Ficep helps Washington Waterjet expand its drilling services

Ficep UK’s P27 CNC plate drilling system has been installed at North East-based plate profiling company, Washington Waterjet, helping the business to improve speed and precision and extend its services, moving up execution classes from one and two to cover classes three and four.

Washington Waterjet - a £2million turnover business predominantly supplying to the North East, North West and Yorkshire – has invested in the Ficep P27 CNC drill with tool changer to enable the business to deliver automated plate processing up to three inches in thickness.

A key consideration when selecting the new machine was its footprint. Alongside their existing waterjet and plasma CNC, the P27 takes up minimal space whilst offering complementary processes that are unachievable on their existing machines. Disruption to the day to day running of the business during installation was also kept to a minimum as the P27 is simple to install.

The benefits of Ficep’s P series of punching and drilling lines extend way beyond its small footprint and ease of installation. The ability to combine drilling, scribing, tapping, counter sinking, milling and part marking makes the multi-tasking capabilities of the P27 the ideal solution for the fabrication of many plate applications. High speed drilling is achieved through the 27kw direct drive spindle with ball screw feed for maximum performance. In addition, it has an intelligent self-adjustable clamping system to suit differing plate thicknesses, allowing quick loading and unloading of components.

Washington Waterjet MD, Peter Robinson, says: “The new CNC plate drilling line helps us to work on projects we previous would have had to outsource. Prior to acquiring the new machine we could carry out work up to execution class two and now we drill with the Ficep P27 we can provide drilling to meet execution classes three and four. This is a major development as it opens the door for us to drill steel components which have far wider applications. The new drill is also quicker which has already helped improve our productivity.”