Manufacturing Today Europe Issue 127 April 2016

today

BEST PRACTICES FOR INDUSTRY LEADERS

www.manufacturing-today-europe.com

A positive

outlook?

What the next few years will hold for manufacturing businesses and the trends they should look out for

Also in this issue:

Manufacturing performance Distribution Email management

MACH 2016 Circular economy

EUROPE

127 April

MANUFACTURING

Editor’s Comment

Tough times for

Chairman Andrew Schofield Editor Libbie Hammond

UK steel

Art Editor/Design David Howard Studio Assistant Barnaby Schofield

Production studio@schofieldpublishing.co.uk Advertising Administrator Tracy Chynoweth studio@schofieldpublishing.co.uk

Operations Director Philip Monument Editorial Researchers Mark Cowles Tarj D’Silva Jeff Goldenberg Laura Thompson Advertising Sales Joe Woolsgrove - Sales Director Mark Cawston Tim Eakins Andy Ellis Darren Jolliffe Jonas Junca Dave King Elliott Scales Subscriptions ikidd@schofieldpublishing.co.uk

I

held off writing this Editor’s page until the very day we went to print – I had to write about TATA Steel pulling out of all its UK operations and as the story unfolds the details change so regularly it is hard to keep up. I dare say by the time you read this it will have changed several more times!

When the story broke it was devastating not only for TATA and its UK workforce but for the entire UK steel industry and the entire country.

There was speculation that the UK steel market was dead, David Cameron ruled out nationalisation and manufacturing associations and Unions called for support for TATA’s UK plants while a buyer is found.

But there is a little hope. There is a potential buyer for the Scunthorpe plant and although the deal isn’t signed at time of writing, it does show that not everyone has given up on British steel.

Terry Scuoler, Chief Executive of EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation also pointed out other ways that the sector can be supported by Government, including seeing all major procurement projects, from HS2 to Hinckley Point, all using British steel, reforming business rates to exclude some of the penalties steel companies and others face if they invest in plant and machinery, looking to reduce electricity costs for energy intensive industries and finally and, perhaps most importantly supporting aggressive measures at EU level to prevent Chinese steel dumping.

There’s no shortage of opinions as to whether the UK steel industry can be saved, and if so, how? What do you think?

MANUFACTURING

today

BEST PRACTICES FOR INDUSTRY LEADERS

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libbie@schofieldpublishing.co.uk

EUROPE

Production Manager Fleur Daniels

127 April

Staff Writers Jo Cooper Andrew Dann Ben Clark

A positive

outlook?

Schofield Publishing

Cringleford Business Centre, 10 Intwood Road, Cringleford, Norwich, NR4 6AU, U.K. Tel: 044 (0)1603 274130 Fax: 044 (0)1603 274131

www.manufacturing-today-europe.com

What the next few years will hold for manufacturing businesses and the trends they should look out for

Also in this issue:

Manufacturing performance Distribution Email management

MACH 2016 Circular economy

©2016 Schofield Publishing Ltd Please note: The opinions expressed by contributors and adver tisers within this publication do not necessarily coincide with those of the editor and publisher. Every reasonable effor t is made to ensure that the information published is accurate, but no legal responsibility for loss occasioned by the use of such information can be accepted by the publisher. All rights reserved. The contents of the magazine are strictly copyright, the proper ty of Schofield Publishing, and may not be copied, stored in a retrieval system, or reproduced without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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Features

10 A positive outlook?

4 News

Updates and announcements from the manufacturing arena

12 The real benefits

It is down to businesses to prioritise and promote developments, remain optimistic and march confidently forward into the future

6 ZBB or not ZBB?

12 The real benefits

6 ZBB or not ZBB?

A case study that highlights the benefits of an ERP system and continually exploiting the benefits of the technology

Zero-based budgeting: now a long-term management technique for success in the digital age

14 Return of the MACH

8 The intelligence to deliver

MACH 2016 promises to be bigger and better than its predecessor while bringing all of the best innovations and latest developments from the manufacturing sectors under one roof

Given the massive competition that every manufacturer is facing, finding a way to streamline the supply chain and deliver a competitive edge is vital

8 The intelligence to deliver

10 A positive outlook?

16 Closing the loop

16 Closing the loop

The recent Circular Economy package of measures announced by the EU could signal a fundamental shift in the way products can be manufactured, transforming the way the economy works

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CONTENTS 20 ANDRITZ

Profiles 20 Andritz

72 Fanuc UK

23 Baxi

76 What More UK Ltd

27 ERG (Air Pollution

Control) Ltd

80 Todd & Duncan 82 BAE Systems

30 GOSH Copenhagen

86 Lawrence David

33 Alisco NV

89 ABT Products

37 Bearward Engineering

93 Amcanu

39 Mettler-Toledo Safeline 42 R. Stahl

96 Applied Component Technology (ACT)

45 Kreber BV

100 Lambert Engineering

48 Chargepoint Technology

105 Ruwel International

50 Diamond Box

110 Grundfos Manufacturing

52 Sapin

113 Capital Coated Steel

54 Slaney Precision Limited

45 Kreber BV

56 Ransomes Jacobsen

117 Swift Group 120 Cheesman Products

(Automotive) Ltd

59 Speedboard Assembly

Services

123 Iggesund Paperboard

62 Tronrud Engineering

127 VCST Industrial Products

64 Orbit One AB

130 Mornos

66 KMP PrintTechnik AG

134 IPG Photonics UK

68 Brafe Engineering

136 United Cast Bar Limited

70 Carrs of Sheffield

66 KMP PrintTechnik AG

59 Speedboard Assembly Services

70 Carrs of Sheffield

138 Jacob Pipework Systems

127 VCST Industrial Products www.manufacturing-today-europe.com 3

News in brief Battery power

QINOUS has won an international tender process to supply the battery system for a Diesel-PV-Battery Hybrid project in an Aboriginal community in northern Australia. The 800 kW/1987 kWh lithiumion battery system stores excess solar energy and also provides grid-forming functions of the diesel generators, which so far were the single source of power of the Daly River community.

“By temporarily storing excess energy as well as managing and stabilising the grid, our system allows the diesel generators to be switched off completely during the day. This leads to an increase of renewable energies in hybrid systems, and ensures the supply of affordable and clean energy in the community,” says Steffen Heinrich, Technical Director at QINOUS.

£1.8m savings

Rolls Royce has saved almost £2m in just over a year, after investing in virtual reality software. The nuclear arm of the business was the first in the UK to invest in the 4K system in 2014 and it has revolutionised the way the company operates. The systems use of Lean principles has reduced bottlenecks on the factory floor and solved challenges in facility creation and product movement, as well as product realisation.

Next level safety

A new addition to SICK’s flagship safety light curtain family, the deTec4 Prime is an extra-rugged, highperformance light curtain that is easy to install and use. It is ideal for a wide variety of applications such as machine tool operation; automotive production; warehousing and logistics and FMCG goods handling and packaging.

Dr. Martin Kidman, SICK UK Safety Specialist highlighted more benefits: “Launching the deTec4 Prime enhances our portfolio of next generation light curtains, ready for use in the Industry 4.0 Smart Factory. Through the space saving, robust design of the SICK deTec4 Prime, machine integration is optimised in order to achieve higher operator productivity.”

With integrated laser alignment for simple installation, the SICK deTec4 Prime provides full end-to-end protection with no blind zones and a wide scanning range up to 21m. Configuration and range adjustment is automatic, requiring no additional set-up; diagnostics indication is simple and additional functions such as EDM monitoring or manual reset are activated automatically by connection. It complements the highly successful deTec4 Core safety light curtain that has set new protection performance standards since its launch in 2013.

Fresh challenge

The logistics partners of B&Q have formed the first ever cross-company team to enter The Fresh Connection supply chain training contest. XPO Logistics, Wincanton and BRS have joined forces to take part in the UK & Ireland competition, run by SCALA Consulting, and help develop B&Q’s ‘One Logistics Team’ operational ethos.

Kingfisher Group made the ‘One Logistics Team’ approach a key requirement when it awarded long-term logistics contracts for B&Q last year following a strategic review of its supply chain.

Best behaviour

Schneider Electric has been recognised as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies by the Ethisphere Institute, the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices. This is the sixth consecutive year that Schneider Electric has received this accolade.

At Schneider Electric, ethics and governance are considered key drivers of growth and of competitiveness. They are managed through its Principles of Responsibility, a set of guidelines designed to provide the Group’s employees with a framework for responsible behaviour.

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Too much ‘reactive’ maintenance

A third of manufacturers consider their maintenance programmes to be reactive rather than planned or predicted, according to a recent study. The report, published by Bosch Rexroth and the Institute of Engineering and Technology, surveyed nearly 300 engineers in UK industry and found that maintenance practices continue to be a cause for concern.

Thirty two per cent of those who took part in the survey described their maintenance as being reactive with less than 30 per cent implementing either predictive or preventive maintenance regimes.

“There is still some way to go both to help bridge the gap for those that continue to take a reactive approach and helping forward looking manufacturers take that extra step towards a more planned maintenance programme,” said Richard Chamberlain, UK Service Manager at Bosch Rexroth. One of the key barriers to adopting a more forward thinking approach by maintenance teams is resource, according to the report.

Fifty three per cent of respondents answered that maintenance budgets have stagnated or decreased in recent years, and 64 per cent responded that maintenance personnel numbers have similarly stayed the same or reduced.

“Maintenance resource is the major issue for manufacturers,” says Richard. “All-too-often, maintenance teams are stretched too thinly to be able to be more planned and predictive, instead resorting to firefighting to keep machines running.”

MANUFACTURING NEWS

Systematic sales strategy

Some 70 per cent of business decision makers have admitted that their organisation’s salespeople do not have a systematic approach to engaging with customers and prospects. Carried out for sales and negotiation experts Huthwaite International, the national YouGov research found that only 22 per cent of British business decision makers said their organisation has a single sales methodology (defined as a systematic approach used to engage with customers and prospects, comprising the strategy, tactics and conversational behaviours used by salespeople.)

Tony Hughes, CEO at Huthwaite International, comments: “Considering most businesses have been set up in order to sell goods or services, it’s simply baffling that so few have a systematic approach to it. The fact that 71 per cent of respondents in small companies (1-49 employees) say they don’t have a single sales methodology is perhaps understandable for a variety of reasons. But for the 67 per cent in large companies (250+ employees) without a systematic approach there really is no excuse. “‘Sales’ is not a dirty word and giving salespeople the tools to succeed can make a huge difference to the growth of the business. A sales methodology - and the skills that bring that methodology to life - allows customer-facing staff to build the value of the product or service with buyers, along with the value of their organisation itself.”

While no industry does particularly well in the survey, manufacturing, with much talk of how it will increase trade to rebalance the UK economy, has just 16 per cent of respondents saying they have a single, commonly used and understood sales methodology.

Mr Hughes continues: “If manufacturers are serious about growing their slice of the pie, they need to start thinking about selling in a different way. Talking benefits – as opposed to features – is enough of a challenge for most manufacturers, but even this is not far enough. They need a systematic approach to exploring, uncovering and developing their customers’ needs and a common language for presenting solutions and calibrating their progress in the sale.”

Manufacturing accolade

Milton Keynes company SMC Pneumatics (UK) Ltd is celebrating winning the trophy for Manufacturing at the Business Achievement Awards 2016. At the biggest annual gathering of local businesses, more than 500 people saw the company presented with the Award for Manufacturing at a ceremony on Thursday 10 March.

An elated Kevin O’Carroll, SMC UK’s Managing Director, said: “In the 38 years we’ve been in the UK we’ve established a reputation for engineering excellence, and all of us in the company are thrilled to get this manufacturing accolade. We know that many of our UK customers benefit from our customised product options and assemblies produced at our Milton Keynes facility. Winning this prestigious Award is all the sweeter, particularly as there are so many other great manufacturing companies in the Milton Keynes area,” he concluded.

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Rather than just whittling away at costs piecemeal and tackling overhead, they use ZBB to focus resources on core goals, shifting funds from products or programs that aren’t productive to those activities that will drive growth

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Manufacturing performance

ZBB or not ZBB

Kris Timmermans takes a look at zero-based budgeting: now a long-term management technique for success in the digital age

T

oday, companies are rapidly adopting Zero-Based Budgeting (ZBB) as a management technique to help them achieve and sustain strategic cost reduction as they seek to redefine how they compete and grow.

ZBB is relevant for businesses for a number of reasons. First, the economy remains volatile, and in times of volatility, profitable companies with a strong competitive edge are best positioned to innovate, grow and beat the competition.

ZBB also helps companies identify wasteful spending, redundant processes, bureaucracy and unproductive products and services that are not generating an adequate return. They are surgically removed via ZBB, and strategically redeployed to fuel innovation and growth. In today’s era of digital disruption, many use those funds to invest in new technologies and capabilities to help them out-compete traditional and non-traditional, digitally enabled competitors.

Companies that adopt ZBB are now investing in the management technique for the long haul. They look for sustainable ways to fuel their growth, change spending behaviours and negotiate better pricing based on an enterprisewide view of spending. Rather than just whittling away at costs piecemeal and tackling overhead, they use ZBB to focus resources on core goals, shifting funds from products or programs that aren’t productive to those activities that will drive growth.

While there may be differences from industry to industry, our experience suggests that a company may identify as much as a third of costs to reallocate as they work their way through the ZBB process the first time.

Take, for example, global consumer goods company Mondelez International. Using ZBB, it has freed up capacity to fuel growth. The company was able to save $350 million in selling, general, and administrative (SG&A) expenses in fiscal year 2014, and projected three-year savings of $1.1 billion. It now aims to increase operating margins from 12 per cent in 2013 to 14-16 per cent by 2016. It enjoyed three

consecutive quarters of adjusted margin expansion through the third quarter of 2014, with adjusted operating income (OI) margin up 140 basis points to 13.6 per cent in the third quarter. These improved margins are helping Mondelez step up investment in production facilities, especially in emerging markets. In 2014, it announced new plants in Bahrain and India, and an expansion of factories in Turkey and Hungary, as well as Ireland, the UK and the United States.

