| Return to graphical view |
Print this page | Email this page
| Mini Gears / Components Worldwide | 14 Feb 2012 |
Closer to Home
Closer to Home
Specializing in a niche market for UK manufacturers is not something new, but for Stockport based gear manufacturers, Mini Gears, it has recently taken on a whole new meaning.
Mini Gears, probably best known for producing medium to high volume batches of commercial gears and racks, has recently diversified into totally different markets, including low volume and very high precision industries such as Autosport, specialist gears for classic cars, high end valves applications, rotor pumps and even as diverse as aircraft seating for first class business travellers.
Over the last 18 months the company has been very busy investing in areas such as gear grinding, gear shaving, low volume turning and milling on the newly acquired XYZ machines and this is to compliment the already existing very flexible machining cells that include 3 of the latest Mazak 5 axis CNC multitasking centres and CNC Gear Hobbing.
Although Mini Gears’ traditional markets are still holding up extremely well, the fact that so many high volume components have migrated abroad and, in a lot of cases the whole assembly of the product, this has meant that future expansion is very limited in these areas and some 2 years ago the company made the decision to diversify into markets nearer to home.
The positive side of this move has created many new jobs at Mini Gears’ UK factory, which employs 80 people and even during the recession the cut backs that we had to make were nowhere near as severe as against most companies in the manufacturing sector. We have also taken on 3 apprentices to train up for the skills gap which is very prevalent in engineering and the areas we are looking to cover are the highly skilled machining side together with the technical, design and commercial side of the business.
As well as the new lower volume business we have also seen during the last 6 months a very high number of new enquiries for parts that would normally be sourced overseas and, due to a large cost increases in these regions, we have won back a number of contracts for our UK facility.
The recent installation of new hi- tech equipment, particularly in gear grinding, has been a key factor into entering new markets. We invested in a Hoefler Helix 400K CNC Gear Grinding Machine, one of the most modern and up to date machines for grinding a special profile on the gear tooth. Applications have included power take-off units, very accurate gears for pump rotor systems, Autosport applications for high performance gear boxes and drive trains and, quite ironically, we have used the machine to make reproduction gears for a British company at the very high end of the market who are reproducing a 1930s Roadster to original specifications but with all the latest updates to enable the engine to pass the latest emission controls. With this type of new technology the accuracy of the gears that can be achieved is now so accurate that it becomes necessary to invest in the latest up to date CNC gear checking machines and we have now ordered a brand new Gleason 350 GMS due for delivery in March 2012.
Also, at the other end of the spectrum is the ultra modern design of engines and gearboxes used in Formula 1 Racing, plus many other applications at club racing level, mainly used in saloon cars.
One of our most recent projects we have been involved in is to supply Oxford Brookes who are one of the leading Universities in engine and gearbox design with a number of gear components for their racing car which competed against 500 universities world-wide in a major racing series. Mini Gears’ parts were displayed at Silverstone’s Formula Student which was attended by Ross Brawn OBE who is Patron of the organisation and who gave a very inspiring speech to all the students. Since then two of the students we dealt with have just started at Renault F1 and Toyota Racing in Germany.
Mini Gears also supplies many parts to the Autosport trade and, because we are not in competition with these companies, our parts are now running inside a large number of house-hold named products supplied by blue chip companies.
One of the main areas of Mini Gears’ manufacture is the production of gear racks, mainly for the stairlift market, portable drills and electric generators. These parts are normally made in very large volumes and are therefore very price sensitive. Now, going into niche markets, we have targeted much lower volume but very high quality gear racks for such areas as aircraft seating on commercial airliners. We are also now supplying a number of customers with steering racks for cars and these range from the latest up to date racing series through to classic cars where the parts are no longer available.
On our gear products we have previously made gears up to 600mm diameter for a many diverse commercial industries. However, recently we have supplied lower volume batches to the trade which caters for the after market parts for a wide range of cars produced from the 1930s up to the 1970s. For this we have had to invest in a specialist gear shaping machine which can cut helical shaped gears which is very unique to our industry. We have literally spent tens of thousands of pounds on new tooling to enable us to produce the old design of gears using the latest technology. Quite literally out with the old and made with the new.
By looking at new ideas this has now turned into reality and we are extremely pleased with the company’s progress in these new niche areas.
Paul Darwent (Chairman) comments on the prospects ahead: ‘With the advent of escalating costs in low labour cost countries, the Directors at Mini Gears are a lot more confident for the next 5 to 10 years ahead for UK manufacture especially after what we have had to endure for the last 10 years with extremely low cost labour competition. We are all looking forward as a team to the many challenges ahead.’
| Mon | 16 April 2012 | - | 09:30 | - | 17:00 |
| Tue | 17 April 2012 | - | 09:30 | - | 17:00 |
| Wed | 18 April 2012 | - | 09:30 | - | 17:00 |
| Thu | 19 April 2012 | - | 09:30 | - | 17:00 |
| Fri | 20 April 2012 | - | 09:30 | - | 16:00 |
| Event Manager | |
| Sales Manager | |
|
Administration |
|
Quick Links
| REGISTER NOW |
| BOOK A STAND |
| EXHIBITOR LIST |
| LATEST NEWS |