Investment in the latest CAM software from Open Mind Technologies has allowed Northampton-based GE Precision Engineering to continue to win new contracts in its specialist field of motorsport and also expand the business and explore new markets in a number of different sectors
When GE Precision Engineering (GEPE) opened its doors for business little over four years ago, like most start-ups the Northampton-based company purchased equipment within its budget constraints. The acquisitions included a number of second hand machine tools and low end CAM software to program its parts.
Company founder and managing director, Garry Edwards is a motorsport engineer who left his post at Ilmor to set up GEPE to service the motorsport industry. To work in this industry, high specification machine tools, CAM software and highly qualified and experienced staff are a pre-requisite.
To meet such demands, Edwards invited three highly skilled ex-colleagues to join the company as directors and when it was financially feasible, the company invested in five-axis machine tools. In the four years of trading, this has included a DMG DMU50, a seven pallet MikronUCP600, a Hardinge XR60-5AX and Doosan turning centres with driven tooling. However, the most important purchase for the 17 employee business has been CAM software from Open Mind Technologies.
As Edwards confidently states: “The hyperMILL package from Open Mind is undoubtedly the best decision I have made for my business. Four years ago we initially acquired a CAM system based on cost and even during the training period, I knew it wasn’t capable of meeting our needs. Nine months later we bought our first seat of hyperMILL. I have been trained on all CAM systems and spent many years competently using CAM systems from ALL manufacturers. My vast experience has seen me actually support some CAM vendors. So, when I say that Open Mind is the best available package, I am speaking from years of experience with all CAM systems.”
The selection of hyperMILL occurred when GEPE was awarded a contract with a leading F1 Engine manufacturer to produce CAM covers from solid billets. Edwards was given a demonstration of hyperMILL at the F1 team and immediately realised how easy it was to produce complex shapes and forms. As Edwards continues: “The demo really opened my eyes to the capabilities of hyperMILL, but most importantly how easy it was to program complex five-axis forms. It was streets ahead of anything I had previously used, so the decision was immediately made.”
The ISO: 9001 registered company is embedded in concept, design and consultancy projects with its customer base. Despite the Motorsport expertise levels of the directors, the company made a conscious decision during the recession to explore new markets. This now sees GEPE working with manufacturers of radar systems, engines for unmanned automated vehicles (UAVs), the ‘Ultra Boost’ engine project led by Jaguar Land Rover, Norton motorcycle engine projects and a reverse engineering and manufacturing project for English Premier Shotguns.
GEPE’s production technology sees the company retain a considerable customer base in the motorsport industry, with GEPE manufacturing small batches, prototypes and chassis work for F1 teams with larger production runs for Norton motorcycles running alongside the prototype work. As Edwards states: “We would be incapable of meeting the short turnaround demands of our customers if we didn’t have hyperMILL.”
The company has two seats in its design office with the third on the shopfloor. This allows the shopfloor staff to program smaller jobs that require three to four hours of programming, removing bottlenecks. As Mr Edwards states: “We have some extremely high end machine tools on our shop floor and the collision avoidance of hyperMILL is second to none. This gives me, as an employer and the machinists, complete confidence in turning jobs around rapidly and 100 per cent correctly with no collisions and impeccable quality.”
