There are many reasons for the decline of the British bike manufacturing base in the late 20th century. But failure to invest was surely a big part of that sad story. A visit to any bike factory today underlines the importance of smart machinery, producing engine parts and chassis components with incredible efficiency and accuracy.
So it’s good to see that the revived Norton brand is no exception, with the firm unveiling advanced automated frame making capacity at its Solihull plant, to work alongside its traditional premium hand-built assembly methods. The machine is a Yamazaki Mazak VTC800/30 SLR, a five-axis CNC machining centre produced nearby in Worcester. The advanced manufacturing machine will be used for new product development and to assist with new cast frame technology.
The Mazak kit points to future developments at the plant, which is set to move on from the very low production runs of the old regime, which used hand-welded frames. The firm’s senior manufacturing process engineer, Adam Green, outlines how the new machine will help. “Previously, we’d been hand-bending and hand-scalloping the bike frames because we didn’t know how to do anything different,” he said. “We could get the casts pre-machined, but that would mean we had the welders controlling the tolerances. It’s difficult to hold a tight dimension while the component is moving around with all the variances, from the skill of the welder to the time of year. One idea is a cast frame and, instead of welding detailed components into the frame, we can machine the details into the casting, which gives us much higher tolerances.”
Norton says its commitment to only using the highest quality equipment led it to Japanese firm Yamazaki Mazak. “We looked at various options, but we wanted to be seen to be investing in the best available machine,” said Green. “Mazak are the kind of people we want to be doing business with. The size of the frame meant we needed a big machine but also one that could work to very high tolerances. It’s all about repeatability. The machine takes away the manual process. Now, every single dimension will be within 0.2mm of each other. We’ve tightened tolerances up by 80% whereas previously there was 6mm of difference at times from one frame to another.”