Molins System 24 Machining Centre

I worked with one of the preproduction machines at W Vinten Ltd in Suffolk, my role was overall management of programming and operation,it was on site from 1968 to 1971. As part of the overall concept of System 24 the stand alone machine was always known as Molins TSM-LA (Twin Spindle Mill - Light Alloy). Three pre-production machines were built and lodged with ourselves, Ferranti Ltd. and the Blackburn Aircraft Co. This was to subject the heart of System-24 to real production tasks, during which time various mods were made. All three companies produced a majority of components in aluminium. Due to the high spindle speeds the preferred material was He-39-WP, a water precipitated aluminium, also traded as Hiduminium or Hidumatic. The drawback was that it contained a high percentage of copper which would burn out when the finished item was anodised, this was another bridge which had to be crossed. The maximum spindle speed was 24,000 rpm and although the maximum controlled feed rate was 100" per minute we did sometimes cut using the machine in its rapid mode. I have written a paper on the machine with pictures, this has been added to the technical file held by the Mechanical Enginering Department of the Science Museum. If anyone would like a copy they are welcome to contact me at derolyn@tiscali.co.uk .

— Derek Blackman

I did an indentured sudent apprenticeship at J Stone & Co, Deptford from July 1958 to July 1962. I gained ny HNC in July 1962 and subsequently became a Chartered Engineer (1970). I left Stones in Sept 1963, aged 23, (I was a Jig & Tool design draughtsman then) and moved to Molins as one of their early Numerically controlled machine tool programmers. I worked with Brian Pizzey, Eric Lindley, Peter Davis and a couple of other 'young men'. My main role was programming production 'Kearney & Trecker' vertical milling machines, but I did have an indirect role with the new System 24. Peter Davis was the main brain in that department. He would stand with his pipe in hand and say 'watch this Terry' while the cutters on System 24 would weld themselves solid in the metal. He simply reckoned that if a cutter at 100RPM could cut 10 inches per min, then at 1000 RPM it could cut 100 inches per min WRONG!

The system would only cut a special material 'HIDUMINIUM' which was a lead-impreganated aluminium. The manufacturer said that he would buy back all 'swarf', hence special drainage/collection gullies were needed to collect the swarf. BUT the manufacturer did not honour this promise! Secondly, the machine produced parts at twice the speed that was needed to load the blocks of Hiduminium onto the pallets. My simple mind soon saw that an infinate number of female loaders would be required to keep the machine working!

Sadly System 24 could not compete. Just two companies bought these early machines. Molins had to be congratulated for venturing into this field, but much better machines soon came along, mainly from Japan. Molins was not, afterall, a machine tool manufacturer. Even Desmond Molins had to accept that in the end.

I left Molins in Nov 1966 and went to Stone-Manganese Marine which was a ships propeller manufacturer. The challenge for me was to look everywhere to try to locate NC machines to machine the complex shapes of propellers, which were the all hand finished. None to be found at that time! Whilst at SMM, the new QE2 was being finished. SMM made the props and bow thrusters for her. I guessed the name for the ship as the QE2 and won the sweep! I only stayed there for 18 months then moved on, subsequently working in FE lecturing, the MoD, the water industry, professional institutions and finally BSI; a varied 'jack of all trades' career.

— Terry Mullard CEng MIMechE

My father worked for Dr Theo Williamson and Jimmy Hutchinson. Theo Williamson had developed at Ferranti's in Edinburgh the concept of numerically controlled machine tools for three-axis cutting machines in order to avoid the problems and errors inherent in manually-operated drills and lathes (epitomised in Alan Stilltoe’s classic novel Saturday Night, Sunday Morning). Ferranti was a pioneering electrical engineering business. At Molins, Theo Williams designed the world’s first batch production system and later invented and supervised the development of a fully-automated machining system, called System 24, and now generically known as flexible manufacturing systems.

Molins started as a packaging manufacturer, principally for the tobacco industry, and became a major manufacturer of cigarette-making machines. Both businesses required high standards of engineering. Molins invented the flip-top cigarette packet which proved fundamental to the marketing of Phillip Morris’ Marlboro brand. When my father joined Molins the factory was based in Deptford (on Evelyn Street). I remember that from the top of the office block there was a good view over the still-working docks to the north and east. Inevitably the site is now close to the large McDonald’s opposite Surrey Quays (sic).

The machine tool division moved to Saunderton, near High Wycombe, Bucks, in 1969/70. Across the road from Desmond Molins’ farm, the factory was set in some lovely Chiltern countryside. I used to visit the shop floor with my father on Saturday mornings (and learnt to drive in the car park on Saturday afternoons). Molins was one of the first private companies to buy an IBM/360 Model 40 computer. This was installed in an air-conditioned double-glazed room - and with its own white-coated ’priesthood‘. Everything was programmed on punch cards. Molins and IBM jointly developed the software to operate System 24, and many of the early machines were installed in an IBM factory in the US. Watching the blocks of aluminium being cut on the machines was impressive, as were the cigarette machines. My father’s briefcase was always full of samples of cut pieces, including the Concorde window frame. Molins had open days at the Saunderton site, and published a glossy company magazine, Molinissmo. There was plan for the BBC’s Tomorrow's World to include System 24 in a programme, but this never came to fruition. They were exciting times, with lots of interesting engineers from around the world coming to our house, and a feeling that with System 24 Molins was on the threshold of realising the new technology dream for British manufacturing.

- My father returned to work on System 24 in 1980 when a French company Intertec bought many of the plans, spares and some of the machine tools, and started to manufacture updated machines. With hindsight Intertec repeated the mistake of Molins by not manufacturing themselves or subcontracting the products required by customers, rather than only selling the machines. But they had some success in the US and Indian markets. Intertec was hit by the downturn in the aerospace industry and folded in the late 1980s. Intertec’s founder was Henri Kahn, whose son Phillipe Kahn in turn founded Borland the software company.

— Jonathan Davies