Geared up for growth

Chris Hannam is a motor cycle drag racer who set a world record for the fastestever 'wheelie' - 168 mph on a turbocharged Suzuki Bandit running on C16 racing fuel.

He also runs his own subcontract engineering company.

He initially built an 800ft2 workshop in his back yard, installed some manual machine tools and spent the next year working seven days a week. His hard work paid off and several years later Cannon Engineering began investing in CNC/manual and full-CNC machines from XYZ Machine Tools.

Hannam then bought larger premises, and his plant list now includes two XYZ Mini Mill compact VMCs, three ProTURN lathes, one ProtoTRAK bed mill, one ProtoTRAK turret mill, and an XYZ bandsaw. The first two machines, a ProTURN manual/CNC lathe and twoaxis entry-level ProtoTRAK Edge 3000 manual/CNC turret mill, resulted from a visit to a MACH exhibition.

"Both were easy to use as the ProtoTRAK control asks what you want to do and guides you through the programming process," says Chris Hannam.

"It's job done, without having to know anything about G and M codes." The CNC/manual lathe was replaced by a larger ProTURN SLX 425, followed by two full-CNC Mini Mill 560s with Siemens conversational ShopMill controls.Milling machines and machining centres have recently been networked to allow off-line programming.

An XYZ ProtoTRAK LPM machining system will shortly be installed.