance criteria.
From initial design, to manufacture and support, the sensor concept creates an opportunity to read measurement properties, monitoring these sensor outputs over a period of time can offer insights into equipment performance. MetLase is using this concept, combined with research across all digital technologies to contribute to the development of wider MetLase Digital Manufacturing Solutions which can be used across multiple sectors and applications.
“To provide a bespoke, flexible solution really gave the team a significant challenge, but this also gave us the opportunity to integrate digital technologies and techniques that would provide game-changing solutions to the welding process. The aerospace industry has stringent quality standards to meet, and we required a solution that would allow the product to be deployed across civil engine variants”
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MetLase – Digitally-led & Manufacturing Solutions
> The Customer – Ventilator Challenge UK (VCUK)
> The Project – Develop a working ventilator to a new Rapid Manufactured Ventilator Specification (RMVS)
In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, a worldwide shortage of ventilators led the UK government to issue a call to arms to the most innovative companies in the UK manufacturing sector – the Ventilator Challenge UK (VCUK) to quickly develop a working ventilator to the new Rapid Manufactured Ventilator Specification (RMVS) devised by the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), to address the current requirements.
MetLase knew that meeting the MHRA’s specification would be challenging, so brought together a regulatory compliance team equal in size of their engineering team. Including MetLase’s own compliance lead, and expertise from parent companies Rolls-Royce and Unipart Rail, external contributors included Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, innovation experts CPI and the public health and safety organisation NSF.
Manufacturing and supply-chain activities were led by Unipart Manufacturing, who sourced components and designed production lines within their Coventry
manufacturing facilities.
Additionally, MetLase supported other VCUK partners with design work:
> Meggitt PLC: with the design, manufacturability, and initial production runs of the enclosure for their Spiritus ventilator project.
> Rolls-Royce: MetLase designed and produced 72 bespoke manufacturing workstations in just 10 days, for the new production lines in their Bristol facility, to scale up production of Smiths Medical paraPAC Plus ventilators.
> Cambridge Consultants Ltd: Understanding the detailed workings of a ventilator, and with Unipart Manufacturing’s earlier efforts, MetLase became the preferred manufacturing partner for their Veloci-Vent ventilator.
The first prototype was tested within 14 days.
MetLase developed their own ventilator, with design emphasis focussed on the availability of components within the supply chain and manufacturability while remaining compliant to the MRHA’s specification.
The Government eventually halted the efforts of all the VCUK consortia companies working on RVMS Ventilators, in favour of ramping up the production of existing products. However, this project demonstrates how MetLase can rapidly mobilise its team of skilled engineers, and apply the patented MetLase technology, which was born out of the aerospace sector, to solve problems across the broadest spectrum of applications.
“The Ventilator is a great example of how MetLase can help manufacturing companies adapt to quickly cope with new requirements to keep their people safe and help with any ramp-up as people get back to work”
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MetLase – Digitally-led & Manufacturing Solutions
> The Customer – Kautex Unipart
> The Project – Design and manufacture an inspection fixture to reduce the processing time
The customer currently uses the New Generation Fuel System blow molding process to produce plastic fuel systems. Due to the complicated nature of this process, machines are required to run 24/7 as a high level of heat is required before production can start. As with all manufacturing processes, parts are inspected regularly to ensure they adhere to stringent quality standards. With around 49 points of data to inspect, this process can take around 40-90 minutes. To complicate this further, a number of components are enclosed within the tank. If the production line stops due to a fault, a substantial amount of scrap can occur.
A fuel tank is one of the most safety-critical components of a car. The production process produces roughly 1 plastic fuel system every 38 seconds, quality inspections can take up to 90 minutes per system. If defects are found, production would stop, but worse than this, up to 42 fuel systems have potentially become waste.
By using a range of different technologies used in multiple sectors, our MetLase Engineers offered a solution for our customer’s unique problem. Digital technology was applied to solve the manual inspection process, turning this into a digital solution that automates the inspection, providing an instant assessment of the fuel tanks.
The result, a SmartGauge which has over 50 different sensors which can inspect the fuel system instantly, reducing the inspection time from up to 90 minutes to just 4 seconds.
MetLase engineers developed this technology which includes ‘plug and play’ which integrates into the SmartGauge fixturing system which could not be done with existing technologies.
“ The gauge has been introduced to significantly reduce our in-line product inspection times, from a manual process taking 40minutes, to a digitised process taking just a few seconds. The gauge can support uninterrupted production during the inspection process, so this is a huge reduction in the risk of us continuing to produce scrap products during the inspection process. Even more importantly, the data can be collected to improve our process, reducing the chance of producing scrap product in the first place!”
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Published: 28th May, 2021
A world class tooling and intelligent fixturing specialist is celebrating its 5th birthday in style by setting its sights on 20% growth.
MetLase, which is a joint venture between Unipart Manufacturing and Rolls-Royce, is launching a new expansion plan that has speed, customisation and data at its heart through the launch of ‘smart’ products that give its global customer base the ability to reduce costs and be first to market.
Clients, including OEMs and suppliers involved in aerospace, construction, defence and renewables, are already tapping into the benefits of the Rotherham-based firm’s SmartGauge, SmartMachining, SmartBench and rapid tooling support.
Through close collaboration with the National Composite Centre (NNC), MetLase has also installed SmartGauge into the NCC’s Smart Factory Innovation Hub, which will help companies and composite component producers test quick-fire projects and early-stage technologies.
“Like all good manufacturers, we are continually evolving and making sure our expertise is channelled into giving our clients what they want – speed, customised solutions and data-rich intelligence,”
explained Richard Gould, Business Development Manager at MetLase.
“Tooling can take weeks to develop and deliver – this is holding industry back. Our response was to develop a rapid tooling and prototyping process that embraces all electro and mechanical elements of design, robust software testing and a range of patented in-house technology applications.
