In June 2022 Her Majesty The Queen – Elizabeth II became the first British Monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years of service to the people of the United Kingdom, the Realms and the Commonwealth.

One SILK machine has recently surpassed it’s Silver Jubilee, sold to a customer over 25 years ago the AX3-21 machine was recently returned to SILK. The machine had been used regularly in support of the Nuclear Power industry within the UK over those years but closure of that particular site meant it was no longer needed.

SILK via its long standing relationship via TEAM^® and previously Furmanite were offered the legacy machine rather than it being scrapped and after a  quick overhaul it was placed back into service. It’s now seeing regular action in support of TEAM’s service fleet, a testament to the ruggedness and simplicity of maintenance if there ever was one.

SILK’s ever popular AXL0-12 External Flange Facing machine has had a face lift to bring it into the 21st Century.

The engineers tasked with the re-work of this classic were told ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’.

The new AXL0-12 External Flange Facing machine is now manufactured from a more robust CNC Machined billet rather than cast aluminium and has improvements to the gear selector handle and gears making maintenance and build easier whilst retaining it’s usability and reliability.

Hopefully like us you will like the new sleeker look? – ‘Get in Touch’ and let us know your thoughts.

SILK were approached by a wind turbine manufacturer and operator to design a mid-shaft journal turner to machine the high speed shaft inside the turbine nacelle.

The customer required a light weight machine that could be manhandled and built on site, that had both fixed and interlocked guards and that could reduce the current 6 day machining activity whilst providing greater accuracy.

A large oil and gas refinery asked TEAM^® to design a solution for an upcoming turnaround. The turnaround required several joints to be de-torqued from a section of plant that was known to have ceased or difficult to remove bolts. The customer wanted a “hot work free” solution for a range of flange sizes in order to expedite these critical path activities. TEAM^® designed the ‘Flange Bolt Cutting Machine – FBC 120’, that allows a quick set up time on a range of flanges.

The ‘FBC 120’ can cut through bolts at the joint, or the whole nut and bolt assembly on the flange face. The flange bolt cutter is so efficient that a 2” bolt can be severed in approximately 3 minutes whereas one stuck bolt can take hours to free. The ‘FBC 120’ flange bolt cutting machine is an externally mounted cold cutting saw, designed to provide a fast and safe alternative solution to removing ceased bolts from flanges with an adjustable guard to keep the user safe.

The “Voice of the Customer” is an important feedback loop in any product development but getting that feedback can be challenging.

SILK has a unique relationship compared to other machine manufacturers, as we not only design and sell our machines as a ‘Product’ to external customer but within TEAM^® our machines are used extensively within our field machining division.

SILK’s intimate relationship within TEAM’s servicing workshop means that the SILK technicians sometimes perform a service role rather than purely making new machines. This enables a very close relationship to develop between the customer ( TEAM^®) and SILK with direct feedback from the field and a ready access to any lessons learned – ‘TEAMWORK’.

Like its predecessors the TEAM^® Pneumatic Safety Unit (PSU) provides an inline air filtering and lubrication function to efficiently operate your pneumatic machinery. However, the TEAM^® Pneumatic Safety Unit has been purposely designed with safety in mind to reduce the chance of accidents occurring while carrying out any machining operation.

Plant Air Loss Emergency Stop

If there is a temporary loss of compressed air, the TEAM^® Pneumatic Safety Unit will detect it and go into the E-Stop state. This will ensure the air supply is locked off, preventing reactivation, whilst simultaneously dumping air and stopping the machine almost instantly.
When the compressed air supply is reintroduced, the TEAM^® Pneumatic Safety Unit remains in its locked off state meaning that the machine will not automatically restart. The operator must manually restart the machine once they are in a safe position to do so.

Remote E-Stop

The TEAM^® Pneumatic Safety Unit is supplied, as standard, with a remote and quick to connect E-Stop sub-assembly, complete with magnetic base. This always allows the operator to locate the E-stop within easy reach and enables the machine to be stopped almost instantly once depressed.

Foot Pedal or Deadman’s Handle

Optional extra’s for the TEAM^® Pneumatic Safety Unit are the Deadman’s Handle or the Foot Pedal. Both items are mounted at the end of a 2m umbilical and work in conjunction with the Remote E-stop. Both Foot Pedal and Deadman’s handle must be held or depressed by the operator for the machine to operate and will fail-to-safe and cut the air supply if released.

For more details please – ‘Contact us’