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Citizen Sliding Head - Triflow Components

Story added 20 March 2009.

Design guru Zaha Hadid has helped Triflow Concepts take a world lead in the design and manufacture of exclusive taps, water filtration  systems and bathroom and kitchen accessories.  With its top of the range innovative brassware tap concepts selling for up to £7,000 a piece, and its catalogued range ever growing in demand, the company has ring-fenced its enviable reputation by adopting a philosophy based around quality – quality of product and quality of every sequence in its manufacturing chain.
 
According to Keith Liversage, plant manager at the company’s Wolverhampton site: “Everything is manufactured in-house - including castings, full machining, finishing, plating and assembly – and we employ the same quality and performance ethos to everything, including all the production equipment we install.”
 
Directing his comments to two of the latest Citizen M32-V top of the range CNC sliding head turn-mill centres installed mid-2008, Mr Liversage says the machines were ed on merit.  “It was a basically simple decision after checking out competitor machines.” he adds.   Engineering manager, Ajit Singh, confirms from their experience to date: “We have programmed 53 parts over six months and produced 98,000 components on one machine and 90,000 on the other,” he says.  “In achieving this, these two machines have replaced four, three-axis turn-mill centres that could never come near the cycle time, level of quality, speed of resetting and change-over we are now obtaining.” 
 
Turning to his detailed records that closely monitor and chart events involving the machines in his charge, he adds: “The average cycle time for all the 53 parts has fallen from 2.33 minutes to just 0.66 mins, giving an average saving of 1.67 minutes per part.”
 
But Mr Liversage maintains there were other important considerations in the decision to buy the Citizens.  “The brassware market is ultra-competitive and we are fighting against a host of low-cost producers around the world keen to copy or provide a standard product.  Having ed Triflow taps, customers normally want the installation completed quickly so we cannot afford stoppages in production,” he says. 
 
He maintains the company must reduce stockholding, work in progress and move towards a make-to-order initiative and this is where the Citizens are helping achieve the goal.  Average change-overs take less than 45 minutes and these are predicted to rapidly reduce by half in the future.  Previously, the three-axis turn-mill centres took between two and four hours to reset.
 
He adds:  “We have moved into a totally new scenario with these two machines.  The flexibility of the M32 means we have taken away restrictions on our design team who can now push the barriers of new concepts to once again take our company further away from the run-of-the-mill brassware producer.
 
Commenting on quality achievement, Mr Singh says that batch sizes are scheduled between 50 and 2,000 and each machine is always set to mid-limit.  Once the first-off is approved there has never been any requirement to adjust offsets and from the first to last part our records show there have been no deviations.  “Linishing has been eliminated and such is the level of surface finish achieved, even on spherical knobs, connectors and handles, that polishing is reduced to light mopping allowing the machined profiles to be maintained,” he says.
 
Triflow Concepts recently changed its name from Avilion where the new name capitalises on the company’s patented invention of the Triflow.  This is  a three-way tap concept developed in 1991 which broke new ground by including the independent flow of filtered water within the same tap body and nozzle but using three separate water feeds, thus eliminating any cross-contamination of hard and soft water.
 
Originally headquartered in Rainham, Essex, the company now employs 168 people on that site which has some 43,000 ft2 for design and assembly and in 2006 it acquired the 55,000 ft2 site in Bushbury, Wolverhampton, where the Citizens are installed.  Here 70 people are employed in the brass foundry, machine shop and polishing area.  This facility also houses a very impressive, modern, automated plating facility capable of creating five high quality finishing processes including 24 carat gold plating.  As a result of its increased production on the two sites, Triflow Concepts has become the UK’s largest independent brassware manufacturer.
 
Both Citizen M32-V turn-mill centres were bought with identical specifications. Programmable gantry unloading also provides total flexibility in scheduling machine loading and ensures identical floor-to-floor times without any concern of damage or marking of components.  Mr Singh maintains the level of flexibility through the 14-axis machines enables both front and back machining of a component using up to three tools simultaneously, which significantly reduces cycle times.
 
This is achieved by independent programming of tools mounted in the turret, gang toolpost and the fixed toolpost.  Adding to the enhanced flexibility for production is the inclusion of two Y-axis movements on the 10 station turret and vertical gang toolpost able to carry up to five turning tools and four driven tools and the fixed toolpost is able to carry three tools.  The all-driven turret is able to accommodate up to 40 tools using multiple toolholders - the latest development by Citizen. 
 
Programming is carried out via the Citizen Machinery UK-developed CNC Wizard enabling quick program creation with each machining process explained with a clear description and diagram.  Here Mr Singh was very complimentary saying it enabled him to not only create, but also easily optimise, each machining cycle off-line to achieve high orders of cycle time reduction and then use the DNC link to transfer program data to the machine control.  Both machines are also set permanently with duplicated common tools to speed change-over and further raise productivity.
 
Typical of the type of brass components produced is a wall connector – pot filler out of 32 mm bar.  This part previously took 3.25 mins on a three-axis turn-mill centre against which the machining time has been totally decimated by the Citizen M32-V to 1.02 mins.  The component is initially drilled through from solid with a 13.5 mm drill then counterbored to 16 mm diameter followed by the broaching of a ½ inch A/F hexagon.  It is then faced and the profile turned creating various grooves and radii.  Two opposed keyways are milled using the C- and Z-axes and the profile finish turned before being parted-off ready for the subspindle.
 
The part is then faced and chamfered on the back followed by a boring operation to create a thread which is then screw cut to ½ inch NPT thread.  Says Mr Singh:  “The complete cycle is balanced and here the flexibility in programming and the ability to use a wide variety of tools means we can create a faster cycle time.” 
 
“We have been able to rethink our production methods with a clean sheet of paper to create totally new standards of quality right across our brass components.” concludes Mr Liversage, adamantly. “And, by working to mid-tolerance, final assembly is easier and this all contributes to the longevity of our taps, freedom from leaks, a precision feel to the action of the tap and the maintenance of that ‘as new’ look that has become synonymous with the Triflow name.”
 
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