West Yorkshire based Broadbent Stanley is well known for large capacity, heavy duty manual and CNC lathes, so Managing Director Graham Thomas was somewhat intrigued by the growing number of enquiries received from companies looking to purchase new manual centre lathes. Looking through the engineering journals there seemed to be any number of machines to choose from, so still a little confused, commissioned a market survey.
The results proved somewhat surprising, yes; there was still a good market in the UK for manual centre lathes and there were any number of different makes of machine available, but the buying public was becoming disenchanted at both the quality and back-up service of many of the machines on offer. Not to miss an opportunity and after completing the necessary “sums” the decision was taken to add a range of conventional lathes to the Broadbent Stanley portfolio but due to existing workloads would be sourced elsewhere.
Armed with the results of the survey, which included customers’ preferred specifications, Mr Thomas approached a number of makers with a brief to quote for a specific range of machines which had to be of quality manufacture and of course be competitively priced. Although he received a good response, he quickly discounted most, which ranged from cheap and poorly designed products to the other end of the scale with superb quality but grossly overpriced. He did however locate a smaller manufacturer, well known in the Far East for its quality lathe products but little heard of around Western shores and upon checking out their existing lathe specifications was pleasantly surprised to learn they almost mirrored his own needs.
Discussions took place followed by exhaustive product test in Broadbent Stanley’s Halifax based works, with the lathes being given the “thumbs up.”
These competitively priced lathes fall into 2 distinct ranges – Geared Head and Infinitely Variable drive machines. The geared head range consists of 6 basic models, each offering optional bed lengths, starting with a swing of 430mm and 763mm between centres to the largest with a 760mm swing and a 4000mm centre distance. The technically advanced inverter drive variable speed machines consist of 3 models, the V430 series, a 430mm swing with bed lengths of 760, 1000 & 1500mm followed by a 480mm swing model, the V480, also featuring centre distances of 760, 1000 and 1500mm but with the addition of a 2000mm version. The largest being the V530 with a 530mm swing offering 1000, 1500 & 2000mm between centres.
All models are of a robust construction and unlike many machines nowadays feature one piece Meehanite castings for both the bed and plinth. They also feature a gap bed and are supplied to a high base specification but with options available to tailor a machine to suit customer needs.
For more information on these competitively priced, high specification lathes please contact Graham Thomas on 01422 835266 or visit our website
http://www.broadbentstanley.co.uk/