In the process, ZBB transforms what may have been a culture of spend to one of accountability and stewardship. Cost management becomes a continuous process, as it fosters teamwork around budgetary goals. People are held accountable for categories of spend, and they are encouraged to treat the company’s money like their own. As such, they question the value of each expense.

Useful in both profitable and difficult economic times, ZBB drives behavioural change at all levels of an organisation, leading employees to regularly question the need to spend. Achieving that result requires a deliberate approach that incorporates a massive change management effort. Employee communication that explains the need for the new approach to spending is paramount.

ZBB is not an easy process. It requires a focused effort and ambition. Well worth the effort, this management technique can transform companies and create a structure for sustainable, strategic cost management that frees up funds to invest in innovation as companies redefine how they compete and achieve sustainable growth in today’s digital world. v

Kris Timmermans Kris Timmermans is senior managing director of Accenture Strategy, Operations. He works with companies to adopt ZBB and helps them to build operations strategies and digital supply networks to increase efficiency and profitability. For more information visit: www.accenture.com

Understanding the Frequently Misunderstood: Zero-Based Budgeting Increasingly, it seems that zero-based budgeting is a tack that companies are reportedly taking to cut costs. Oftentimes, this approach is confused with the one-off practice of decades past.

Naturally, sceptics who haven’t been able to leave the legacy behind are smirking at this point. They recall the pain of deep indiscriminate cost cuts. And, they recall that the cuts didn’t stick once the good times were rolling again.

But, that is not the way of the modern zero-based budgeting, and that is not what companies today are buying into. So what is it?

Zero-based budgeting is a strategic approach to identify the costs that aren’t producing the desired return. Zero-basing a cost base is a form of should-cost modelling as it builds a budget based on what the cost should be on the back of detailed analytics.

It also identifies the duplicative costs that do nothing to help an organisation achieve its objectives today and in the future on the back of a digital revolution that has dramatically changed the way business is done. And, it changes the lines of demarcation between competitive industry sets.

To make this approach work, an organisation begins with a clean sheet, and they build the budget from the ground up, justifying each and every expense. Is it a necessary expense? Does the return justify the cost?

Is it possible to lower the cost for the same result all the while respecting strict policies and meeting top-down budget targets?

This very detailed approach allows for useful internal and external benchmarking, comparing the cost of a process, operation or item with other organisations to identify reasonable targets as set by cost owners.

It’s also a transparent and open way of creating a budget that generates insight for management into the organisation’s consumption of resources.

This continuous process year-on-year helps an organisation actively manage its costs. The budget is reviewed for unnecessary costs; those that balloon up are reined back in and funds are redirected into areas where investment is needed to execute on the business strategy to realise future growth.

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The intelligence to

deliver Streamlining your supply chain systems for a competitive edge.

By Harry Mowat

If it takes multiple phone calls to check these things, and if the information that is being checked isn’t up to date or accurate, then the consequences can be disastrous for you and your customer

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I

n today’s internet driven global economy, supply chains are becoming increasingly complex.

According to consultancy McKinsey, the internet driven global economy is fuelling this complexity and making the entire supply chain much more fragmented. The implications for a manufacturer that has lost track of its supply chain can be disastrous; if you can’t fulfil an order, or even accurately estimate timeframes for delivery, you will find your reputation hit and lose out to bids from rivals that have better controls in place. What’s more, manufacturing competition is fiercer than ever, with technological advances like 3D printing making it easier for manufacturers to develop new products and services and challenge industry incumbents.

One major source of the difficulties for manufacturers in this context, lies in the way supply chain systems feed into the systems and processes of the wider business. If you’re a sales leader in a business meeting with an important customer, you need to know the capabilities for fulfilment, capacity and inventory in your manufacturing facilities, warehouses and beyond. If you don’t, you risk the orders you’re promising not being delivered. If it takes multiple phone calls to check these things, and if the information that is being checked isn’t up to date or accurate, then the consequences can be disastrous for you and your customer.

This lack of visibility and collaboration is a major issue for many emerging manufacturing firms and

Distribution

Predictability Another great challenge in customer service excellence for manufacturers lies in anticipating fulfilment needs, but this is a far more complex task than simply knowing what’s in the warehouse.

Anticipating customer needs and order patterns requires knowledge of activity outside the warehouse including predicting purchasing and future order patterns to avoid out-of-stock disasters. In a more complex ecosystem it can make the difference between accurately spinning up additional suppliers seasonally to meet commitments, or missing the boat.

Without real-time production, ordering and sales updates from your business system, it’s difficult to achieve any real improvement in customer service. When standalone Warehouse Management or Inventory System projects are put together, the difficulty comes from linking these critical interfaces not just to each other but back to the core business system and associated analytics. For many such projects, this is often a point of pain, if not outright failure – with an integrated system it is simply business-as-usual functionality.

Taking an operational intelligence approach

singularly holds many back from achieving the growth they need to survive. It’s not just sales that needs to tap into your manufacturing and supply chain systems but customer service, finance, management and depending on the nature of your business, potentially a number of others. It’s all very well to produce goods but if management can’t analyse the data it needs to provide adequate resources, if finance isn’t accurately invoicing what’s delivered and customer services are kept in the dark as to order status then nobody is able to really do their job.

For a manufacturer to continue to deliver a compelling and competitive customer experience in a more complex supply chain context, a few key things are needed.

While manufacturers may have access to the data they need for visibility and predictability, for the most part the data does nothing but sit there.

Even with an integrated system tracking inventory data in real time, someone will still have to run a query to check stock levels or to notice you’re running low on a certain component Assuming that you do have an integrated system with real-time access to all the accurate data you need, the next step is implementing automation that delivers that information to the right people at the right time as well as triggering key actions and alerts.

This ‘operational intelligence’ (OI) can create a huge competitive edge for manufacturers, who are able to deliver a level of service that really sets them apart from their competition. The ways that an OI approach can help the manufacturing supply chain process are as varied as individual companies, but a couple of examples can put OI in context: Automotive parts manufacturer: For high volume manufacturers, speed and accuracy is vital when picking and shipping parts from the warehouse.

With OI, as soon as a pre-set threshold is reached, fast-moving stock lines are instantly reordered ensuring you never run out. Every step, from placing an order with the supplier,

Assuming that you do have an integrated system with real-time access to all the accurate data you need, the next step is implementing automation that delivers that information to the right people at the right time as well as triggering key actions and alerts to arranging delivery and payment all happens, instantly, without a single key stroke being required. This then allows stock to be picked as orders come in from the sales team, and ensures the entire sales team can see accurate stock levels.

Clothing manufacturer: Often facing massive orders, responding to an unexpected increase in capacity is vital. With access to data on the machines creating the clothes, operational intelligence would send an accurate delivery time to customer services and automatically let the supervisor know if any overtime was required, which staff were available to do it and recalculate the profit margin on the job accordingly.

Food manufacturer: One of the biggest challenges for large scale food manufacturers is coping with fluctuations in wholesale food prices, often from several suppliers in multiple currencies.

Intelligent use of pricing and delivery data allows the manufacturer to automatically update price fluctuations and be able to accurately manage both margins and risk accordingly.

Transforming the manufacturing process Given the massive competition that every manufacturer is facing, finding a way to streamline the supply chain and deliver a competitive edge is vital. Manufacturers need to take a long hard look at their systems and examine the cost of ‘business as usual’ if they don’t have an operational intelligence capability, supported by strong collaboration, visibility and predictability from the data they hold, then they may not be prepared for the next wave of competition. v

Harry Mowat Harry Mowat is UK MD of Greentree, a creator of business software. The business grew out of CBA, accounting software that served thousands of businesses worldwide for more than a quarter of a century. Since 1984, Greentree has functioned with one purpose: to make the best business tools, so its clients can work better and be world-beaters. For more information, please visit www.greentree.com

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A positive

outlook?

2

015 was a turbulent year for the manufacturing sector. Not long ago, EEF, the manufacturers’ association, revised down its 2015 forecast from 0.7 per cent growth to -0.1 per cent shrinkage by the end of the year and noted that output balance was now at its lowest level since Q3 2009.

Similarly, commenting on the global manufacturing sector, the J.P.Morgan Global Manufacturing PMI, compiled by Markit, stated that: “the headline PMI remained relatively lacklustre” continuing the “subdued run of data for the global manufacturing sector through 2015.”

The recent abolition of the Business Growth Service (BGS), which houses the Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS), has also been a blow to many who were looking to the Government for support in these troubled times.

Further research from EEF shows that there has been a decline in spending on employment and investment, falling by -7 per cent and -3 per cent respectively. So if businesses cannot support themselves and the government won’t either, can any of us help but wonder what the next few years will hold for the 6000 or so British manufacturing businesses?

As we continue into the New Year it is important that those working in the manufacturing sector are not disheartened, but continue to develop and innovate in order to combat uncertainty.

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Technology, skills and servitisation – can these lead to a brighter future for manufacturing?

Let’s talk tech It will come as no surprise that the evolution of technology is a key consideration to any industry, but for manufacturing it is more pressing than ever.

The manufacturing industry has generally been seen as slow when it comes to embracing new technology, and with spending on innovation reducing, this could suggest that the amount of money manufacturers are willing to spend on digital will decline as a result.

However, in a recent report produced by Salmon, a global digital commerce consultancy, entitled ‘British Business in a Digital Age’, this assumption was disputed.

The report claimed that 97 per cent of manufacturers already have an individual or team responsible for their digital commerce channels, with a further 90 per cent using technology to improve their customer service, boosting sales by up to 17 per cent.

In terms of future uptake, 45 per cent of manufacturers expect that their digital channels will represent between 10-20 per cent of their revenue in the next five years. This kind of projection would only come about if those at the top had already forecasted for investment into their tech teams, which is promising.

Commenting on the report, Martin Girdlestone, Head of Consultancy at Salmon, stated that: “In 2016, manufacturers will gain a greater

understanding of why digital is now such an important part of their business.”

Zoe Brimelow, Brand Director of Duo UK, concurs: “Embracing digital and smart connected products is central for manufacturers to become more agile and responsive.”

A report published from the Government Office for Science in 2013 stated that the Internet of Things would be key for UK manufacturers over the next few decades “as virtually everything is expected to be connected via central networks and the Internet.” This not only applies to customer service, but it also relates to how software and automation will revolutionise production.

The robot revolution There has been a lot of hype surrounding robotics and automation and, as we move forward, this is showing no signs of abating.

Statistics from the Annual Manufacturing Report stated that 83 per cent of companies implemented some form of automation in their production in the past five years and 60 per cent claimed that the effect on working conditions and job satisfaction is one of improvement.

Neil Gallant, Managing Director at Neutronic Technologies, had this to say: “In my opinion the future of manufacturing is going to continue moving towards increased use of automation and robotics removing the requirement for human interaction in the manufacturing processes. As

Predictions for 2016

robotic automation becomes more commonplace the capital costs of implementation should be driven down, which will allow access for smaller companies to implement fully automated production lines.”

This is not to say that engineers and a skilled workforce will no longer be required, it is just that their skill set will need to change. This can already be seen in the UK Commission for Employment and Skills’ High Level STEM Skills Requirements in the UK Labour Market Report which states that IT professionals and IT technicians are projected to see the most significant recruitment need, above that of engineers.

Having said that, production managers and directors in manufacturing came second in terms of labour market need. This demonstrates that a top down re-evaluation of how the manufacturing industry is run is being called for and in order for this to occur a continuous stream of skilled workers must be present.

Closing the skills gap As the skills gap in the UK widens, nurturing staff and training new recruits will be vital for future profitability.

Recent research from the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills for the Business Growth Service found that 71 per cent of SME Manufacturers are planning on increasing investment in workforce skills between June 2015 and June 2016 believing it will increase their productivity more than investment in new capital equipment or computer software would.

While this suggests we should remain positive about the future of the manufacturing workforce, it is key that STEM skills continue to be taught and championed in order to ensure there is a ready stock of new recruits coming into the industry.

The aforementioned UK Commission for Employment and Skills found that 43 per cent of vacancies for professionals working in science, research, engineering and technology are hard to fill due to skills shortages. This is almost twice the average for other occupations, and for manufacturing specifically, the biggest challenge will be the need to upgrade innovation capacity in order to compete globally.

So what can manufacturers do to help remedy this?

Employing apprentices is the obvious place to start.

By investing in young talent, manufacturers are paving the way for future success. Despite much debate regarding proposed Government levies and costs surrounding training, policy makers are working towards making apprenticeships pay for those businesses willing to take part.

2016 will see the Apprenticeship Levy proposals finalised and early adopters may well be rewarded as parliament try to do all they can to encourage employer investment, keeping ‘undiscovered’ talent in the UK.

Should we stay or should we go?

There has been a concerted effort from the Government to keep manufacturing in the UK more generally, not just the workers.

In 2013 a report was released by the Government Office for Science which stated rather proudly that ‘UK Manufacturing in 2050 will look very different from today, and will be virtually unrecognisable from that of 30 years ago’.

This may be the case, but not necessarily in the way that was expected.

Martin Davidian, Managing Director Sales UK North and Ireland at FedEx Express, has commented on the rise of Micro-Nationals noting that small self-starting companies in the UK are leading the way when it comes to expanding internationally; “Small businesses are spreading out production to create products at a lower cost.

Manufacturing products across different borders or having different components of the business based overseas, [means that] these companies are small yet wield international influence.”

He continued: “While micro-multinationals have all the traditional benefits of being small and nimble, they have additional benefits of operating and marketing their products and services in multiple global markets.”

