The shape of things to come

In a Q&A session, Shape Machining’s chief operating officer, Peter McCool tells Composites in Manufacturing how the company’s innovative use of its CMS-made CNC machining centres puts it in good shape for any machining challenge!

Shape Machining was formed by ex-F1 chief designer and ex-Formula E technical director, Peter McCool in 2014. Based in Witney, Oxfordshire – right in the heart of the country and at the centre of motorsport valley, Shape is primarily a multi-axis CNC machining company that provides machined patterns, moulds and Rohacell foams to the carbon composites industry.

Because Shape was founded by an engineer it was inevitable that the company would branch out into tool and fixture design services. There is a strong team of design engineers at Shape that allows the company to take on and deliver an ever-increasing range of work. Shape specialises in designing and manufacturing a full range of fixtures, bonding jigs, assembly fixtures and machining fixtures for prestigious automotive and aerospace customers.

Since starting with one machine and one programmer in 2014, the company has grown to 18 people and five large multi-axis machines in 2019. Shape uses CMS Antares and CMS Ares machines as it considers them to be industry standard for F1 and aerospace pattern machining work.

Shape machines epoxy tooling block patterns and moulds, Rohacell foam, Polyurethane modelling board, EPS and EPP foam. It also designs jigs, bonding fixtures, vacuum CNC fixtures and test rigs.

Q) What is the breakdown of your pattern & mould making and toolmaking services and solutions, i.e. how much do you do of each?

70% of work at Shape is CNC machining of epoxy patterns, aluminium plates or Rohacell foams. Engineering and CAD design of tools and fixtures accounts for about 20%. The remaining 10% is direct R&D into novel carbon fibre manufacturing processes.

Some of our customers have very demanding lead-time requirements and this has driven us to build a specialist scheduling team and develop robust scheduling procedures. We are a process and data driven business.

We have a well-defined process for epoxy pattern machining. We predominately use Base Materials’ 978 epoxy tooling board which is the industry standard.

Over the last year we have put a lot of effort into developing our Rohacell machining capability. We have used the data in the business to evaluate, analyse and improve our process for machining Rohacell. We believe we are now the go-to company in the UK for Rohacell machining.

Q) What are the key industries do you supply into?

As the business has matured, we have grown our customer base and grown into more mature and demanding sectors. The business is currently split with 25% work in F1, 25% in high-end automotive, 25% in the aerospace sector and the remaining 25% coming for any sector that requires complex multi-axis CNC machining of a non-metallic material, i.e. fashion, art, sporting goods, footwear, motorsport, renewables and marine, etc. It’s this diversity that challenges and helps us improve.

The company has also been very focused to ensure that no one customer is more than 10% of our annual turnover. This means that Shape has a very wide and stable customer base. We are very proud that we have customers that have been with us from the first year and they have placed work every year since.

Q) What are the types of performance demands placed on your company by today’s customers?

Customers today are demanding no matter in which industry you work. The composites machining sector is no different. Our customers are very knowledgeable and have very high expectations of quality and turnaround time.

We therefore have to work very hard on price, quality and delivery times. But we also have to concentrate and add extra value by better understanding our customers’ requirements and offering new innovative technical solutions or more integrated solutions.

For example, customers are increasingly asking us to help CNC trim their composite components. We are regularly asked to CNC trim the first few prototype parts and at the same time develop the production trimming fixtures in anticipation of the production volume requirements. We are not just a machining company. We have a team of innovators who help solve our customers problems – adding real value to the customer experience.

Q) Tell me more about your CMS Antares and Ares CNC machining centres?

We have a great mix of CMS machines. The Antares and Ares are great versatile machines. They are all large bed, 5-axis gantry type CNC machines. They give us huge flexibility in the type of work we can take on and there is rarely a job too big. They have proved to be great work-horses for our business.

Q) What was the rationale behind choosing the CMS machines over other machine builders?

When we started the business, we looked at the five main CNC machine suppliers in the country and reviewed their offerings in great detail. The CMS package was the most comprehensive and cost-efficient, but the deciding factor was that they were the only company that made an effort to show us their machines in a working environment. They arranged for us to see their machines at work in one of the F1 teams. This gave us great confidence that the package we would order would do the job. In fact, the first machine we ordered was to the exact same spec’ as the machine in the F1 team!

Q) What kinds of CNC programme software and cutting tool solutions best work on the CMS machines and have they provided advice and support?

We use the industry-leading CATIA programming software for all our offline programming. This is the same software that the top aerospace, automotive OEMs and F1 teams use for their CAD design. It means we are fully-aligned with the top players in the market. All our offline programmes are checked and cleared by CGTech’s Vericut software before the NC code is loaded into our CMS machines.

It is by committing to the best machines and the best software that we demonstrate our commitment to machining excellence. Hopefully our customers and potential customers can see and understand our philosophy of working with the best partners across all areas of the business.

Q) What do you feel are the most important assets of a company?

The main assets of any company are the people. We have a great team of experienced and enthusiastic innovators. We also have a defined strategy for continued growth that has served us well for the first five years of the business and with constant optimisation will serve us well for the next five years. Going forward we will be focusing on training, automation and innovation to ensure that we maintain our position as one of the class leading companies in this sector.

Q) What are the main focus areas of your current R&D efforts?

A growing area of business for us is repeat orders of Rohacell machined foams. We have invested considerable R&D into establishing best practice in this area. We have been quite innovative in how we hold, programme and use fixtures to increase machining quality and efficiency. This type of R&D can only be done because we have such a strong engineering team. The beneficiaries of this R&D are ultimately our customers.

Shape has also identified the machining of carbon fibre parts as a growing area where our experience can be put to good use. We are taking on more complex carbon fibre machining, which is split into two specific types or work: carbon fibre insert machining, and the drill-off and final machining of complex, structural motorsport casings.

Recently-completed R&D into carbon fibre insert machining is paying dividends. Shape now has extensive capability for machining solid carbon fibre inserts for our F1 customers. Shape has attracted some high-profile motorsport customers who have requested the drill-off and final machining of complex composite gearbox or electric motor casings.

Both examples show how Shape is continuing to innovate to stay at the cutting edge of machining technology. We are always reviewing and updating our skills, hardware, software and our structure to ensure customers get the best service possible.

Q) What differentiates your company from the competition - why should a customer use you over your nearest rival?

We hope that what sets us apart is that we really care about our customers and always try and do the best for them. We hope they know that too. Building on that we are always trying to innovate and get better.

www.shape-group.com

www.cmsukltd.co.uk