With over 25 machines on the shop floor producing beyond 15 million parts a year, Unicut Precision is a subcontract manufacturer with a difference. With a variety of high-end fixed and sliding head turning centres, Unicut prides itself on investment state-of-the-art technology.

This investment drive has recently seen the Welwyn Garden City machine shop invest over £760,000 in six Citizen sliding head machines and a fixed head Miyano BNA 42SY turning centre. Running its machine shop 24 hours a day, Unicut considers itself a ‘contract manufacturer’ that works in tandem with OEM’s and Tier 1 companies to deliver cost-down production philosophies to long term projects. It is this partnership with globally renowned companies that led Unicut to implement cutting fluids from Houghton International.

Commenting upon the new relationship, Houghton’s Business Development Manager, Mr Kevin Lambdon says: “We are a key supplier to many global OEMs and at an Eaton Hydraulics Global Supplier convention, one of our key account managers met Unicut’s MD, Mr Jason Nicholson. The relationship evolved and now we supply Unicut with a series of cutting oils and fluids.”
Initially, Houghton was invited to Unicut to conduct a site survey to evaluate the machine tools, processes and the materials being machined. With this information the company applied the best-fit fluid for the fixed and sliding head turning centres.

With the partnership between Houghton and Unicut approaching its first birthday, the Production Supervisor at Unicut Precision, Mr Gary Garner says: “The Houghton products are excellent. We get next day delivery, the quality of the oil is outstanding and it’s extremely cost effective. With regards to performance the oil is noticeably improving our tool life with improvements beyond 25% already being recorded.

Commenting upon the production scheduling and how the new machines run at Unicut, company MD, Mr Jason Nicholson concludes: “Our sliding heads typically run batches from 50 to 50,000 parts around the clock, and three of the new machines have already been committed to OEM customers and their long term production needs. Running on this basis, machine utilisation rates are core to our success. The Houghton oils are improving our uptime and reducing our tooling consumption and the consequent tool changeovers. This is a huge benefit to a business like Unicut.”

Tel: 0161 8745000
Email: matthew.bartle@houghtonintl.com