Does the future of UK Manufacturing therefore lie in the creation of global hubs?

A report by Pinsent Masons entitled ‘The UK in 2030: Key Trends for Manufacturing’ confirmed that most British manufacturers have part of their supply chain overseas and 20 per cent have half of their suppliers outside of the UK. However, this does not suggest curtains for the UK by any means.

Despite revising down estimates in Q4 2015, EEF reported that 2016 will see 0.8 per cent growth in the Manufacturing and Construction sectors, suggesting a bounce-back in fortunes.

The motor sector and food industry in particular will represent the UK well moving forward, as the ‘Made in Britain’ tag regains its reputation of quality, heritage and professionalism.

Furthermore, the UK’s economy remains the strongest of the G7 nations, with 60 per cent of respondents expecting international trade to be very important to their future growth. Such confidence in international growth surely suggests that the future is looking brighter than many

forecasts have hinted, and this does not mean production is expected to be outsourced.

The rise of servitisation One of the key future trends that will be helping to keep manufacturing on UK shores is the rise of servitisation. This newest buzzword in the industry is the idea of offering services around the product, therefore adding real long-term value alongside the goods themselves.

Offering support services can result in insight that will make companies far more competitive and aware of their customers’ wants and needs.

For example, being able to predict repair times and being aware of when items will need replacing is golden information for any sales team and if your business provides repairs and replacements then it is a win-win for both the customer and the business.

Dave Hart, Vice President of Customer Transformation for field service management specialist ServiceMax, explains: “The reality today is that everyone is now chasing the same part of the value chain. This is because they [manufacturers] recognise that the real value lies in offering services around a product just as much as the product itself.”

The next five years then are set to be one of great change for the manufacturing sector and one cannot help but be excited despite the recent gloomy forecasts.

Longer term, the next few years are predicted to be brighter ones, but it is down to the businesses themselves to prioritise and promote developments, remain optimistic and march confidently forward into the future. v

Neutronic Technologies Neutronic Technologies Ltd has been established for 15 years providing electric motors, pumps, gearboxes, variable speed drives and industrial automation to the UK’s manufacturing industries. It has vast experience across a varied number of industries such as aerospace, automotive, food and beverage, brewing, textiles and chemicals.

For further information visit: www.neutronic.org

www.manufacturing-today-europe.com 11

The real

benefits

The first ever customer of a business solutions provider over 30 years old is still reporting savings of up to £20,000 a year after investing in scalable technology, which has contributed to its overall business growth

We generate over 12,000 invoices each year, which are sent to various areas of the UK by post. By emailing these to customers instead of putting time and resource into printing, packaging and posting, we are saving around £500 a month on postage costs alone

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awson Fuses, which specialises in the design, development and manufacture of HRC low voltage fuses, is still reporting significant cost savings as a result of an advanced Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system implemented by K3 Syspro over 27 years ago. The company, which is a power user of SYSPRO ERP, operates a full suite of modules including manufacturing and accounting applications, and has continually grown its system with the help of K3 Syspro over the past few decades. A recent investment in K3 Syspro’s email automation system, AutoMail, which integrates with the company’s SYSPRO application has enhanced the company’s ERP investment further, and is resulting in cost savings of up to £20,000 a year.

Ken Jordan, from Lawson Fuses explains: “We have long been a user of K3 Syspro’s software and recently upgraded our business critical systems to SYSPRO 6.1 in 2012.This gave us the ability to automate our invoicing and sales processes, which were previously quite labour intensive.

“We generate over 12,000 invoices each year, which are sent to various areas of the UK by post. By emailing these to customers instead of putting time and resource into printing, packaging and posting, we are saving around £500 a month on postage costs alone. Instead of having to manually file and issue monthly statements, we have switched our payment terms to enable our customers to pay us directly by bank transfer, which is calculated and carried over by Automail, to each individual invoice. We have worked out that this is saving us a further £2500 a year on additional expenses.”

AutoMail uses a simple text script or PDF report to send emails with sophisticated PDF attachments to every customer in Lawson Fuses’ database, enabling rapid deployment of email facilities for SYSPRO. It comprises a report service, which monitors a directory for PDF reports, such as file invoices generated

by Crystal Reports, and passes this report using defined job separator pages. This splits the report into

Email management individual PDF documents to be emailed using the information in the job separator. For Lawson Fuses, this enables the company to email the individual invoices contained in the file to the relevant customer, significantly speeding up and streamlining the company’s invoicing processes.

This is not only helping Lawson Fuses to save considerable time and money, but the transfer to AutoMail has also been embraced by the company’s customers, who have long sought this sort of automated payment system.

Ken Jordan reveals: “We previously ran our invoicing processes on a dot matrix platform using printed stationery methods. What we found after a number of years, was that 94 per cent of our customers kept coming back to us and requesting the same invoice information electronically, so that they could file it electronically within their own business systems, so AutoMail has provided benefits to our customers as well as to ourselves.”

After utilising AutoMail to streamline its invoicing processes, Lawson Fuses began to explore other ways the system could cut further costs and make additional efficiencies throughout the business. Due to its flexibility and seamless integration capabilities, AutoMail is a resource that can be used in multiple areas of a business together with the functionality of SYSPRO ERP. It has the potential to enable companies that have typically high print, postage and stationary costs, to make significant savings in money, time, and efficiency, not to mention providing significant environmental benefits as well.

Ken Jordan explains how he began to utilise AutoMail for other areas of the business. “After we had used AutoMail to streamline our invoicing processes for a year, I began to see its potential and started trialling it in other areas of the business. We had a small price increase recently and normally we would either re-run our existing product brochures with updated information, or create a new price list.

“Instead of putting a lot of time into money into creating, publishing, printing and distributing a new eight-page price list for customers, we designed the price list using AutoMail. We were then able to just mail this out directly to over 2000 customers. If you calculate that these would have cost approximately £1.50 to print and post per document that is a cost saving of £3000.”

And it’s not just cost savings that AutoMail delivers to users. It also has the capability to clean customer data. Lawson Fuses has thousands of customers all over the country who have purchased from the company at various different times since its conception in 1938. However, only a portion of these customers are considered active and placing regular orders with the

For a business as old as ours, it is important that you retain strong relationships with all of your customers and AutoMail has enabled us to really develop customer relations with some of our oldest customers, who had previously lapsed their spending with us company. The rest are lapsed and present rich sales opportunities for the company.

Utilising Crystal Reports, the team at Lawson Fuses were able to analyse all customer data and then AutoMail a standard letter to all lapsed customers, letting them know of any current special offers or new products added to the company’s product catalogue. By entering a date in the system, the company identified all customers that had not placed an order prior to that particular date and then AutoMailed them in order to keep the customer relationship strong.

This has led to an upturn in lapsed customers returning to the company.

Ken Jordan explains: “We spent a lot of time collating all of the email addresses for our customers and then doing very little with the data. For a business as old as ours, it is important that you retain strong relationships with all of your customers and AutoMail has enabled us to really develop customer relations with some of our oldest customers, who had previously lapsed their spending with us. Recent innovations have included using Automail to facilitate a customer satisfaction survey.”

The benefits that Lawson Fuses is experiencing from AutoMail are clear, but 27 years is a long time to have a relationship with a company and

a lot can happen in that period. When Lawson Fuses originally purchased its business critical application from K3 Syspro, the company was a smaller entity than it is today when it was trading as McGuffie Brunton; only becoming K3 Syspro following a period of acquisition in 2007. The risk with any acquisition as a company grows, is that the customer service clients received when it was a smaller firm would be compromised but for Lawson Fuses it was the opposite that happened.

“We were apprehensive when we heard that McGuffie Brunton was being acquired by K3 Business Technology as you would if any of your suppliers underwent an acquisition and rapidly grew. But we needn’t have been. McGuffie Brunton took all their existing staff with them to K3 Syspro, so all the relationships we had built with them remained in place. The customer service we receive from them has not been affected and even though I rarely have to call the helpdesk because AutoMail and SYSPRO are so intuitive, when we do, we always get a friendly voice at the end of the phone and our account manager is always available when we need her.”

The long relationship between Lawson Fuses and K3 Syspro continues to flourish and is a shining example for other UK businesses. The company recently migrated its business systems away from the XP operating system earlier this year and once again, K3 Syspro was on hand to assist with the move.

Ken Lawson concludes: “I remember that K3 Syspro was so useful during our XP migration that I even sent their helpdesk a complimentary email to thank them for their support. What is really great for us is the fact that not only do K3 Syspro applications help us to reduce costs as a business but they are always available to provide us with technical support and updates which has invaluable to us over a number of years.” v

www.manufacturing-today-europe.com 13

Return of the

MACH

Two years since its last exhibition, MACH 2016 promises to be bigger and better than its predecessor while bringing all of the best innovations and latest developments from the manufacturing sectors under one roof

Taking place 11-15 April at the NEC in Birmingham, MACH 2016 is expected to be more successful than the previous exhibition, MACH 2014, which had more than 600 companies exhibiting and over 6500 tonnes of live working machinery on display

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reated by the Manufacturing Technologies Association (MTA), a UK based trade association dealing specifically with engineered based manufacturing, MACH is a biennial showcase for advances in the manufacturing industry that brings together the best innovations and latest developments under one roof. Taking place 11-15 April at the NEC in Birmingham, MACH 2016 is expected to be more successful than the previous exhibition, MACH 2014, which had more than 600 companies exhibiting and over 6500 tonnes of live working machinery on display. The major event attracted 23,352 visitors across a diverse range of sectors within the UK manufacturing sector and has more than ÂŁ173 million attributed to it.

With new zones, more innovative technologies and a vibrant seminar programme, MACH 2016 is certain to exceed expectations thanks to the MTA, which aims to deliver a high quality, relevant and insightful showcase for the industry, by the industry. Many organisers are involved in the construction and supply of manufacturing technology such as cutting tools, metrology equipment and CAD/CAM software, while other members deploy the technologies and others provide services to the industry.

The key activities of the association are to represent the engineering based manufacturing sector and support the advanced engineering sector through networking, media contact and advocacy; it also encourage talent through funding and support for workplace training and education initiatives in schools, colleges and universities.

As the provider of the UK’s only major exhibition to be focused on manufacturing technologies, MTA employs key staff members who strive to deliver an exceptional exhibition; to support this team, MTA also has an exhibition committee to oversee all major decisions and ensure MACH’s ongoing success and strong reputation in the market. Comprised of representatives from MTA member companies, the committee meets on a regular basis to ensure MACH meets the expectations of

MACH 2016

visitors and exhibitors alike, and, as exhibitors themselves, all members of the exhibition committee care passionately about the integrity of MACH. Viewed as the place to get business done, the UK’s premier manufacturing technologies event had sold out stands in hall five and had limited spaces left in hall four by December 2015.

Within these halls are specific product areas for guests, such as the UK manufacturing zone in hall five, which will be full of blue chip companies representing the best from the automotive, aerospace, nuclear, power, medical and tier one supply chain sector. Viewed as the ideal platform for UK based supply chain manufacturers to showcase their products and capabilities, the UK manufacturing zone offers a chance to network with potential customers and generate new sales leads. Other areas include measurement and inspection, a 3D printing and additive manufacturing zone; an engineering and laser zone, grinding and abrasives, surface finishing and

component cleaning and a software and design solutions zone.

On top of this, with more than 600 exhibitors expected, 130 of which are completely new to MACH, the exhibition has also extended its packed seminar programme to two theatres.

Seminar theatre one’s diary of events starts with the opening in hall five from 12:30 to 13:30, followed by a talk from Sven Renschler, CEO of Rentschler Reven GmbH about industrial air cleaning from 14:00 to 15:00 on April 11th. The following day includes insightful events such as a training academy from Jeff Hart, Training Manager of Mills CNC from 10:00 to 11:00 and a discussion on prototyping techniques by Damian Hennessey, Commercial Director of Protolabs, from 13:00 until 14:00.

Day three at seminar theatre one is focused on 3D printing and additive manufacturing in the morning, while the afternoon is dominated by what is certain to be a fascinating talk from Michael Mychajiuk, Supply Chain Manager at Jaguar Land Rover (JLR); speaking from 14:30 until 15:30, Michael is likely to discuss how JLR has transformed both its business and both brands over the last through years through a £10 billion investment, £500 million of which went on a cutting edge engine manufacturing centre in the UK, and how the company harnessed its supply chain to support growth.

This busy and informative day will lead onto talks from three different speakers from Dortmund University: Mike Wilson, General Industry Sales Manager at ABB Robotics, Alan Norbury, Central Technology Officer at Siemens PLC, and Boris Otto, Director of the Department of Information Management & Engineering at Fraunhofer IML Taking place from 10:00 until 12:00, these speakers will discuss Industry 4.0; otherwise known as the fourth industrial revolution and the internet of things, Industry 4.0 is a process of connecting machinery, controllers and other systems and subsystems that were previously standalone units. Because implementing Industry 4.0 requires vast volumes of data, SFB 876, a unit of the IT department of TU Dortmund, has used its expertise to study big data and cyber-physical systems to develop a tool called Streams for the configuration, parallel arrangement and distributed execution of online processes.

Because the benefits of these new automation options of Industry 4.0 are becoming increasingly clear to the manufacturing industry, this event is certain to draw a crowd!

In fact, Industry 4.0 is something of a key topic at MACH 2016, with Paul Hingley, CMR Business Manager at Siemens PLC also discussing big data and how to turn 4.0 into a reality. Taking place on 12th April from 11:00 until 12:00, Paul is likely to use this seminar to discuss how Siemens has dealt with the fusion of the online world and the world of industrial production through its investment in a smart factory that uses simatic programmable logic control (PLC) automated equipment to make its products. With basic automation a part of Siemen’s Amberg plant since 1989, the manufacturing giant was naturally attracted to the benefits of Industry 4.0, making Paul’s talk a key event for those interested in learning more about this major development in the manufacturing world.

