Tag Archives: Sustainable Advanced Manufacturing Project

Alan Roger Nostalgia SAM

New machinery helps worktop manufacturer apply the perfect finish

A North East worktop manufacturer has revealed how digital simulation software has helped the 25 year old business visualise a brighter future.

Nostalgia Work Surfaces (NWS), based in Washington, has cut costs and lead times and ramped up productivity after receiving support from a team of manufacturing experts. 

After receiving technical support and funding from the £10.9 million Sustainable Advanced Manufacturing (SAM) Project, NWS was able to use state-of-the-art FlexSim software to help validate that they had the space required to install the new equipment required to achieve its future plans.

The firm had long considered investing in a new CNC saw to help improve its product quality and reduce lead-times, however the investment was substantial to elevate the cutting capability from traditional into the digital interface of next generation CNC machinery.  

The support from SAM – which included an expert workshop on manufacturing management techniques and one-to-one support from a simulation specialist – meant NWS could use state of the art 3D simulation software to identify where the equipment would fit within its setup and avoid any installation pitfalls.

A grant also supported the purchase of a new CNC saw, which has significantly cut costs for the company and reduced its carbon footprint since its installation in July 2022, as well as being faster, more versatile plus reducing off-cuts and waste.

Alan Taylor, managing director at Nostalgia Work Surfaces, said: “We are really pleased with the impact the new CNC saw has had on the business. 

“It has not only increased productivity, standards and reduced waste but it has also given the workforce a greater sense of pride, lifting their standards and attitudes to a new level.”

He added: “We couldn’t have done it without SAM. One of the key inhibitors to growth we’ve witnessed has been the inability to move our workshop around without impacting upon production and their support has been key to helping us overcome this challenge.

“Prior to speaking to the team, we would never have even thought of using simulation software as a means of re-designing our workspace and figuring out how to improve our processes. It would’ve just seemed like an alien concept.

“The grant also went a long-way to helping us purchase the machinery we needed. We really can’t recommend the support enough.”

Nostalgia Work Surfaces currently employs 13 people at its Swan Industrial Estate site, however Alan is confident that – despite the many challenges currently facing the nation’s manufacturers – the company’s recent investment will allow it to continue creating jobs as it looks to the future.

“Because of the ability of the machine, we are now able to take on more complex work, angles and curves, resulting in the manufacture of more complex products which would not have otherwise been possible,” he said.

“Looking forward, we hope this will not only allow us to introduce new product ranges and improve quality, but also create more jobs as we continue to innovate and grow.”

The Sustainable Advanced Manufacturing (SAM) Project is a £10.9m collaboration between the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the University of Sunderland and the Northern Powerhouse Initiative and Industry, supporting SME manufacturers in the North-East Local Enterprise Partnership (NE LEP) area to improve their products or processes and introduce new technology. 

Roger O’Brien, Project & Technical Lead at the SAM Project, said: “It’s been fantastic working with Alan and the team on this project and seeing how the latest simulation technology can help businesses such as NWS break down their barriers to growth.

“Over the past few years, we’ve helped hundreds of companies just like Nostalgia explore how the latest industrial technologies can help them innovate and we’d recommend any SME in the region which manufacturers – or has plans to manufacture – to get in touch while the support is available.”

Carl Gregg Additive Manufacturing

Meet the Experts: Carl Gregg, Product and Process Design Specialist

Carl Gregg, product and process design specialist, has helped open the eyes of hundreds of SME manufacturers to the potential of additive manufacturing.

In its earliest form, Additive Manufacturing (AM) – or 3D printing as it is often referred to – has been with us since the early 80s and it should be no surprise that the technology has evolved significantly since then.

We are now at a stage where functional parts can be produced that can potentially outperform those which are conventionally manufactured. Prototyping remains a major use for additive manufacturing, however the days that 3D printing’s sole use was to produce non-functional prototype parts is over and increasingly, there is a trend emerging within the industry where additive manufacturing is being used for far more impactful means.

Our Prototype and Innovation Factory is home to a range of 3D printers that range from very basic (but still very useful) to advanced industrial machines. We even have a large format 3D printer that has a print area of 1mx1mx0.7m that can rapidly produce large parts that would usually need to be split apart to print on numerous printers.

In terms of advanced materials, we also boast two printers from market-leading 3D Printer manufacturer MarkForged (Metal X and Mark Two). The Metal X is able to print metal parts in a range of materials such as stainless steel, tools steels, Inconel and copper. This same printer was recently utilised for a project to produce an alternative to a cast part that was needed for testing. The lead time to produce the initial casting was six weeks compared to the production time on the Metal X which was just a few days.

We have had similar successes with the Mark Two system, which allows us to produce composite reinforced parts. The printer is fantastic for producing components that require highly functional parts such as machining fixtures or end of arm tools. The printer achieves this in two ways. Firstly, the material that is used to produce the parts is a blend of nylon and chopped carbon fibre, however the feature that sets this printer apart is its ability to inlay continuous fibre reinforcement such as carbon fibre or Kevlar. This fibre reinforcement allows us to produce plastic parts that have a similar functional strength to 6061 aluminium.

For higher volumes of production, we have an HP Multi Jet machine that can produce accurate, highly detailed parts in batches in an overnight run. Increasingly, companies are seeing this as a viable alternative to injection moulding for shorter runs of under 10k. The printed parts from the HP machine are air and watertight and some interesting case uses have been found to exploit this, such as, incorporating vacuum lines into end of arm tooling to produce a part that cuts out numerous assembly steps.

A common trait that we do see is that the 3D printing can increase the band width of conventional machines. For example, the printers need very little oversight when compared to CNC machining and they’re very easy and quick set up. Typically, a machine could be set up with a “digital warehouse” of jigs, fixtures, end of arm tooling, etc. and they can be called off with only a button press. This can reduce lead time and cost for any production change over and to ensure your machines keep running.