Birchwood Park Business Announces Strategic Investment in New Manufacturing Facility for the UK Nuclear Market

Thomson House based NES are delighted to announce the strategic investment in four CNC machining centres for the manufacturing facility at the company’s headquarters in Wolverhampton. The investment is part of NES’ on-going commitment to developing a world class manufacturing facility for the UK nuclear market.

The purchase will strengthen NES’ position within the Nuclear Decommissioning and Defence markets. As one of the UK’s leading suppliers of fully integrated bespoke engineering solutions, the investment will complement the significant progress made in the development of NES’ supply chain partners.

The investment, in parallel with the work being carried out with the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, Nuclear (AMRC) in Sheffield, and NES’ enrolment to the National Skills Academy for Nuclear Manufacturing, helps position NES as a leading supplier of equipment to the UK Nuclear New Build market.

The first two machines, a Hartford Tornado HCMC13AG CNC Vertical Miller and a Hyundai Wia L300MC CNC Lathe, is scheduled for November delivery in 2012, with production availability in January 2013.

The third machine installed, will be a Hyundai Wia KBN135CL CNC Borer with installation in January 2013.

The final installation will be the largest of the machines in March 2013. A Soraluce SM10000 Fixed Table Travelling Column CNC Miller. This machine will have a 10m bed and significantly increase the size of items that can be machined by NES.

The new machines will have full CADCAM (Computer Aided Design and Computer Aided Manufacturing) capability, which will facilitate the seamless integration between engineering and manufacturing, allowing ProEngineer and AutoCAD models to be directly imported into the machines’ CNC programming system. NES will also use the machines to work on standalone “build to print” contracts, where NES involvement is through our manufacture and assembly expertise. The machines will also use an On Machine Verification (OMV) programme that allows initial checking of machined parts to be carried out in-situ, rather than having to transfer them to a co-ordinate measuring machine for inspection.

Commenting on the investment, NES Group Managing Director Mike Hawe, said “NES are committed to establishing a state of the art manufacturing base within the UK to support the growth ambitions of the company within the UK and European Nuclear New Build and Nuclear Decommissioning sectors. Key areas across the business have been identified where investment will further develop the NES product offering, providing our customers with the most innovative and best value solutions. It is an extremely exciting period in the history of NES, and the emergent opportunities in the Nuclear New Build market provide great development and growth potential for the business. We see the new manufacturing equipment as a key phase in the business’ growth, enabling NES to offer greater support to companies across operational sites as well as emergent Nuclear New Build opportunities”.

Alterations to the manufacturing facility infrastructure are scheduled to commence in October in order to accommodate the new machines. The existing machining capacity will be relocated, followed by significant alterations to the building services and floor loadings. The new layout will enable the seamless flow of machined items from the manufacturing area into the assembly bays.

This is the latest in a series of investments by NES to position itself at the forefront of the nuclear supply chain. Recent investments have included the expansion of the Centre of Engineering Excellence in the Thomson House building at Risley, opening of the NES North West Division in Beckermet, the closest facility of its type to the Sellafield site, and the development of an IMechE accredited Graduate Engineering scheme, something that NES plan to replicate across all the engineering disciplines.