Other notable events taking place at seminar theatre two include Nick Foster, Research & Technologies Manager at Messier-BugattiDowty, discussing research and technology developments for landing gear for the aircraft of today and tomorrow. Also talking in seminar two at MACH 2016 is the company’s Manufacturing & Engineering Manager, Germain Forfeoux, who will discuss the challenges for MBD aircraft land rear materials, technologies and aerospace growth; this seminar will take place from 11:00 until 12:00 on 13th April.

For companies seeking ways to increase productivity, boost efficiency or enhance innovation, MACH 2016 offers an ideal platform to meet potential customers face-to-face and seek out state-of-the-art products and equipment; there are also opportunities to network with likeminded organisations and gain valuable information in a open environment that has its fingers on the pulse when it comes to manufacturing trends and developments. v

MACH 2016

www.machexhibition.com www.manufacturing-today-europe.com 15

Closing the

loop

The EU’s new Circular Economy Package is a welcome initiative that focuses the spotlight on the importance of remanufactured power and distribution equipment, says Nick Bull

Refurbishing or remanufacturing parts or the products themselves, and the re-use and redistribution of refurbished products, is critical in minimising the need for completely new components and units to be manufactured

16 www.manufacturing-today-europe.com

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he recent package of measures announced by the EU* will undoubtedly stimulate moves towards a circular economy, boosting competitiveness, nurturing sustainable growth and creating jobs. But it has to be seen as much more than that. It signals a fundamental shift in the way products can be manufactured, transforming the way the economy works within a framework that can deliver real change and business opportunity.

And as a remanufacturer of end of life products this has to be welcomed – our remanufactured power distribution equipment provides a quick, cost effective, high performance and environmentally friendly solution that meets the best practice of a circular economy that reshapes markets and improves competitiveness.

Transformers and their associated switchgear are an integral part of an electrical power network.

Industrial transformers ensure that power is delivered to site at the required voltage, and industrial switchgear ensures the safe operation and maintenance of transformers and other electrical equipment.

Remanufacturing these units offers a cost effective means to complement the supply of brand new power distribution equipment.

Traditional business practices can lead to the over use of natural resources and energy and also produces large amounts of waste, potentially causing severe environmental impact. The Circular Economy concept offers the opportunity for businesses to mitigate the impact of their activities by adopting a more strategic and thoughtful approach to the use of materials, energy and labour.

According to the Ellen MacArthur foundation, the Circular Economy is ‘One that is restorative by design, and which aims to keep products, components and materials at their highest utility and value, at all times’.

Circular Economy

Temporary leasing can be advantageous for customers requiring short-term transformer equipment for extra power requirements, in emergencies or due to budget restrictions, as no large upfront investment is needed and can be paid for over the hire period

Recycling of materials is of course not a new concept. However, the Circular Economy process covers the whole length of the supply chain, from initial design to the product end life, ensuring the maximum value of a product is derived by retaining as much of the embedded materials, labour and energy invested in the original product.

Refurbishing or remanufacturing parts or the products themselves, and the re-use and redistribution of refurbished products, is critical in minimising the need for completely new components and units to be manufactured; with the attendant heavy demand for materials, labour and energy.

The evidence to support the circular remanufacturing process is strong. The All-party Parliamentary Sustainable Resource Group (APSRG) recently produced two reports estimating that remanufacturing typically uses 85 per cent less energy than manufacturing, and is currently worth £2.4 billion to the UK economy, with the potential to increase to £5.6 billion and the creation of thousands of skilled jobs.

The remanufacturing of transformers and industrial power distribution equipment is commercially and technically feasible when the product meets three conditions. Firstly, when the product has a high embedded value, through the materials and/or labour used in the original construction.

Secondly, when the product has a slow technological evolution rate and is not subject

to legislative restrictions or can be upgraded to overcome these. Thirdly, when the product design allows for re-constructability, including disassembly, overhaul, re-assembly and testing.

Slaters have remanufactured power distribution equipment for more than 70 years – returning end of service transformers and switchgear to their original performance. Today, we have developed a business model offering customers, new or remanufactured equipment either on a permanent sale or temporary leasing basis. Slaters can also remanufacture customer equipment using our in-house stock of power distribution spares – one of the largest in the UK. Temporary leasing can be advantageous for customers requiring short-term transformer equipment for extra power requirements, in emergencies or due to budget restrictions, as no large upfront investment is needed and can be paid for over the hire period.

Whilst newly manufactured transformers tend to be more expensive than remanufactured units, they are produced in accordance with the recent EU Ecodesign directive which requires new transformers placed on the market (after 1st July 2015) to meet strict energy efficiency requirements.

It must be stressed that remanufactured units are not subject to the Ecodesign directive, allowing us to reuse and remanufacture transformer units and components whilst being fully compliant with EU legislation.

There are challenges to remanufacturing power distribution equipment. Some customers may be unfamiliar with purchasing equipment that is not new, or perceive remanufactured units to be ‘second hand’ and therefore ‘second rate’.

However, they come with many advantages.

Remanufactured units can be installed on a likefor-like basis or configured to specific orders and customer requirements. They can also be supplied with shorter lead times, are typically 35-40 per cent cheaper than a new unit, and are offered complete with an extended warranty to that of a brand new equivalent.

Offering new or remanufactured transformers and switchgear means that we can be flexible to our customers’ requirements, as well as upholding our business philosophy of trying to be ethical wherever possible by mitigating waste and reducing the environmental impact of the manufacturing process. v * http://ec.europa.eu/environment/circular-economy/index_en.htm

Nick Bull Nick Bull works at Slaters Electricals. Slaters Electricals in conjunction with the Centre for Remanufacturing & Reuse (CRR) has produced a white paper on the circular economy. For a copy of the paper please visit http://slaters-electricals. com/news/power-distribution-equipment-in-thecircular-economy-whitepaper/ For more information visit: www.slaters-electricals.com

www.manufacturing-today-europe.com 17

www.modernutilitymanagement.com 57

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www.manufacturingtoday-europe.com

Focus on: Andritz

Swift Group

Baxi

Cheesman Products (Automotive) Ltd

ERG (Air Pollution Control) Ltd GOSH Copenhagen Alisco NV Bearward Engineering Mettler-Toledo Safeline R. Stahl Kreber BV

Iggesund Paperboard VCST Industrial Products Mornos IPG Photonics UK United Cast Bar Limited Jacob Pipework Systems

Chargepoint Technology Diamond Box Sapin Slaney Precision Limited Ransomes Jacobsen Speedboard Assembly Services Tronrud Engineering Orbit One AB KMP PrintTechnik AG Brafe Engineering Carrs of Sheffield FAnuc UK What More UK Ltd Todd & Duncan BAE Systems Lawrence David ABT Products Amcanu Applied Component Technology (ACT) Lambert Engineering Ruwel International Grundfos Manufacturing Capital Coated Steel

y EUROPE

BEST PRACTICES FOR INDUSTRY LEADERS

EUROPE

MANUFACTURING MANUFACTURING toda y toda

ANDRITZ

From an iron foundry to a global technology

supplier

Having grown from a small foundry to a globally leading technology group, ANDRITZ represents a trusted supplier of production technology and support services across several industry sectors

‘‘

With a strong product portfolio and a proven history of growth, ANDRITZ maintains a strong market position and during 2016 will seek to further its presence and continue to grow within its chosen market sectors

Montes Del Plata, pulp mill, Uruguay

20 www.manufacturing-today-europe.com

Far left: ANDRITZ Hydro Pelton Turbine Left: Thickener at Vale Site, Mozambique

E

mploying circa 25,500 employees across more than 250 sites globally, ANDRITZ AG has its origins as an iron foundry that was established in 1852 by the Hungarian entrepreneur Josef Körösi in Andritz, a suburb of the city of Graz. During the course of a history spanning more than 160 years, the company has quickly grown by developing a diverse production programme that includes large capital goods (such as boilers, metals rolling and stamping lines, pumps, centrifuges, water turbines, etc.), individual equipment (such as filters, presses, pellet mills, etc.), and a complete line of automation systems. While the market has, on occasion, presented significant challenges, ANDRITZ has continued to grow at an annual compound rate of about 14 per cent per year since the year 2000 and adapt to the needs of its clients.

“During the early 1900s, ANDRITZ experienced a lot of ups and downs due to the World Wars and the Great Depression,” elaborates Humbert Köfler, a Member of ANDRITZ’s Executive Board.

“However, following the Second World War the business experienced a period of continuous growth, primarily as a licensee of Escher

Wyss Group of Switzerland. This included the manufacture of water turbines and paper machines for certain markets.”

In 1987, the Frankfurt investment company, AGIV acquired a majority stake in ANDRITZ and began to change the strategic direction of the company from being a licensee for other equipment manufacturers to developing its own proprietary products. AGIV later sold its shareholding in ANDRITZ to a consortium of investment companies and the Custos private foundation, established by Wolfgang Leitner, who is now President and CEO of ANDRITZ. Today ANDRITZ is a globally leading supplier of plants, equipment and services within four main business sectors: hydropower stations; the pulp and paper industry; metalworking and steel applications; and solid/liquid separation for municipal and industrial processes.

“In terms of revenue, Pulp & Paper is currently the largest business area, representing around 35 per cent of the business,” Köfler explains.

“Hydropower has a very similar revenue profile. Within the Pulp & Paper global market, ANDRITZ are a full-line supplier of systems for

the production of pulp (chemical, mechanical, and recycled fibre). The company also supplies machines for the production of tissue, board, and paper. In addition, ANDRITZ delivers boilers and gasifiers for energy generation and for chemical recovery. ANDRITZ are market leaders in this area. Within the Hydropower market, ANDRITZ are also market leaders in the provision of hydromechanical equipment for hydropower plants including turbines and generators.

“The third largest business area for the company is the Metals industry, which today incorporates around 25 per cent of the business,” Köfler continues. “With the acquisition of the German Schuler Group during 2013, ANDRITZ became world leaders in metal pressing, stamping, and forming. This capability is mainly applied to the automotive industry but is also delivered to other areas including rail and forging shops as well.

“The final area of the business is Separation, where ANDRITZ maintains a broad portfolio comprising a variety of solid/liquid separation and thermal drying solutions. Although the company is not presently a global market leader in these markets, it does have one of the industry’s largest portfolios of equipment for the food industry, mining, chemicals, petrochemicals, and other segments. Another group within this business area produces systems and equipment for animal feed production, biomass pelleting, and other applications,” Köfler says.

Despite the volatile nature of the global manufacturing market ANDRITZ has continued to expand, with about 50 per cent of its growth coming organically and the rest coming from acquisitions. “We have successfully concluded more than 60 acquisitions and we are always looking for complementary product lines - ANDRITZ never acquires a competitor,” Köfler says. “For example, our first acquisition during the 1990s was SproutBauer, a producer of systems for mechanical

www.manufacturing-today-europe.com 21

ANDRITZ

Humbert Köfler

PSI

Pulpmill Services, Inc. specialises in the fabrication, installation, refurbishing, and repair of pulp washing equipment throughout the U.S. Its precision maintenance trained crews perform equipment setting and alignments and general construction. Its plant has 40,000 sq. ft. under roof and includes extensive machining and fabrication capabilities.

It offers custom waterjet cutting services with two tables including a 10’ x 20’, 5 axis table capable of specialised cuts in almost any material, for any industry.

22 www.manufacturing-today-europe.com

pulping. We built upon this with a string of acquisitions, including Ahlstrom Machinery in 2000, which helped us become full-line supplier to the Pulp & Paper industry. Over the following years, we acquired several companies within the hydropower segment, which allowed ANDRITZ to become a leader in this business area. All of the markets in which ANDRITZ is present continue to enjoy some level of growth. We are not dependent on a few clients, although we do have several very large projects a year. Our customers are all the major players in the Pulp & Paper industry. Within China, where we have been very successful, we focus on the ‘A-customers’, representing around 60 per cent

of the market, so that we work mostly with the major players within each industry.”

With a strong product portfolio and a proven history of growth, ANDRITZ maintains a strong market position and during 2016 will seek to further its presence and continue to grow within its chosen market sectors. “The efforts of the company for the future will be to continue to focus on the development of new technology through research and development. Although the market in China is currently a concern, in the mid-term ANDRITZ does not intend to change its strategy and will continue to work to maintain the growth of the business,” Köfler concludes. “Organically the company invests in R&D to find new solutions for customers. That said, we look opportunistically for potential acquisitions. ANDRITZ has a good level of liquidity, and a good cash position, which allows us to be basically independent from banks and to capitalize on interesting opportunities to broaden our portfolio.”

ANDRITZ Products: Leading global supplier of plants, equipment and services

www.andritz.com

Baxi

Safe and

warm

Above: Assembly line, Preston

Baxi’s forward-looking attitude remains underpinned by a long history of high quality products and strong customer focus

W Paul Hardy, managing director

ith its roots firmly planted in 1866, Baxi is a company steeped in history and heritage, yet as it celebrates its 150th year of successful business the boiler manufacturer’s focus is trained unfalteringly towards the future. “Of course this is a good opportunity to reflect on our rich history and we are very proud of what the company has achieved in this time,” begins Paul Hardy, Managing Director of the UK-based firm. “However, we are careful not to become too nostalgic because our efforts are all about looking ahead at the next 150 years.”

