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William Whiteley & Sons
employs 15 people and boasts a
turnover of £1.1m
New machines boost Shef eld manufacturer
A Shef eld-based scissor
manufacturer who supplies Royalty,
Formula 1, golf greens and
bulletproof jacket specialists has
invested in three new machines to
meet strong growth in retail sales.
William Whiteley & Sons, which
has been trading for more than 260
years, has spent in excess of
£80,000 in upgrading its production
capability to include state-of-the-art
vibratory nishing technology.
Boosted by a capital grant from
the Manufacturing Growth
Programme (MGP), the latest
addition brings automation to the
company for the rst time, helping it
redeploy crucial labour to more
value added work and providing a
30% boost in capacity.
“What we needed to do was to
protect those skills by investing in
new technology that would automate
a labour intensive, low skilled
process and that’s why we pressed
the button on the capital spend,”
said Jeremy Ward, director at
William Whiteley & Sons.
“The vibratory nishing machine
gives us repeatable quality and the
option to manufacture through the
night. It also gives us the smoothest
and aesthetically pleasing nish
possible, which is what customers
for our retail scissors and shears
demand,” he added.
Record £1m month as historic
galvanizer rises to the challenge
The UK’s oldest hot dip galvanizer is
bouncing back from Covid-19
disruption after it processed a
record amount of steel from one
plant in a single month.
Corbetts the Galvanizers used
the downtime in the summer to
improve productivity and modernise
processes and in October it
completed nearly £1m of orders.
Celebrating 160 years in
business in 2020, the Telford-based
company processed 34% more
volume than the same time last
year for customers involved in street
furniture, transport and
construction.
The recently strengthened
management team are now
planning to reopen the smaller plant
to increase capacity.
Sophie Williams, nance director
and general manager at Corbetts
the Galvanizers, said: “It proves that
the manufacturing best practice
improvements we have undertaken
over the last six months are working,
including throughput, how we hang
work, process speed and upgrading
the pre-treatment process.”
The rm runs a range of
galvanizing baths and processes
over 50,000 tonnes a year and
double dip material up to 14m.
briefs
Milnrow -based Precision Technologies Group (PTG) has opened a new
£1.6m friction stir welding research centre at its UK-based
headquarters and machine tools manufacturing facility.
Equipped with PTG Powerstir single-head gantry type and dual weldhead
FSW machines, the new centre offers opportunities for prototyping,
product and child-part development, materials testing, production trials
and low-volume production.
Incorporating the brands of Holroyd, PTG Powerstir Friction Stir
Welding and Holroyd Precision Rotors, PTG has established itself at the
forefront of high-precision machine tool design, build and supply for
specialised applications.
“Our FSW research centre has been established to assist
manufacturers in developing new products and processes, as well as
better understanding the immense capabilities that PTG Powerstir
machines offer,” said PTG regional sales director Mark Curran.
“By increasing their knowledge of the FSW process, we can also assist
Tier 1 and Tier 2 automotive supply chain businesses in becoming more
con dent and pro cient in tendering for manufacturing projects they may
not have previously considered.”
Industrial metrology specialist The Sempre Group and coordinate measuring
machine (CMM) pioneer LK Metrology have announced a new partnership.
The collaboration will enable the companies to bring productivityenhancing
digital quality solutions to the British and Irish automotive,
aerospace, power generation, medical and precision engineering markets.
As part of the partnership, Gloucestershire-based The Sempre Group
will now distribute Derbyshire-based LK Metrology’s full product range
throughout the UK and also launch the brand to the market in Ireland.
Steve Shickell, sales, marketing and service director at LK Metrology,
said: “Sempre is a like-minded business, based on providing the right
solution for each customer and we saw great synergy between our two
companies.
“We share the same goal to introduce the market to Quality 4.0
solutions that provide actionable information to enable manufacturers to
improve their processes and performance.”
Jim Mangan, chief operating of cer of The Sempre Group, added:
“This partnership means we can provide the highest level of technical
support and service to help customers meet their speci c business
objectives, be it reducing waste, improving yield or driving productivity. It
is a pleasure to collaborate with such an esteemed British manufacturer.”
Machinery Classifi ed - December 2020, issue 2 7
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