Toolmaker, SJ Dimmock, has upgraded its manufacturing capabilities with the purchase of their first UK-made Yamazaki Mazak VCN 530C vertical machining center.

The family-owned firm, based in Dunstable in Bedfordshire, was set up by the late Stephen Dimmock, father of the current owner Jamie Dimmock, in 1985. It has since built a reputation for manufacturing high specification injection moulding tools for the aerospace, medical, food and drink, automotive and Formula One industries.

Mr Dimmock commented: “Following the retirement of one of our long-serving employees, I found myself in a position of having three machines that I would need to train myself to operate. As they were older machines, I thought it would be more effective to sell the machines to finance a new, larger vertical machining center.

“After a lot of careful consideration and time spent evaluating the performance of comparable machines, I chose the VCN 530C vertical machining center from Mazak. Each day that goes by confirms it was a fantastic decision.”

The VCN 530C is a high productivity vertical machining center made at Mazak’s European manufacturing facility in Worcester. Equipped with a 40-taper spindle, the machine excels at delivering high-speed machining with maximum stability and rigidity thanks to heavy-duty casting.

Mr Dimmock continues: “I was taken aback by the Mazak after the first meeting. I wanted Japanese technology with high processing speeds because in toolmaking the surface quality is imperative to reducing the amount of second operation work that we need to do, such as spark erosion or polishing. With the VCN we have Japanese intelligence combined with British manufacturing. It ticked all the boxes.”

Typically, SJ Dimmock is working to exceptionally high tolerances of +/- 0.005 mm to meet the surface finish requirements of their customers and Jamie says the VCN has transformed the company’s machining operations. “We’ve replaced three machines with one and vastly improved the surface quality of the moulds while reducing the volume of second operation work. The processing speeds are exceptional with the Mazak which has not only helped with the quality of the work we are doing but has also doubled our capacity.”

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