A manufacturer of complete boiler systems to the global market, Baxi last spoke to Manufacturing Today Europe in June 2015 when Paul discussed the continued development of innovative products in line with increasing regulatory pressures. Nine months on and it is clear to see what progress has been made. “It has been somewhat challenging over the last year as we have had to support the roll out of new ErP (Energy-related Products) directive compliant boilers into the market,” he explains. “We have done this successfully by working closely with our distribution partners and merchants to facilitate the transition whilst ensuring they’re not left with out-of-date stock.“ Bearing in mind this forward-looking focus, Baxi enters this milestone year committed to continuing the process of evolution it has very much been a part of for the last century and a half. “A lot of changes have taken place throughout our history and even more are inevitably set to happen well in to the future,” Paul highlights. “It’s all about making our products more reliable, more efficient, more fit for purpose and more easy to use. As a leader in this field we are taking people, both our customers and our employees, on a journey and I think the next stage of this journey is in the increased connectivity of home appliances.”

As with many leading manufacturers across multiple industry sectors, the need to engage with the impending Internet of Things is occupying much of Baxi’s development focus at present. However, with its long-standing value to make its customer’s lives easier plus its unique attention to market demands, the company is taking this in its stride. “Everything we develop and launch is a result of listening to customer insights and feedback from the individual

www.manufacturing-today-europe.com 23

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Baxi

Heatrae Sadia, Norwich

Kaymar Print Ltd

Kaymar Print Ltd are experts in litho, screenprint, digital and print management boasting experienced key personnel in all departments, utilising the latest technology.

Founded 70 years ago, Kaymar Print Ltd today produce a diverse range of print to worldwide brand names and to small local businesses alike across a wide variety of industries in the UK. Due to consistently high standards of their service Kaymar Prints’ long established clients return regularly for new and repeat work.

Bilendi

market sectors that we serve,” says Paul. “At the moment the trend is that everything is becoming increasingly connected and so we are looking closely at smart technology and how we can integrate boiler systems into this communicative network. As such, over the coming months and years we will be introducing a lot of smart technology that enables our customers to engage and communicate with our products more and more.”

The progress towards this has already began with the launch of a new Toolbelt app. Targeted towards its trade customers, the app includes a gas calculator and pipe sizing calculator amongst other key tools, plus maintains a link with Baxi’s loyalty scheme platform. “This has been launched successfully and we will be assessing our customers’ feedback to improve it continuously and make their lives better,” Paul adds.

Realising this vision to bring connectivity into its boiler range will be a key part of Baxi’s focus over the coming 12 months. In the final quarter of 2016 it will be launching a new range of boilers that bring connectivity and smart solutions to the fore of its offering. Careful to serve its end users in the best way possible, Baxi splits its market up into defined segments, meaning it can take into account the varying needs of specific customer requirements. This coming launch will be targeted towards the independent installer segment, and its next launch in 2017 will be aimed at the public and social housing sector before further evolution makes its way across the rest of the portfolio.

Besides its long history and forward-thinking attitude, Baxi has also built itself a reputation for quality and value for money. By employing refined lean manufacturing techniques and

Bilendi is the driving force behind Baxi’s new loyalty programme for gas installers. Integrating an impressive mix of incentives, marketing, a mobile app and forum features, the programme is underpinned by a single-view database and platform.

Bilendi offers a range of loyalty and engagement services focusing on the relationship between companies, resellers and their customers. Bilendi currently manages programmes for more than 90 companies across a range of industries including manufacturing, banking and retail.

Whether you are looking to incentivise your resellers, push your latest product or learn more about your end customer, Bilendi will deliver the perfect solution.

The foundry at Preston

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Baxi Logistics, Preston

a number of qualified six sigma operatives the company is able to compete with foreign imports on price, whilst maintaining the utmost quality standards. “We manufacture many of our components from scratch,” explains Paul. “In Preston we cast all of our own heat exchangers in our foundry and we have a sister company in Norwich that manufactures cylinders from scratch. This way we are not merely an assembly plant, but a manufacturer in its truest form.”

Supplying across Europe to partner companies under the Dutch-based BDR Thermea group, Baxi’s Preston plant manufactures over seven million components a year.

High quality comes courtesy of an extremely rigorous testing and development programme.

“Our quality department is incredibly important and they won’t let a product go to market unless they think it is reliable and fit for purpose,” Paul expresses. “It’s a process which ensures that we are providing the best products and service to the customer, and upholding our reputation for doing so.” Exemplifying this, over

26 www.manufacturing-today-europe.com

the recent winter months Baxi had around 200 development products operationally installed being put through their paces from both a technical and usability perspective.

As far as the future is concerned then, Baxi is set to continue its journey of evolution and innovation that it has followed since the nineteenth century. By working closely with both its customers, end users and the Government to ensure it can both meet and help define boiler regulations, the company really is at the forefront of the industry. Ultimately, however,

it is its commitment to quality and customer service that has driven this success, and as such remaining so will be the most important part of Baxi’s future as it moves forward.

Baxi Products: Specialist boiler manufacturers

www.baxi.co.uk

ERG (Air Pollution Control) Ltd

A controlled

approach With a leading reputation as a supplier of air pollution control systems and services, ERG (Air Pollution Control) Ltd has established a successful track record over more than three decades with over 700 systems installed globally

E

RG (Air Pollution Control) Ltd was formed in 1978 and quickly developed a reputation as a well-established and reputable name in the field of environmental engineering and contracting. Today ERG operates a fully Lloyds Register accredited ISO 9001 company that organises its services across six areas that are comprised of its odour control, air pollution control, thermal systems, maintenance, consultancy and V-tex divisions. V-tex is a recognised brand that delivers proven scrubbing and stripping technology that was first developed in response to the tough gas scrubbing requirements in the nuclear industry to scrub both gaseous and particulate contamination and has since become a reliable technology across several process industries.

The company provides clients with turnkey solutions that are optimised to deliver the best technical solution for the lowest capital running cost, that are backed up with dependable performance guarantees. ERG specialises in the provision of technical solutions across a broad base of applications including, odour control systems, air pollution control systems, industrial gas cleaning, soluble contamination capture and recovery, partial removal systems, hazardous waste flue gas cleaning systems, VOC contamination abatement, thermal oxidation systems, thermal fluid heaters and toxic waste destruction systems. Furthermore the company is also able to employ its proven V-tex scrubbing, stripping and condensing technology and provide expert maintenance of odour control and industrial air pollution control (APC) equipment.

ERG is committed to further increasing its scope of services and delivering leading-edge services within the APC industry. During September 2015 for

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example, it announced the addition of thermal oxidation and thermal fluid heater systems to its already extensive portfolio of APC technologies. The introduction of the new technology was made possible through the recruitment of engineers and consultants from Beverley Environmental and the support of preexisting ERG infrastructure and sales engineers; mechanical, electrical and process designers; project managers; and aftersales servicing and maintenance teams. “We are delighted to have this capability within the ERG team as it will expand our service offering and deliver additional value to our customers,” says ERG’s Group Managing Director, James Scott Bowden. “Thermal systems are very complimentary to our existing gas cleaning technologies and creates very good synergy to the gas scrubbing technology that ERG has applied for many years to treat waste gas streams.”

The extensive product portfolio of ERG is further supported with a comprehensive package of aftersales and maintenance solutions that ensure that customers are assisted throughout the entire life of their APC system. The company’s turnkey support process includes consultancy with odour and contamination modelling, frontend engineering design studies, design contracts,

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pilot trials using any of its five different pilot plants, hire of temporary odour control and air pollution control systems and commissioning services. These allow ERG to provide effective and economical solutions to clients on a global basis. The company has an established history of providing effective APC and odour control solutions to customers within the UK and abroad from its base in Horsham, West Sussex and its satellite around the UK, the Middle East, Russia, as well as a global network of V-tex technology licensees.

During January 2016 ERG announced the successful design, supply and commissioning of a solvent abatement system for Seagate Technologies. Seagate manufactures hard drives at its facility in Derry, Northern Ireland and required a new scrubber package as part of the company’s £35 million factory expansion that took place during 2015. ERG supplied two packed tower scrubbers to give Seagate security of treatment through 100 per cent equipment redundancy.

The process air extraction system provided by Seagate’s mechanical and electrical contractor, Total Engineering and Design links the new wafer manufacturing facility to the scrubbers where solvent fumes from the production process are removed from the air. The treated air is then

ERG (Air Pollution Control) Ltd discharged to atmosphere, enabling Seagate to operate under its emission limit.

The systems scrubber vessels, recirculation pumps, pipe work and valves and internal random packing are all manufactured using stainless steel and its scrubbers were fully fitted out and the pipe work partially trial assembled prior to delivery to the site. The scope of supply for the project also included high-specification instruments and a purpose built control panel and an extremely demanding timescale for delivery and installation. Throughout the operation teams from ERG, Total and Seagate coordinated closely to ensure that the equipment was delivered to site as required. Commenting on the project, Senior Facilities Engineer at Seagate, Gerard Owens said: “We are impressed by the quality of the package provided by ERG, their responsiveness to our requests, and the service we have received during installation and commissioning.”

Through the operation of the solvent abatement system solvent is scrubbed from the air stream in the packed tower, while the emission concentration is controlled by carefully regulating the addition of clean process water to the scrubber. The solvent solution is then discharged from the scrubber and directed to the site’s

effluent treatment facility. To avoid the build-up of biological growth within the scrubber, it is further equipped with a biocide dosing unit.

With successful installations and support operations taking place around the world, ERG has enjoyed an impressive rate of growth during the past 15 years and the company is keen to continue to match this success over the coming years. By continuing to deliver a flexible, competent and expert service, ERG is keen to increase its global presence and further develop the product portfolio and added value that it can provide to its clients. Part of this strategy will involve greater integration with its plastic fabrication division, BHP Plastics to increase quality while reducing costs. By ensuring closer dialogue between engineering designers and manufacturers, the company will be able to continue to improve the solutions that it can offer and deliver real benefits to its clients.

ERG (Air Pollution Control) Ltd Services: Air pollution control services

www.ergapc.co.uk

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GOSH COPENHAGEN

Make your

impression With roots dating back over seven decades, GOSH COPENHAGEN is an innovative cosmetics company dedicated to providing fashionable and high-quality products at accessible prices

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ounded in 1945, GOSH COPENHAGEN (GOSH) is a Danish cosmetic, bath body and fragrance company with a proud Nordic heritage and products that are currently sold in more than 85 countries around the world. The business began life as a pharmaceutical company and quickly moved into the field of cosmetics, with all product development, production and distribution taking place from its head office in Denmark. “We see no better way of developing our products than overseeing all of the production steps ourselves.

This way we ensure that all of the products under the GOSH brand embody our identity and values,” reveals Marketing and Communication Manager, Karina Ahm. “GOSH COPENHAGEN offers a wide selection of products in different categories comprising cosmetics, fragrances, hair care, facial care, body care and pharmaceuticals. We also make products for individual labels, while our extensive product range enables consumers to find precisely the product that matches their individual style and wishes. Today’s beauty trends are constantly changing and innovation forms the cornerstones of GOSH, meaning that we are quick to capture and understand new ideas, consumer needs and future trends and translate all of these aspects into exciting new products.”

GOSH first entered into the cosmetics market during the 1950s as an agency producer for a range of international labels, before finally taking the decision to focus on trading under the company’s own brand. The first GOSH product was introduced during 1979 and proved to be a highly successful move, with the establishment of the export of GOSH products during the mid-1980s and the recognition of business as a major worldwide brand during the 1990s. Today the export of GOSH products has far surpassed the company’s domestic market and this trend is expected to increase over the coming years. All GOSH products are developed using the very latest technology and industry knowledge. By working closely with its raw material suppliers, the company is able to ensure that only the highest quality products are passed on to its customers. Throughout all of its activities, GOSH remains dedicated to providing its customers with fashionable, high-quality products at accessible prices with a vision to becoming one of the leading cosmetics brands within the semi-selective segment.

At the heart of the success of GOSH is its continued operation as a 100 per cent familyowned business. Its founder Einer Tjellesen originally incorporated GOSH to focus on opportunities within the health sector, while today Einer’s son Bo Tjellesen operates as CEO of the company. Additionally all of Bo’s children are involved at different levels in the running of the family business, representing the company’s engagement with new and younger generations.

Through the third generation involvement of the Tjellesen family in the business, GOSH is able to merge its unique heritage with a strong base of youth and different talents to create a stronger and increasingly dynamic brand. “The GOSH brand identity aims to be playful, urban, edgy, rebellious and young,” Karina adds. “Through that we aim to remain creative and innovative to produce excellent products and to create and build a strong brand and industry presence.”

The growth of the GOSH brand is supported by its innovative range of products, which is developed by an experienced and talented research and development team that enables the company to develop high-quality cosmetics that appeal to the varied needs of its clients. “The R&D department at GOSH COPENHAGEN has more than 50 years of experience, which runs parallel with further education and training. This is crucial to guarantee the perfection of our products and we closely follow the latest developments regarding formulations, usage of raw materials, technology and legislation from authorities and our facilities in Lynge are well equipped with modern and superior technology, including a clean room production facility. All products comply with the EU and FDA legislation, while a highly-developed quality control system allows us to control and monitor the final quality of our cosmetics,” Karina observes. “As part of its range, GOSH offers a wide selection of vegan products. For example the company has recently launched a new vegan/ man-made line of quality brushes with synthetic hair and more products are still to come. Mostly

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GOSH COPENHAGEN all of our cosmetic products are produced without parabens and we only use perfume in a minimum of our cosmetics.

Throughout the rest of 2016 and beyond, GOSH will remain focused on its mission to operate as a forward-thinking company that is committed to bringing the future of beauty to its customers, without ever compromising on quality, creativity and affordable prices. GOSH is a passionate participant in the cosmetics market that is inspired by life and the dynamic nature and trends of the fashion industry. By keeping firmly up to date with the latest trends within the market and updating its products accordingly, GOSH works to ensure that its products are the number one product of choice for its clients. During 2015 the company rebranded to change its name from GOSH Cosmetics to GOSH COPENHAGEN to further emphasise its focus on innovation as well as its desire to honour the Danish heritage of the business. Reflecting on the change of the company’s name and the future of the business, the owner and CEO of GOSH COPENHAGEN, Bo Bjellesen comments: “I am very excited about our new company name. As part of our focus on innovation, our leadership team and I believed that 2015, being the 70th year anniversary of

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the company, was a perfect time to rebrand our company to more specifically reflect its Danish heritage. We wanted to ensure that our image and name accurately reflects who we are moving forward.”

