Cranfield Precision's location on the Cranfield University Campus provides excellent facilities and opportunities for operating effectively in the high precision engineering field. Further to this we have a wide range of facilities available to us in house with a fully equipped workshop and advanced metrology equipment. Our facilities are broken down as follows, Electrical and Mechanical Design, Assembly Workshop for research and development, metrology lab, CNC department and electronic build and test department.
Design
Cranfield Precision's mechanical design team are equally adapted at working with either 2D or 3D CAD systems to create machine schemes, models and detail drawings. We retain our capability of 2D CAD design by using Microstation from Bentley Systems Inc.
Cranfield Precision currently has three Unigraphics 3D workstations operating fulltime on engineering design projects. The systems are networked to access the design database at Cranfield and at Cinetic Landis Ltd. Two COSMOS Geostar licences are installed for access from either site for FEA analysis. Translation between UG and COSMOS is simplified using Designstar for basic modal analysis or model preparation for input to the full COSMOS/M package.
Cranfield Precision's design capabilities extend beyond mere Computer aided design. We take your initial specification and requirements and apply a fully researched design study to analyse the application. After the requirements are fully researched and understood we produce a number of "Machine Concept Designs" and follow a design review process to determine the best method to pursue. A full risk analysis can be applied to asses the engineering risks involved with any new concepts or processes. Our 35 years experience in Special Purpose Machine design and use of Modern Technology has helped us to offer a "Total Engineering Solution" to our customers.
Research
Cranfield Precision has a large amount of facilities at its disposal, at its own facility, via Cinetic Landis Ltd. and specialist facilities due to its key location at Cranfield University. Cranfield Precision also has extensive metrology capabilities available.
The main assembly and test Workshop at Cranfield has an area of 9,000 sq ft (835 sq m) assembly space and is temperature controlled to ±0.5°C. The Workshop is home to many research projects on our own standard machines and on customised test rigs. The Workshop is also used to build the majority of customer machines. The Workshop has a full length 10 tonne overhead crane. Commercial Confidentiality is very important at Cranfield Precision and is protected by employing a cardkey entry system to the workshop and surrounding facilities.
Cranfield Precision also has access to the Cinetic Landis Ltd facility at Cross hills, Keighley, West Yorkshire which boasts an area of 1169,000 sq ft (15,717 sq m) with 350 employees.
Metrology
Cranfield Precision has a wide range of advanced metrology and inspection equipment that can be used for the majority of metrology applications that require accurate measurement. Much of the precision metrology equipment is kept and used in the advanced UPML facility. This includes in situ metrology systems for error compensation, dynamic spindle error analysis and a state of the art surface profiler.
Ultra Precision Machining Laboratory (UPML).The UPML was established to carry out research and development work on the machining processes used to achieve sub-micron accuracy on a wide range of materials including metals, glasses and advanced ceramics.
These Processes are:
Single point diamond turning
Single point diamond fly cutting Diamond grinding Ductile regime grinding
Electrolytic in-process dressing
The facilities available in UPML for this work include:
Temperature control of laboratory to +/- 0.1 degrees C.
An enhanced Nanocenter Aspheric diamond turning and grinding machine.
A large Ultra precision CNC vertical diamond turning machine.
A CNC ultra precision surface grinding machine.
Electronics
Advanced electronic servo control systems are a major component in the design and development of Ultra Precision machine tools. Without this key component advantages in good mechanical design can't be realised. We have a comprehensive design, build, test and repair facility for PCB's in house, which supports our customers both old and new. Having the ability to control and alter the design of our CNC control systems enables us to apply a more flexible and efficient solution when integrating servo control into Ultra Precision machines and hence giving us nanometric position control capability.
Cranfield Precision has developed its own CNC controllers since 1970. This effort has culminated in our latest model, the CNC6400. Thousands of 16 and 32 bit CNCs were installed on measuring machines, rate motion simulators and production machines including many special purpose ultra-precision machine tools. Already, more than 300 of the latest 64 bit systems are successfully controlling cam and crank grinders manufactured by our parent company Cinetic Landis Ltd.
Every Cranfield Precision power amplifier, CNC control system and module is backed by a comprehensive spares and repair service. In the unlikely event of finding economic repair impossible, we have the capacity of redesigning from component up to system level to maintain our customers’ machine systems.
Cranfield Precision's vast experience and knowledge allows us to repair and service other manufacturers’ equipment. We are happy to take on contract service work of small - medium batches of power amplifier and CNC control systems, please call to discuss your requirements.