“This, along with the option to integrate electronics and sensors to support self-calibration, metrology and process monitoring, cuts the process to just days and means our customers will have an immediate answer to a production issue or the opportunity to be first to market.”
He continued: “A major aerospace client even challenged us to create a bespoke aerospace pipe fixture, which we did in less than 24 hours.”
MetLase has modelled its response to the demand for digital manufacturing in fundamental engineering principles and looks at how its fixture and tooling solutions can generate, harvest and display information in real time that is actionable and makes customers more agile and responsive to their own clients.
This involves taking traditional manufacturing techniques focusing on assembly, bonding, measuring, workholding and assembly workstations and exploring how they can be digitised in a way that allows them to provide their core function whilst also gathering data.
“For us, digital manufacturing is not a standalone entity. Instead, it should be a critical aspect of the process and operation, and it should revolve around data and, specifically, digestible, actionable data,” added Richard.
“A dedicated team has spent the last twelve months developing ‘smart’ products, including the SmartGauge (conducting an automated digital dimensional inspection process), SmartBench (ensures no-fault forward in the assembly process as well as connecting up-front supply chains) and SmartCell.
“The latter covers multiple manufacturing processes and can enable human interaction with cobots and robots. This means tasks, including stock control and direct-to-bench supply of components, can be more easily automated.
“Engineers at our Rotherham factory haven’t stopped there, taking a similar approach to machining, by creating our new SmartMachining fixture that can gather critical data from a component such as clamping forces, vibration, temperature and dimensional measurement. This provides better process control and ongoing improvements.”
MetLase’s technology and processes are flexible, customisable and can be aligned to any industry sector and engineers are now throwing down a challenge for existing and new contacts to test them with their manufacturing problems.
Dedicated, multidisciplinary engineers are ready to deliver projects from start to finish, taking a consultative approach to first understand the business need and then, using experienced joining methodologies and in-house capabilities, offer a bespoke solution to concept, design, iteration and final production.
Richard concluded: “Last year we completed our largest ever fixture project, measuring 4 metres in diameter and capable of holding a 2.5 metres tall component during machining and bonding operations – now that was a challenge, but it got us thinking.
“We believe we have an engineering team that has firmware and software experience, as well as expertise across electro-mechanical disciplines – everything you need to deliver a solution for every problem imaginable.
“The message to industry is clear…challenge us and let us deliver the answer.”
Following the recent success of MetLase’s Digital Masterclass, it will be hosting a ‘SmartGauge in Manufacturing’ webinar at 3pm on 10th June. Register Here.
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Published: 7th May, 2021
MetLase is delighted to announce the appointment of Johnathan Andrews as Business Development Manager for Digital Products. Johnathan will engage with manufacturers across multiple sectors to drive growth for MetLase through communicating the benefits of our suite of core digital products, launching throughout 2021 and beyond.
Johnathan has almost 20 years of experience in an engineering sales role, throughout this time he’s focussed on helping manufacturing businesses become more competitive through the adoption of digital processes such as 3D printing and additive manufacturing.
Johnathan commented “I am excited to join this highly innovative team and look forward to driving the adoption of digital technologies that offer solutions to the significant challenges faced every day by manufacturers.”
Richard Gould, Business Development Manager said, “I am delighted to welcome Johnathan to the team, his extensive experience in digital manufacturing is a great fit for MetLase in this exciting year for us, as we launch our suite of core digital manufacturing products. Johnathan will focus on providing these smart solutions to our customers, enabling them to digitise their manufacturing process and become more competitive, which is critical more than ever as businesses recover from the COVID-19 pandemic”
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Removes high levels of in-process manual adjustment and significantly reduces part-to-part variation, due to single set-up and integral argon weld backing shields.
In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, a worldwide shortage of ventilators led the UK government to issue a call to arms to the most innovative companies in the UK manufacturing sector – the Ventilator Challenge UK (VCUK) to quickly develop a working ventilator to the to a new Rapid Manufactured Ventilator Specification (RMVS) devised by the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), to address the current requirements.
MetLase developed their own ventilator, with design emphasis focussed on availability of components within the supply-chain and manufacturability while remaining compliant to the MRHA’s specification.
The first prototype was tested within 14 days.
MetLase knew that meeting the MHRA’s specification would be challenging, so brought together a regulatory compliance team equal in size of their engineering team. Including MetLase’s own compliance lead, and expertise from parent companies Rolls-Royce and Unipart Rail, external contributors included Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, innovation experts CPI and the public health and safety organisation NSF.
Manufacturing and supply-chain activities were led by Unipart Manufacturing,
who sourced components and designed production lines within their Coventry
manufacturing facilities.
Additionally, MetLase supported other VCUK partners with design work:
> Meggitt PLC: with the design, manufacturability, and initial production runs of the enclosure for their Spiritus ventilator project.
> Rolls-Royce: MetLase designed and produced 72 bespoke manufacturing
workstations in just 10 days, for the new production lines in their Bristol facility,
to scale up production of Smiths Medical paraPAC Plus ventilators.
> Cambridge Consultants Ltd: Understanding the detailed workings of a ventilator, and with Unipart Manufacturing’s earlier efforts, MetLase became the preferred
manufacturing partner for their Veloci-Vent ventilator.
The Government eventually halted the efforts of all the VCUK consortia companies working on RVMS Ventilators, in favour of ramping up the production of existing products. However, this project demonstrates how MetLase can rapidly mobilise its team of skilled engineers, and apply the patented MetLase technology, which was born out of the aerospace sector, to solve problems across the broadest spectrum of applications.
Adaptability: Quick turnaround XXXXX
Fast Make: XXX
Delivery: Rapid delivery XXX