GOSH COPENHAGEN Products:

Cosmetics, fragrances, hair care, facial care, body care and pharmaceutical products

www.goshcopenhagen.com

Luzi

Creativity made in Switzerland. Since 1926.

LUZI fragrance compounds are a family-owned Swiss company specialised in the development of unique scents for fine fragrances, personal care, home and air care worldwide.

Since 1926 our scents have been created with the ambition to inspire and a strong expertise. Considering the latest trends and innovations we create outstanding fragrances to contribute to the success of our clients’ products. In over 100 countries LUZI ensures an exceptional service offering individual products for our customers.

We are proud of our long-time co-operation with GOSH that has developed towards a credible business partnership to our mutual benefit.

Alsico NV

The smart option Since the business was incorporated in 1934, the Belgian workwear provider Alsico has established itself as a leading name in the development, manufacture and marketing of quality workwear

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aking its name from an acronym of the company’s founders, ‘Aelvoet Siau Confection’, Alsico has over eight decades of experience in the development, manufacture and marketing of workwear that is worn across several industry sectors. The business was founded and managed

by Mr. and Mrs. Aelvoet, until 1947 when Mr. and Mrs G. Siau took over operation of the company. The third generation, with M. B. Siau, was responsible for international expansion, which now results in the global presence of the group, with production facilities all over the world. Today Alsico continues to operate as a fourth generation, privately owned business that represents one of the largest producers of workwear in Europe.

Alsico is a ‘Faminational’ with the right values of a family company and the positive values of a multinational (focused on results and innovation).

As a company of the future, Alsico cares for its employees and encourages their empowerment.

Sustainability forms an integral element of Alsico’s strategy. Sustainable operations support all business targets and form a core part of daily operations, management and decisionmaking. Carrying responsibility for finances, the environment, personnel and purchasing makes Alsico a reliable, stable partner for customers.

Continuous dialogue with customers and development of operations ensure that both products and services meet customer needs and that they are produced sustainably.

Alsico serves the full circle: from the design to the creation of the patterns and the first samples to the production in its own production facilities and the follow-up by its dedicated customer service team.

Presently the Alsico Group employs a workforce of over 7000 employees, including

4000 multi-skilled machinists in manufacturing plants across 12 countries. Furthermore, the company maintains sales offices in 30 countries throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and America and within the European Union, Alsico is represented in Belgium, Netherlands, France, Germany, the UK, Ireland, Spain, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Its global manufacturing presence allows Alsico to supply over 16 million garments annually to its customers, generating a consolidated turnover of €205 million.

Alsico NV is based within Ronse, Belgium and plays with 126 employees an extremely important part in furthering the development of new innovations across the company. A key focus for the business at present is the continued development and marketing of its patented A-move system, which was developed by Alsico to deliver workwear that is designed with freedom of movement in mind, enhanced for

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Alsico NV

ORAFOL Europe GmbH

ORAFOL Europe GmbH, with its headquarters in Berlin, has been providing the market with superior reflective materials for decades. These precision engineered products are the result of research, ingenuity and dedication.

The company places a strong emphasis on team spirit. This co-operation exists between employees, suppliers and of course, valued customers, like Alsico. ORAFOL is proud to supply Alsico with the ORALITE range of industrial washable glass bead tapes. These tapes conform to the highest possible industry standards. Sourcing the best possible reflective tapes for your workwear ensures visibility and recognition, helping to bring workers home safe every day.

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comfort and ergonomic to the workers’ daily routine. Through a combination of new materials and a refined system of assembly, the A-move system allows the wearer to continuously experience a refreshing sense of freedom. Lifting movements and actions that are common within the care and hospitality sectors, can be easily performed with A-move to help ensure pleasant and safe working conditions, while maintaining a sense of job satisfaction. Since the introduction of A-move the system has enjoyed highly positive feedback and is presently being worn by Aldi in Belgium, Colruyt in Belgium, as well as in hospitals throughout Europe.

The A-move system is used extensively within the company’s CARE collection, which was designed by Alsico to specifically meet the needs of personnel working within the medical, care and wellness sectors. Its 80 years of operation within the workwear sector has given Alsico extensive experience in delivering complete workwear solutions, paying particular attention to quality, comfort, design and innovation.

The company’s ‘Shake Your Style’ initiative represents a second area of focus for the business that has enjoyed great success and will continue to develop during 2016 and beyond.

Shake Your Style is a manufacturing process innovation, which allows clients to customise workwear in many ways including the machining of fabrics in a very rapid process from design to delivery. Shake Your Style allows clients to choose the garment’s desired model, fabric, colour and pockets, as well as to add their company logo as required. Customers may choose from various colours and fabrics to design a unique creation in workwear including knitted tunics, knitted tunics with woven side panels and woven tunics. For knitted tunics Alsico uses a high-quality material, with a specific weaving technique, with a

polyester knit on the outside and cotton on the inside, with a fabric composition of 55 per cent cotton and 45 per cent polyester. The use of a special fibre in the manufacturing of Shake Your Style allows the range several key advantages, including a modern look, comfortable feeling on the skin, long durability, greatly reduced shrinkage, freedom from creases, good moisture absorption and rapid moisture transport, but also and simple maintenance and industrial laundry resistance.

Since its launch on 21 December 2012, the Shake Your Style range has proven highly successful and popular with clients and is today worn by staff operating within the restaurant, hospitality and care industries. The success of the brand was further demonstrated during 2014, when Alsico and the Shake Your Style range were awarded the Roularta Industry Award in its ‘Best Practice in Manufacturing’ category. Victory in this category proves the dynamics and dedication of Alsico employees and highlights the company’s ability to deliver high-quality workwear both rapidly and at a competitive price.

Overall, Alsico collections are divided into three segments: CARE – INDUSTRY – IMAGE+.

The CARE collection, especially designed for the care sector consists of several fashionable clothing lines, each available in several colour

combinations. Every clothing line offers a total package and has been designed to dress every function of the care facility and guarantee a uniform image to the outside world. Freedom of movement and wearer comfort are obtained thanks to the A-move concept.

The INDUSTRY collection contains a large range of PPE (CE certified), but also basic and functional workwear. Besides a large standard collection, designed for men and women, which is in stock, Alsico specialises in projects. This personalised clothing is entirely designed to the customer’s corporate design and meets the customer’s specific needs in terms of image, colours and functionality.

The IMAGE+ collection focuses mainly on professionals in the hotel, catering and service sector. This new collection is characterised by the diversity of colours and ease of maintenance.

Across all of its product lines, safety is extremely important to Alsico and the company is committed to delivering reliable clothing that meets all statutory European and international standards. These options coupled with its A-move and Shake Your Style lines, allow Alsico to deliver a comprehensive product portfolio that will ensure that the company’s workwear will remain a common sight through Europe’s workforce.

Alsico NV Products: Development, manufacture and marketing of workwear www.alsico.com

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36 www.manufacturing-today-europe.com

Bearward Engineering

Technical

expertise

By responding to market demand with innovative solutions, Bearward Engineering has cemented its position as a leading global producer of industrial cooling systems and radiators

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s one of the largest producers of industrial cooling systems and radiators in the world, ISO 9001 accredited Bearward Engineering has developed a global reputation as an expert in the market since its foundation in 1958. Based in Northampton, UK, the company’s name stems from one of its premises on Bearward Street, which was originally the site for bear baiting pits in the Middle Ages. Today the company occupies a 40,000 square metre site at Main Road, Far Cotton, Northampton, where it supplies to the world generating set market; the company also supplies radiators for pumping and construction equipment, off highway, and other specialist equipment sectors.

Currently manufacturing over 20,000 radiators annually, the company boasts a turnover of £30 million thanks to heavy investment, innovative developments and its versatility when it comes to the manufacturing of systems. Indeed, by merging engineers with long-term experience with state-

of-the-art technology, the company has not only developed a reputation for bringing new designs and bespoke applications to market, but has also accumulated a customer base that includes major manufacturers such as Caterpillar, Cummins, Mitsubishi and SDMO. With state-of-the-art R&D facilities in place that continuously share new data and information throughout the firm, Bearward has become renowned for its innovative capabilities; it also uses the latest automated processes to ensure absolute consistency when it comes to quality,

while its sectional radiators give optimum process control. The company is also well-known for its strong focus on customer service and its commitment to delivering a comprehensive aftercare service to its global client base. To further cement its reputation as a reliable partner when it comes to service and repair issues that require a high quality solution, the company also supplies parts with full warranty.

Merging these strengths with major investments in cutting edge technology and rapid expansion from 1999 to 2009, Bearward had cemented its role in the market. However, customer demand for a more globally local service resulted in the company joining the $2.8 billion Wabtec Group in 2011 – combining it with the cooling group of Young Touchstone and Unifin. Viewed as a strategic complement to the group’s existing thermal management business, the integration of existing products and technologies with Bearward’s product line and European presence further strengthens both

Left: Belt drive and right: Cross flow

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Bearward Engineering Bolted

Four fan and motor

Wabtec’s and Bearward’s global position in the industrial cooling systems market.

Operating under the umbrella of Wabtec’s cooling group has provided Bearward with the solid global foundations for growth and ability that it was seeking out to make its mission statement a reality. Focused on becoming the manufacturer of choice for industrial cooling systems through a process of continual improvement and a reduction in lifetime costs, the company used this

Belt drive remote

dedication to develop its unique and innovative sectional cooling system.

Designed in such a way that they can be individually removed while the cooling system is in situ for replacement or maintenance works, the sectional cores of these radiators offer huge benefits to end users in all markets as sectional removal can be completed by hand without the need for heavy lifting equipment. Moreover, spare components can be kept on site for quick

Back to back engine mounted

changes, which significantly lowers downtime for companies.

The sectional cores can be produced in copper brass, aluminium or Cupobraze technology before they are then fitted into steel frames that can have a variety of finishes dependent upon end user request; these may include galvanizing, C5 marine paint, stainless or any other specialised finish. Ultimately, this product not only allows on-site serviceability for any size of engine, but also eliminates the failures that are associated with thermal expansion in cooling systems.

Operating in industries that have become increasingly demanding in line with stringent regulatory requirements when it comes to the reduction of noise and emissions pollution, Bearward’s focus on innovation has proven fruitful as it now boasts a strong product portfolio of products. From engine mounted to power modules, or purpose designed low airflow applications to high pressure reserve units for high acoustic applications, Bearward has a range of radiators to cool engines from 500 KW to three MW; this includes conventional jacket water radiators and water/charge-air configurations.

Although low cost producers of cooling systems are attempting to muscle into the market, Bearward remains confident about the future as it seeks to further strengthen its global presence through setting up sub assembly and service locations while also expanding its portfolio. With a strategy in place to ensure the next five years are as positive as the last few decades, it looks like Bearward will be generating growth for many years to come.

Bearward Engineering Services: Manufacture industrial cooling systems and radiators www.wabtec.com/businessunits/bearward-engineering

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Mettler-Toledo Safeline

In line for

success With successful sales growth and improvements across its manufacturing productivity, the last year for Mettler-Toledo Safeline has been extremely positive

Main image: Profile Advantage Pipeline detector (in-situ) – an adaptation of MT Safeline’s latest technology for the inspection of liquids, pastes and slurries

Below: Profile Advantage 9000 system for Asia

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ack in August 2015 we spoke with Alan Purvis, MD of MettlerToledo (MT) Safeline Ltd, a Salford based subsidiary of the MT group specialising in the manufacture of high precision, inline metal detection systems for the food and pharmaceutical industries. Then, Alan discussed the launch of the company’s new Profile Advantage range, an innovative detection system developed in close co-operation with PhD students and senior researchers of the University of Manchester. Using multi-simultaneous radio frequencies, as opposed to the traditionally and widely used single frequency set-up, the Profile Advantage was a true step up in available precision technology within this niche market and confirmed Safeline’s position as an industry forerunner.

“I am happy to report that after the first full year of sales we have managed to sell more than 1000 units around the world, which accounts for about 20 per cent of our total sales,” Alan highlights today. “This has been an incredible rate of adoption by the market and it’s because the Profile Advantage really has provided a significant performance leap for our customers. It’s really helped us to defend and enhance our premium position as the global leader for these challenging applications and has rewarded us with greater sales to new customers who we may never have reached with our previous offering.”

The last feature also highlighted Safeline’s efforts to achieve a much more productive manufacturing process, and once again Alan is able to report significant progress. Around 60 per cent of all production output has moved to a new assembly method and 98 per cent to a new coil encapsulation process,

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Profile Advantage inspecting fresh pineapple at a customer site

Optimas Component

Optimas Components is the specialist supply partner for ‘C’ Class components, sub-assembly, kitting and on-site inventory management services.

Optimas Components supplies Mettler-Toledo Safeline Ltd with a wide range of fasteners; cable management, including an EMC protective cable gland, cable clips; detectable cable ties and PCB accessory products.

All products are supplied under Optimas Components’ On-Site Inventory management service, whereby every product has a Mettler Toledo Safeline Ltd part number and bar code. Optimas Components regularly visits Mettler-Toledo Safeline Ltd, checks the stock bins and replenishes inventory as required, ensuring Mettler Toledo Safeline never runs out of parts.

Optimas’ growing team now includes dedicated applications engineers to help customers develop tailored solutions suited for their specific application needs as well as offering standard off-the-shelf solutions, which now also comprises small pack quantities for selected ranges.

