UK Trade & Investment Team Visit Jena Tec in Germany

July saw an important visitor delegation to Jena Tec's German factory located in the town of Jena, Thuringia, in the shape of a team from the UK embassy located in Berlin and the department of UK Trade & Investment with sector responsiblity for the engineering sector. The visit was part of a co-ordinated tour of successful Anglo-Deutsch companies where examples of best practice could be demonstrated. The strength of the German manufacturing industry particularly in relation to export markets is still very relevant in the current economic climate and the Ambassador and UKTI team were keen to learn lessons from successful companies, such as Jena Tec, and the German model with respect to how manufacturers can be better supported in the future. Jena Tec gave an extensive presentation of the high precision ballscrew machining operations in Jena followed by a Q&A session and a practical demonstration of the important factors of ballscrew assembly for the Ambassador and his team.

New design of Brake Caliper requires new Jena Tec Multi Head Spindles

Jena Tec's design, manufacture and retrofit capability for mutli spindle heads for linear and rotary transfer machines led to orders within June for 8 new spindle heads for a tier 1 supplier in the automotive industry to be retrofited to an existing cell of rotary transfer machines. The 8 new units will be designed specifically to produce a new design of brake caliper for a leading international automotive OEM with production facilities in the UK. Jena Tec will provide a complete design, manufacturing and supply solution for the new spindle heads which will be installed and producing parts by October 2012. For more information on Multi Spindle design capability please go to www.jena-tec.co.uk or www.mossgroupautomation.com

Jena Tec wins Nissan Automotive Retrofit Contract

Jena Tec’s automation division, Moss Group, received orders worth approximately £600,000 from the automotive sector. Notable amongst these is a £450,000 order from Nissan Manufacturing UK for the automotive transfer line upgrades for a new engine variant introduction - awarded by Nissan in May 2012 - and will comprise the supply and integration of conveyor systems, fixtures, transfer tables and ancillary systems. This will be integrated in Nissan’s Sunderland plant in December 2012, where Jena Tec will provide a complete turnkey retrofit, as Nissan UK expands its production capability for newer engine models. The strategy for Jena Tec to provide precision OEM components, MRO repair services as well as full integration for complex machine tool retrofits and special automation projects. This is a demonstration of the company's growth to provide a vertically integrated service from design, engineering and implementation of automation solutions. For more information go to www.jena-tec.co.uk or visit www.mossgroupautomation.com

Jena Tec Ballscrew Investment Continues........

Jena Tec is pleased to announce the recent installation of its 3rd MBS (Miniature Ballscrew) Grinding machine in its German production facility in Jena. The NRK precision thread grinding machine will increase by over 50% Jena Tec's production capability in highly accurate ballscrews from 6mm to 12mm diameter used across a wide customer base for medical, optical and linear motion applications. The universal CNC-thread grinding machine type NRK is designed for grinding of all kinds of external threads, e.g. worms, thread screws and thread gauges. Due to its rigid construction the machine makes possible a high productivity and precision. Using CNC-dressing technology the machine has a very high flexibility and can grind any kind of thread profiles. The machine is equipped with the latest drive and control technology (digital servo drives: Siemens, high precision scales and resolvers: Heidenhain). The ongoing investment strategy of Jena Tec is to focus on niche areas of product development requiring demanding levels of accuracy and quality and further investment continues in the coming 12 months for additional CNC manufacturing technology related to ballscrew spindle and nut production as Jena Tec see growing demand for its high tech manufactured products. For more information please visit our website www.jena-tec.co.uk or www.jena-tec.com

Jena Tec Wins EON Team National Safety Award

Avingtrans plc has announced that their operating company, Jena Tec has been recognised within the E.ON ‘SHE’ awards relating to safety, health and the environment for their work with the Connah’s Quay E.ON engineering team on a significant technical engineering development.

The SHE award Team Category was made to the E.ON Connah’s Quay team for their work with Jena Tec in developing an actuation system which offers greater safety in operation (than the traditional hydraulically operated actuators).

The Jena Tec team’s work involved development of an electro-mechanical solution to overcome the dangers of using hydraulics for operation of high force actuators (used to control turbine safety bypass valves for high pressure steam pipes).

Temperatures of 500°C are encountered and hydraulic fluid leakage was a known fire risk with the potential of causing major damage to the turbine installations.
Installation of nine replacement units took place at the E.ON Power Station in Connah’s Quay, United Kingdom following design and development by the Jena Tec team technicians over the previous three years. E.ON report increased levels of operational safety and decrease in maintenance costs relating to the actuation systems.

Paul Ward, Managing Director of Avingtrans Industrial Division maintains that the successful application of automation grade mechanical precision actuation to the arduous E.ON application is a great case study for a multi-disciplinary approach to engineering solutions. And this approach is enabling engineers to take advantage of modern control system technology to combat safety and environmental issues. He says that the Jena Tec’s investment in this sector of technology has great growth potential worldwide not only in hydraulic replacement but also pneumatic, fuel valve regulation, fire arrestment technology and many related fields.

For further information go to www.jena-tec.co.uk or www.valve-actuator.net

€2.2 m contract win for Jena Tec Medical Components

Jena Tec, the designer, manufacturer and supplier of critical components and associated services to the energy, medical, industrial and global aerospace sectors, announces that it has signed a 3 year agreement with a leading European medical equipment manufacturer, where Jena Tec will supply high precision miniature ballscrews for use within a range of equipment by the customer.

The total contract value is approximately Euro 2.2m over three years and will commence in Q4 2011 before full production volumes are added in 2012.

The components within specialised medical equipment require suppliers of exceptional quality and delivery reliability and this agreement further bolsters Jena Tec’s planned growth in this high tech area. Jena Tec continues to invest in this growing area of medical instrumentation through increased testing and production facilities at its state of the art German facility.

Paul Ward, Managing Director of Jena Tec commented: “This is another example of Jena Tec’s transformation to a full service industrial partner to our major customers and it clearly demonstrates the long-term commitment to world-class quality and delivery”.

New Face Joins Jena Tec in Business Development

February sees a new member to the team in Dave Cloake appointed as Business Development Manager to Jena Tec UK focusing on the MRO sector (Maintenance Repair and Overhaul). Having worked in the Automotive industry both with Ford and Toyota, Dave moved into the service sector in the field of asset repair for critical machine tool electronic components and assemblies servicing the major automotive OEM's and 1st tier suppliers. Now with Jena Tec UK, Dave brings a wealth of experience to the company to expand our service capability and support for our growing customer base.