Seventy-five-year family engineering business transformed in the last three years
Sydney based Summers Engineering had been machining for almost 75 years when it was acquired in 2023 by the Tononcelli family who had been operating manufacturing businesses for more than 40 years.
With a deliberate rebuild program in place, the company has grown as a result in the last three and a half years from a staff of six and nine machines on a single floor in Brookvale to a staff of 30 with fifteen CNC machines and two factories.
This 100% Australian family-owned business today serves a broad base of customers primarily in the space and sovereign defence sectors with precision-machined components routinely produced with tolerances of +/-0.02 mm in titanium, nickel alloys, stainless steel and aluminium. Many of these components produced are complex five-axis units of critical dimensions used in rockets, satellites and submarines with each one CMM-inspected and fully traceable.
Further expansion in 2025 saw vertical integration occur with the establishment of Summers Finishing at Wetherill Park, bringing MIL-spec anodising, chemical film, passivation and precision cleaning in-house to enable the company to produce components from a raw billet to flight-ready, under one quality system certified to ISO9001 and AS9100D.
“Okuma machines have played an important role in this development with quality and confidence in performance proven with the first machine leading to a second machine and every one after that with a strong partnership established with Okuma Australia reaching the point where it feels like an extension of our own business rather than a supplier,” said Summers Engineering Managing Director, James Tononcelli.
Over the last two and a half years four Okuma GENOS M560V-5AX machining centres have been commissioned and two MU-6300V five-axis machining centres with 10 pallet APCs scheduled to arrive in February and March 2027 providing the next step in development. Okuma has also supported Summers Engineering in connecting the company’s own in-house software to the machines via MT Connect, monitoring every machine once per second across 40 fields of data. This generates a live picture of operational performance across the entire field of machines in operation.
“The Okuma GENOS machines carry the bulk of our five-axis milling today across three shifts with the MU-6300V being introduced specifically to handle higher volume, lights-out production as we move from low rate to full rate production. Targeting the theoretical maximum of 120 hours per week of spindle time repeatedly on a single machine, i.e. doubling the spindle time per machine without doubling the headcount is what makes full-rate production schedules achievable,” said James Tononcelli.
Standardising all the five-axis milling on the Okuma OSP-P500 control has been one of the quiet wins for the company according the James Tononcelli as the machinists are familiar with the operating system and can readily move from machine to machine as the schedule requires. This shortens training time, reduces mistakes and provides the company with great flexibility as well as heightening the machinist’s confidence. The MU-6300Vs with 10 pallet APC’s will take the company a step further forward enabling the loading of work during the day for running lights-out overnight.
Whilst consistently reliable precision machine hardware is vital to this advanced manufacturing business, the whole factory revolves around leading software built in-house, covering scheduling, digital work instructions and inspection records all connected to the machines on the floor through MT Connect with AS9100D compliance captured as work happens in real time.
“The investments that have been made and those that are continuing all have a direct influence on our staff in providing confidence in the future of the company plus job security and opportunities for advancement,” said James Tononcelli.
Currently sales for Summers Engineering represent approximately 80% mainland Australia and 20% export with plans to keep seeking out the most difficult components in the space and sovereign defence industry that are high precision in tolerance and/or have surface treatment requirements all within capabilities.
James Tononcelli commented “The future of manufacturing is software driven where the advantages come from automation, palletised machines running lights-out, integrated software running the factory and in-house special processes. Also, the complexity of the work, tighter tolerances, meeting special surface treatment requirements and engineering attached to the machining such as assembly or a finished product, he said.
“For Okuma Australia, uncompromising customer service levels form the basis of our business model. We understand the importance of engineering competence and the importance of time in todays’ challenging manufacturing environment and this is what we endeavour to offer valued customers like Summers Engineering. We congratulate them on the amazing progress they have achieved to date and we look forward to the future together,” said Dean McCarroll – Managing Director Okuma Australia and New Zealand.