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which has involved a £100k investment in a new resin potting machine from Germany. “The impact of the design and method changes has been fantastic,” he says. “We are achieving 100 per cent right-first-time from this new method for potting the coil system, which in turn has resulted in a 35-40 per cent reduction in re-work time in the factory as well as a financial saving. Overall, on the back of these process changes the productivity per shop floor employee has risen by about five per cent across the last year, much higher than the UK manufacturing average.”

The transformation has also allowed Safeline to take real strides on its lean manufacturing journey. Alan outlines that the factory now demonstrates a 98 per cent on-time delivery rate for its complex, made-to-order equipment, has reduced its average lead time by cutting a week off of in-factory time, and seen a 25 per cent fall in its working capital levels and stock turnover levels soar to record highs. “The upshot is that we’re really motoring in the factory,” he expresses. “In honesty, I think people used to think that whilst we had a great product, the factory was unpredictable, but now we have a fantastic range of improved products and a reliable, ontime operations machine that can support sales around the world.”

Other significant investments have been in its

Mettler-Toledo Safeline sales channels around the world. As part of a group effort with its parent company, Safeline has benefitted from converting some country-based distributors into direct MT sales and service operations to better serve its customers. “Last year we went direct in Turkey, which is a market with high growth potential because of its large population, its strong food sector and its gateway position between Europe and Asia,” highlights Alan. “We did the same in Indonesia, which is a fantastic market that we have been underserving before, and also in New Zealand. By doing this we improve our access to market and our customer service, and have the potential to increase sales by being far more proactive in these additional countries, hopefully bringing accelerated organic growth.”

With such developments moving forward, both in terms of product technology and its manufacturing and sales organisation, Safeline has been successful in many countries around the world over the last year. Market conditions in general are favourable, and whilst sales have dropped in countries like China, Russia and Brazil due to macroeconomic pressures, improved performance in South East Asia, Mexico and Canada has helped to balance this. Performance in Europe at present is stable with some market’s proving more successful than others, but Alan

points out that this is most likely down to its own activities rather than any wider economic conditions.

Challenges continue to present themselves in the form of increased competition as other suppliers bring new products to market, albeit with poorer performance, more than a year after Safeline first launched the Profile Advantage range. Whilst the company is keen not to become complacent, never underestimating the speed at which the market can follow its lead, Alan is

Profile detector inspecting large cartons of bulk chocolate (bespoke conveyor design)

positive that Safeline’s continuous development will allow it to retain its product leadership.

A complete redesign of its product platforms will follow over the next two years, once again taking Safeline to the next level of technological capability.

As far as the future is concerned for Safeline, continuing on the same trajectory it has experienced over the last few years is very much the commitment with continued staff training, product development and lean manufacturing progress. Responding to the requirements of new GFSI regulations (global food safety initiative) and improving the way it manages key accounts with multi-national clients (who are looking for highly configured, but standardised solutions) will also be key over the coming year. In the more immediate future, in April Safeline will be implementing a new SAP business management system – an MT programme that is being progressively rolled out across the group’s multiple manufacturing sites and customer operations in many countries. The new systems will improve information flow across the full network of sales, service and supply chain operations – taking customer responsiveness and business efficiency to the next level.

Mettler-Toledo Safeline Ltd Products: Manufactures specialist metal detection equipment for complex process applications www.mt.com/metaldetection 1.To see a typical metal detector application, visit: www.mt.com/md-ritter-sport 2. To learn more about how the Profile Advantage overcomes product effect to detect more metal whilst minimising false rejects, watch a video or download a free infographic from: http://glo.mt.com/ global/en/home/supportive_content/news/po/pi/safer-productschallenging-apps.html

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R. STAHL

A bright future A strong manufacturing facility in India facilitates the global explosion proof equipment leader, R. STAHL, to achieve unprecedented levels of growth

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anufacturing Today Europe last spoke to Joerg Fitzek of R. STAHL in India back in June 2015, when he talked about the company’s successful history as a critical manufacturing subsidiary to the German based, explosion protection experts, R. STAHL. Nearly a year on, we find out from Joerg how the company’s busiest manufacturing facility has developed and how changing market conditions are impacting on its growth strategy.

“Since last June the most prominent step has been a restructuring of our organisation and as part of this we have put forth a new and improved organisation chart,” he explains. “Under the leadership of qualified and experienced stalwarts we now have a large and motivated team. We have finalised a recruitment drive and we now have a complete team with well-defined roles and responsibilities. With this in mind we foresee a very good future for this site with assured order intake from overseas customers in the Asia Pacific, Middle East and African markets.”

One of R. STAHL’s historically key markets is the oil and gas industry and the economic slowdown within this industry has had a noticeable effect on the company. Critically though, this has coincided with strong growth from new and emerging markets that are beginning to open up for R. STAHL. “There is a tremendous slow down in the upstream oil and gas industry,” confirms Joerg. “Little or no investment in this stream has impacted a lot of manufacturing companies like ours. However, the pharmaceutical and chemical industries are burgeoning on a global scale and there are investments that are happening here that culminate in more requirements for electrical and instrumentation products designed for hazardous areas.”

He also highlights the growth opportunities presenting themselves in the renewables sector, where focus has rapidly gathered pace over recent years. In terms of geographies, Joerg notes the fortunate development of India’s domestic market where ongoing petrochemical and refinery projects are positive and other projects in the shipbuilding industry for example are continuing to grow. “All of this

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is resulting in an increased uptake of explosion proof equipment from select oil and gas industries based in India,” he says.

One particular area that is proving lucrative for R. STAHL at present is in LED products.

“This technology is becoming more and more dominant in all industries around the world, including those that operate in hazardous areas,” Joerg continues. “International governments are encouraging consumers to adopt it and this fosters growth for companies like ours that have a wide portfolio of LED lighting solutions for hazardous environments. We are able to take advantage of this even further by remaining very open to the development of new designs.”

Illustrating this commitment to continuous development, the company in India remains focused on innovation and recently completed several new LED products for zone-2 hazardous area installations. “We design and develop this lighting ranging from floodlights, sheet metal clean room lights, emergency lights with battery backup, right up to pendant lights and linear lights,” Joerg outlines. “Importantly, we have the complete

support and technical guidance to deliver these project results from our parent company in Germany.” Further supporting the development of R. STAHL’s LED range, a marketing campaign named ‘The STAHL Explorers’ is seeing its Exstandard LED products being tested in extreme conditions around the world. More information on www.stahl-explorers.com.

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R. STAHL

Such focused attention to development and growth opportunities has rewarded R. STAHL with record levels of growth over the last year.

In what Joerg highlights as “a quantum leap in annual sales” the business has increased turnover from 12 million euros last year to 16 million euros.“One of the reasons behind this is that we secured a large repeat order from a leading refinery in India,” he explains. “Besides this we have also reached out to major EPCs and

end users in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries with our enhanced product portfolio, including the LED luminaries range and this has resulted in a lot of good business. We expect to make about 22 million euros in sales in the year 2016’’, he said.

“Another reason for this success is that exports to Asia Pacific, Middle East and African regions have shown significant increases over the past year. Our parent company is also encouraging other subsidiaries and partners within the distribution network to source from India – meaning products made at this facility. We have the added bonus of producing products that are certified according to the latest IEC standard for explosion proof equipment.”

Whilst the challenges posed by the oil and gas industry continue, success and growth in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries is positive, and working to capitalise on this will be a key part of R. STAHL’s progress from now on.

Putting together a complete package for these markets, whilst at the same time investing into its manufacturing capabilities will be central to this.

Recent investments of this sort include upgraded tooling for sophisticated CNC machines, and in correspondence with increased training and investment into its personnel the Indian firm is gearing up to cope with any future rises in demand.

Joerg also points out opportunities in the Indian shipbuilding industry, where the government is encouraging companies to buy from domestic suppliers, so putting themselves in front of prospective clients will be another focused activity over 2016. “Over the coming 12 months we will be positioning our newly developed products in the domestic and international markets with the aid of their USPs which are unmatched,” he concludes. “In the longer term, I have a vision to scale up not only the annual sales figure by high double-digit growth, but also to add onto our manufacturing line in India , high-end technology and the development of new explosion-proof products and solutions to take the portfolio to the next level. We are also working towards being the leading manufacturing facility of our kind in India, which is already enforced by the IEX Ex approval.”

R. STAHL, the explosion protection Ex-perts Products: Specialist manufacturers of explosion-proof equipment

www.rstahl.net

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Kreber BV

A refined approach to continuously reinventing the

company

Specialists in the design, manufacture and modification of tailored machines and equipment, independent family owned firm Kreber BV uses its 114 years of experience to deliver optimum quality equipment that ensure customer satisfaction each and every time

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designer and constructor of machines for more than a century, Kreber began operating in 1902 in the shipping industry in response to market demand for steam engines on fishery vessels. Since then, the company has diversified its markets and today develops unique machinery based on the research and innovation ambitions of its clients. Kreber specialises in engineering, manufacturing and commissioning of heavy machinery for customers within the petrochemical, food processing and maritime & offshore industries. In essence it concerns innovative heavy (process) equipment, high pressure machinery and vessels, skid constructions, manipulation and handling equipment, for which protection of intellectual property is paramount to their clients’ competitiveness. With a focus on continuing the 114 year old company Kreber aims at long lasting relationships based on the highest customer satisfaction. “Our first customers were within the local fishery sector as they were just beginning to be affected by the first industrial revolution. Following this, an opportunity opened up in the food processing industry during World War One. When the financial crisis hit in 1929 we faced challenging circumstances that forced us to reinvent ourselves again. A decision that resulted in our expansion into the dredging industry. This market grew over the years and reached a peak during the Delta Works in the 1980’s. The Delta Works was a master plan of the Dutch government to never let the sea flood the Netherlands again after the big flood in 1953. It was the biggest maritime project in the world in that era. For Kreber this project lasted approximately 15 years and involved the design and

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manufacture of many dredging tools in extremely short times frames,” begins Managing Director of Kreber BV Paul Dits.

“Another key development in our history took place when Dutch State Mines changed her business from coal mining to bulk chemical production in the 1960s,” he continues. “The State Mines were closed and the company converted into one of the most innovative industrial chemical companies in the world; DSM. This development catapulted our expansion into the (petro)chemical industry. In close co-operation Kreber started to develop proprietary machinery for the production of bulk chemicals. This is how Kreber Prilling Equipment originated. A prill is a small globule of a material, most often a dry

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sphere, formed from a melted liquid. Prills are formed by allowing drops of the melted prill substance to congeal or freeze in mid-air after being sprayed from a tall prilling tower. A provider of prilling systems for more than 50 years, Kreber is able to deliver an innovative technique that results in high-quality and pure prills that can be used for the bulk production of chemicals such as urea, ammonium nitrate, nitro phosphate and hisphenol-A.” Proud that the first prilling machine ever made by the company in the 1960s is still in operation and making money for its customer, Kreber’s prilling installation consists of state-ofthe-art components, which provides the end user with a quality assured, uninterrupted process against optimal exploitation costs. Strengths such

as high-level reliability, low operation expenses and high quality production are the result of decades of innovative developments.

Based in its 9500 square metre manufacturing plant in Vlaardingen, along the Nieuwe Maas river, 15 kilometres west from Rotterdam, Kreber is dedicated to seeking out innovative solutions that not only meet the stringent regulations of the petrochemical, offshore and food industries, but also meet the ever-growing demands of its customers. “Many of our clients are big multinational companies that we have developed long-lasting relationships with, in fact, we have been working with one of our customers for 90 years! Being active in various niche markets means we have noticed that, in general, pressure begins to rise when growth in certain industries is coming to an end. With for example the oil and gas industry being challenged by low oil prices improving efficiency is no longer a good enough solution for our customers; transformation is coming, which means we don’t need to improve on what we have always done, but instead focus to do things differently and be more innovative. Although this causes challenges for us, we have a unique selling point as we keep full manufacturing in-house and don’t work for competing customers, which means each of these multinational companies knows we will protect their intellectual property,” explains Paul.

Kreber BV

One way the company has responded to this challenge is through establishing the five step Kreber Solution Cycle, a unique working method that results in machines that deliver the best performance while also being the most suitable to a customer’s demands. Starting with discussing ideas, frustrations or challenges, the cycle continues with a thorough analysis of research results before Kreber works step-by-step through the design, engineering, manufacturing and testing of the product. To further ensure quality, the company also ensures customers do business with the same person: their project manager. With tests complete, the company delivers the machine and sets it up in the customer’s company; results are tested and Kreber then runs through phase three again until complete satisfaction is guaranteed.

Following the completion of the product, Kreber then takes care of all maintenance and repairs,

which also enables the company to seek out improvements of the machinery.

“We work as a single point of contact during the five step solution cycle and have intelligent engineers who use their innovative insights combined with past experience to deliver a high quality solution. By having a continuous feedback loop between the engineers and our customer’s engineers we provide regular gate reviews and progress reports; keeping the customer continually involved is a key part of our success,” highlights Paul.

By listening to its clients and focusing on developing its capabilities to the most intricate of details in line with market changes and customer demand, Kreber is certain to continue delivering ‘the thrill of first time right’ to its global customer base.

Kreber BV Products: Tailor made machines and equipment

www.kreber.nl

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Chargepoint Technology

Taking charge Renowned market leaders in powder containment and aseptic transfer valves Chargepoint Technology provides operator safety and sterility assurance for customers in the pharmaceutical, biotech, chemical and other process industries

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lthough it was formed in 2009, Chargepoint Technology Limited Company’s history dates as far back as 1996 when the first Chargepoint split valve was built in the UK in conjunction with Glaxo Pharmaceuticals (now GlaxoSmithKline). Previously known as Contained Transfer Coupling (CTC), the valve’s fundamental features have still been retained in the most up-to-date design today.

