William Cook Rail design and manufacture components within the defence, cast products and rail industries. They have been established for over two centuries, working with high-level companies including Siemens and London Underground.
William Cook Rail invested in a the ZOLLER Smile 420 to minimise their tool presetting time. This has allowed them to ensure precise tool measurement and presetting, improve their tooling processes and guarantee consistent product results.
ZOLLER UK delivers world-leading precision tool presetting, inspection, storage and management solutions, adding improved efficiency and value to any manufacturing process.
Project Brief:
William Cook Rail manufacture a variety of bespoke and complex components that requires a range of tooling. They needed to ensures that their tooling was accurate and correct to ensure their components were manufactured right-first-time.
William Cook Rail were looking to update their old tool setting methods to the latest technology and contacted ZOLLER UK to explore their tool presetting and management options.
Shivan Morkar, Machining Development Engineer at William Cook Rail, said:
“At William Cook Rail we machine highly complex components. I was tasked to look at ways to improve our tooling, and through investigation and research, I came across ZOLLER UK who offered automatic tool presetting, storage and management, with high-level speed and accuracy. It was clear ZOLLER was key to the future of our tool presetting.”
The Solution:
William Cook Rail invested in the ZOLLER Smile 420 tool presetter, supplied by ZOLLER UK, to elevate their tool management, optimising production processes, minimising breakdowns, and boosting overall productivity.
The ZOLLER Smile 420’s CNC spindle and auto-focus features are designed for shopfloor environments. It offers robust construction, ergonomic features, seamless data transfers to ensure exceptional accuracy and repeatability.
“On average we produce around 2,000 components a month and our customers expect us to deliver high-quality products to a schedule. We wanted to update our tool presetting technology whilst building a tool library at the same time. ZOLLER UK helped us with this process, ensuring we picked the right machine to suit our needs,” said Shivan.
The Benefits:
Investing in a tool presetting solution from ZOLLER UK has allowed William Cook Rail to enhance the accuracy of their tooling and upgrade their old machines to the latest technology. William Cook Rail is now able to ensure speed, accuracy and consistency in order to streamline their manufacturing processes.
Alan McGee, CNC programmer and Supervisor at William Cook Rail explained the benefits of William Cook Rail’s latest investments from ZOLLER UK:
“I’ve worked 45 years in engineering. Going from the old shadowgraph to the ZOLLER Smile 420 was quite a change for me. However, it saves us about 50% timewise and wasn’t difficult to get used to. It’s been a great help to us and was exactly what we needed.”
“ZOLLER UK offers an all-in-one solution and the technology is cutting edge,” said Shivan. “The tool data from previous batches can be easily compared to the current one, making tool changeovers and inspections much faster and easier for our operators. The ZOLLER UK service team have always been on hand. They were keen to understand William Cook Rail’s needs and requirements, and have supported us whenever we have experienced minor technical difficulties. I would definitely recommend ZOLLER UK – the service is excellent; the machines are reliable and we can fully customise them to our needs.”
Why ZOLLER UK?
ZOLLER UK delivers world-leading precision of tool-setting, inspection, storage and management solutions, adding improved efficiency and value to any manufacturing process.
ZOLLER UK is part of the Carfulan Group who specialise in providing the most advanced manufacturing technologies available, helping customers across their five divisions to achieve optimal performance and end-product excellence.
