PRV-Engineering Ltd are constantly moving with the times and investing in equipment to make sure the company stays ahead of its competitors. Over the last 12 months, managing director Simon Jones has invested more than £1.25million as part of the overall development of the Pontypool based engineering company.

Through the acquisition of and constant investment in new technology, PRV has moved forward at a significant rate of knots with one of the latest additions to the company’s plant being a state of the art, vertical travelling column machining centre with full Five Axis Synchronous milling ability – the Mazak VTC800/30SR

What is Five Axis machining?

Five Axis Machining allows machining of a part along 5 axes of motion compared to 3 axes in one setup. While this can certainly be a cost saving factor, Five Axis machining is used more often for complex contour work, which may need simultaneous movement of all 5 Axes.
Recent advances in software have helped make the conversion from three-axis and 3+2 axis positioning to simultaneous five-axis machining accessible to everyday numerical control  programmers.

Although some of these techniques might require additional programming time, the benefits of reduced machining, setup time and reduced hand-polishing outweigh the costs.

Simon said; “It’s large machining envelope enables us to manufacture a wide variety of components.”

Five reasons to use Five Axis Machining

1) If you provide Five Axis Machining you are likely to land work that other shops cannot accept After all, some parts can only be done with multi-axis machining.

2) Five Axis machining provides you with the opportunity to work on unique parts. Many 5-axis parts are very unique in shape or style.

3) As a marketing tool to bid on jobs. By utilizing multi-axis machining, you can advertise the benefits to help you get work. Benefits such as; shorter tools, better finishes, shorter run times.

4) Implementing a Five Axis solution means that you can expand and service industries other than traditional 3-axis markets. This may include certain aerospace, medical and other applications.

5) If you have adopted new technology, you will often become the local expert on the technology. Being an early adopter for the sake of having something first is usually not always a good business decision, but being a successful early adopter, makes you a “go to” business.

Should you have any questions about the technology or need to speak with us for a free quotation or whatever your needs might be, you can contact us via the website 

Has Five Axis Machining had a positive impact on your business? Let us know how in the comments box below.