A common solution for contained charging/filling or discharging/dispensing of potent compounds from a wide variety of pharmaceutical and chemical process equipment such as reactors, isolators and tablet pressing equipment, the ChargePoint valve has become a pharmaceutical standard for high containment batch transfers. A key strength of the ChargePoint split valve design is its flexibility, which has enabled it to be applied within other areas of the pharmaceutical production process;

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these include bulk formulations and aseptic processes, it is also suitable for other markets such as the beverage industry.

Major milestones in the company’s history include the opening of its new inhouse manufacturing facility in 2010, which was followed one year later by the launch of the ChargePoint Bio valve. In 2012, the company won the coveted Queen’s Award for International Trade before it made the strategic decision to expand into China with an office in Hong Kong. Following this major expansion, the company pressed on with increasing its global presence with the opening of ChargePoint Inc. New Jersey Incorporated, which enabled it to have a closer relationship with clients in the US. Throughout these major developments, the company continued to focus on innovation, a move that resulted in the launch of new product ranges in 2013: Pharmasafe, Aseptisafe and AfterCare.

Today the company’s products and services are split into six divisions: ChargePoint PharmaSafe, ChargePoint AseptiSafe, ChargePoint AfterCare, ChargeBag, ChargeBottle and Accessories. Through the manufacture of powder containment valves, PharmaSafe is able to offer the highest level of containment performance to assure the safe handling of potent API, intermediates and pharmaceutical formulations.

Also within this business segment is the ChargePoint ExtraSafe system, which provides safe dust particulate extraction in conjunction with the PharmaSafe pro-containment valve when there is no suitable air handling available.

ChargePoint AseptiSafe aseptic transfer valves, meanwhile, offer increased sterility assurance during the handling of sensitive ingredients and small components in fill/finish aseptic processing and biotech sterile API production. Key benefits of using the valves include the optimisation of product quality with increased sterility

usage of the acquired solution. On top of this, these dedicated employees offer responsive customer support, the supply of spare parts, upgrades, consumables and accessories, training and on-site services. Spare parts, consumables and accessories available include ChargeBottle rigid containers, ChargeBag flexible packaging, clamp components, storage, protection and maintenance accessories; cleaning and washing accessories and containment, handling and docking accessories. The ChargeBottle range includes products such as ChargeBottle P, small scale polypropylene containers to suit a range of specific requirements and ChargeBottle MX, pressure rated stainless steel/Alloy 22 containers that are available with optional purge connections and viewing ports to ensure maximised transfer yield.

Meanwhile, the operation and maintenance training available includes correct and safe use of the valve and basic cleaning procedures for operators, while training for maintenance personnel the services available include disassembly and reassembly of the valve, what to look for in terms of signs of excessive wear and troubleshooting.

Should a customer require ChargePoint’s

services on-site, service engineers can be deployed internationally to provide customers with a rapid response to both planned and unplanned maintenance visits. On top of this, the company offers preventative maintenance contracts that are tailored to each customer’s requirements as well as validation services such as performance qualification (PQ) testing, IQ/ QQ (Intallation Qualification/ Operational Qualification) execution and documentation and SATs (Site Acceptance Test).

Continuing with its goal of delivering optimum quality products that meet the expectations of world-leading manufacturers across the pharmaceutical, chemical, biotech and food industries, the ISO 9001 accredited company will be moving to new premises in June 2016 that will not only enable it to make bigger valves but also target a larger market.

Chargepoint Technology Products: Containment valves and integrated materials handling equipment www.thechargepoint.com

assurance, simple in process sterilisation and high containment performance for hazardous products. Additionally, the transfer valves now come with a VERIFi Intelligent Monitoring Platform.

Launched at INTERPHEX 2015, VERIFi, an intelligent monitoring platform that communicates vital equipment performance data that helps significantly enhance the reliability, safety and profitability of the facility and its final drug product, adds a new dimension to split valve equipment as it combines the highest levels of performance and reliability with unique technology. This impressive combination enables manufacturers to meet the most stringent requirements of regulatory bodies.

Once customers have invested in ChargePoint’s products, the company offers high quality AfterCare services thanks to its team of experts who work closely with clients to identify key areas that will enhance the

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Diamond Box

Investing in the

future

As one of the fastest growing cardboard manufacturers in the UK, Diamond Box aims to continue its success through investment, acquisition and superior customer service

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ince its foundation in 2007 by husband and wife team Kavi and Rani Jundu, Diamond Box has developed a strong reputation in the market as a specialist in the manufacture of corrugated packaging; in fact, the company’s website states: ‘If its made out of cardboard we’ll be your one-stop-shop.’

Having seen an opportunity in the market for a high quality, independent manufacturer of cardboard packaging, particularly in the FMCG sector, Diamond Box offers services such as consultancy, design and manufacture, while its highly experience sales team offers customers assistance in developing solutions; from simple cartons to complex packaging, the sales team can advise on the most economical solutions in order to meet the precise specifications and requirements of the client. However, should trade customers require an instant price at any time of day, the company has CaseAce, an online costing platform that enables clients to be first to market with a competitive price and real-time lead time information. Accessed

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via the company’s website, CaseAce also offers customers information such as pallet quantity and pallet weight; they can also request samples from the design team.

Other services from the design team include the production of high quality drawings that match the economy of materials, production, transport and storage, with quality strength and fitness for purpose. For this segment of the business the company’s team of designers use state-of-the-art CAD software and sample-making technology; the designers are also available to liaise directly with clients throughout the project to ensure the end product is the best possible result.

Once the client is happy to proceed to manufacture, the order is sent to the factory floor of Diamond Box’s high tech facility. This is stocked with an extensive range of machinery, which enables it to offer a broad product offering, ranging from conventional 0201 cases to five colour SRP’s, to small and large format diecutting to complex multipoint cases with self seal tape. The core

machines within the factory are the Emba 170QS and Emba 245 QS, both extremely capable case makers. These state-of-the-art systems enable Diamond Box to produce quality products at high speeds, from the simplest brown box to complex retail-ready packaging. With a wide range of product sizes with up to four-colour printing and speeds of up to 26,400 cases per hour, the conversion plant can satisfy the most challenging of tasks.

Thanks to its close proximity to motorway links in the heart of the UK, Diamond Box is able to flexibly deliver to its customers across the nation through a dedicated transport fleet of more than ten articulated vehicles.

With quality at the core of Diamond Box, company has maintained a solid commitment to establishing strong and enduring relationships with key strategic partners, both in custom and supply, across the UK since its inception as a way to ensure it is continuously able to source optimum quality raw materials. Furthermore, by closely

monitoring both international and local markets, combined with customer needs, Diamond Box is able to carefully manage the supply and demand cycle to ensure it is able to provide products of high quality with short lead times, at competitive rates, and with consistency and reliability. This way of operating has proven fruitful for the company, which has not only filled the gap it originally saw in the market, but also outgrown it over the last nine years.

Further strengthening this strategy is Diamond Box’s focus on investment, which not only cements its leading reputation in the market through quality and efficiency but also provides benefits to customers such as a highly competitive pricing policy and shortened lead times. Indeed, following significant investment in its production area in 2013, the company was able to break into new markets, most notably the high quality post-print and value added markets, thanks to the addition of five-colour Bobst High Quality Printers. Additionally, a Latitude case maker was also commissioned that year, which delivered a 50 per cent increase in case

making capacity, improved lead times for customers and brought a faster turnover for conventional work.

Integrating these strengths has resulted in the successful company turning over in excess of £21 million while also holding the coveted position of the largest independently owned cardboard box manufacturing business in the Midlands as well as one of the largest single sheet plants in the UK. However, as a company that doesn’t rest on its laurels, Diamond Box is further strengthening its capabilities by investing in an innovative, state-ofthe-art line that is due for completion in 2016. This investment will not only enable the company to continue its strategy for continued growth, but will also replace existing older machinery.

Having laid the foundations for ongoing success, the future looks bright for Diamond Box as it focuses on doubling in size over the next five years through organic and acquisitioned growth. Viewed as a force to be reckoned with in the market, the leading company is only going to get bigger and better over the years to come.

Diamond Box Products: Corrugated packaging www.diamond-box.co.uk

Antonine Printing

Antonine Printing Inks are proud to be the sole supplier for all of Diamond Box’s ink requirements. We have worked together closely as a partnership over the past few years to raise the print capabilities of Diamond Box resulting in a dramatic improvement of their finished products. Antonine continue to provide technical knowledge, new developments, on-site support and training to Diamond Box which will always allow them to produce the very best quality across various products. Antonine have also introduced various digital innovations to Diamond Box with huge benefits both now and for many years to come.

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Sapin

Leader of the pack Celebrating its 40th year in operation during 2016, Sapin is considered a pioneer in can manufacturing within Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East

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ince the business was founded during 1976 in Dammam, Saudi Arabia Sapin has grown from humble beginnings to today represent one of the region’s largest and most acclaimed packaging suppliers.Taking its name from an abbreviation of ‘Saudi Arabian Packing Industry’, the business has amassed four decades of industry experience in the manufacture of packaging products, with a core competency in metal cans within the food, chemical and paint market sectors.

Within the food sector for example, Sapin products are used in the packaging and sales of cheese, baby food and powdered milk, while the company’s competence also extends to metal canisters for aerosol sprays. Within the paint market, Sapin is also able to provide both metal and plastic pails according to the needs of its clients.

During its 40-year history, Sapin has operated as a market-leader in the development of packaging solutions and technology.This has allowed the company to become to partner of choice in packaging solutions for globally recognised brands including Nestle, Kraft and Airwick, to name a few.

“As a company we adopted a lot of technology early on,’ explains Marketing and Communications Manager, Saurabh Timochin. “For example we were the first to bring computer to plate printing into the Saudi Arabian market. We are also recognised as the highest quality provider of products compared to

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our competitors within the region, so while we are not the cheapest option we are very quality focused and this has allowed us to supply big-name brands across several industries.”

Sapin currently manages four manufacturing facilities comprised of three plants within Saudi Arabia and a further factory in Dubai, which provides the company with greater logistical flexibility that allows the business to serve the entire Middle Eastern region.To further increase its effectiveness in reaching its customers, Sapin has also recently made a significant investment into the development of its new website with a view to eventually allow clients to interact with the business directly via the webpage. “Our new website has yet to go live at the time of writing because it is that new,” Saurabh exclaims. “However, we intend to go live with it over the coming weeks and our eventual aim is to further serve our clients through the website by making it easier for customers to access purchase orders and bills and so on.The full capability of this development is anticipated to be online within the next year. we recently won an Award for the ‘Best New Manufacturing Website’ during the 15th Pan Arab Awards for Excellence.The primary criteria for this was how ‘crisp’ the website is and how it is laid out in terms of logic, so it is very easy to navigate. Although we are a manufacturing company we wanted to

make the website completely uncomplicated and approachable by clients old and new.”

Throughout all of its operations Sapin is dedicated to acting with both corporate and social responsibility and presently holds ‘Platinum’ membership with the Emirates Wildlife Society in association with WWF, as the first private company within the region to do so. “We are proud of this achievement and we believe that environmental regulation is something that should become more important within the industry during the future and we want to be ahead of the curve as this happens,” Saurabh says. “We also maintain a lot of healthcare initiatives and are one of the biggest supporters of ‘Think Pink’, the Saudi Arabian campaign against breast cancer. We also support the Saudi National Guard and the Ministry of Health in their campaign against obesity.”

Although global trading conditions within a number of markets have been affected by the impact of the drop in oil price, Sapin continues to achieve positive performance across each of its key markets. “Market conditions at the moment are a little slow, largely due to the drop in oil prices,” Saurabh elaborates. “However different industries each react slightly differently, so food for example is a little erratic because of the interruption of exports to Iraq and Syria while paint is generally stable with slow but consistent growth. Aerosols are again a

little erratic due to the wider market being less stable, but our sales are certainly not bad despite the fact that trading conditions are relatively volatile throughout the Middle Eastern region.”

Sapin has built its success through delivering consistently high levels of quality in products and new designs in collaboration with industry leaders. “We work closely with our clients to develop new packaging products. For example, aluminium is an ‘unsung hero’ within the retail sector because it omnipresent - it really is everywhere,” Saurabh reveals. “But equally it has also been missing in some areas, therefore we worked in collaboration with Kraft to develop the world’s first aluminium cheese can.This might not sound like much but it is actually a very complicated process because all other cheese cans have to be opened with a can opener, but our design has an easy-peel lid and incorporates specially formulated lycra.This means that once the can is opened the cheese can easily slide out without the need of a further tool such a knife or other object.The design was subsequently recognised by a number of awards.”

on sustainable operation. “Operationally we have already gone paperless, we have migrated all of our administration procedures to electronic means. We have also stopped using disposable cups and our process is focused on using CNG, which is a cleaner fuel than petrol.

We aim in the future to also change our lighting to LED so when it comes to environmentally responsible operation we have taken the opening steps and are keen to continue in this direction,” Saurabh concludes. “While the low cost of oil and the political situation in Yemen, Syria and Iraq has created some instability, we are keen to remain market-leaders and to grow by at least ten per cent on 2015.”

Sapin Services: Throughout 2016 and beyond, Sapin will work to build on its market-leading position in the face of a challenging market, while expanding its focus

Pioneer in can manufacturing www.sapin.com

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Slaney Precision Limited

Precision without

limit Using its precision equipment, innovative approach and dedication to quality Slaney Precision Ltd’s mission is to create whatever components its customers require

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ince the business was founded on 6 June 2003, Slaney Precision Limited has established a reputation as a trusted Irish precision engineering business located near Ballycarney, Enniscorthy.

Today the company operates in accordance with its mission to manufacture the specific engineered products that its customers require in a wide range of materials, including steel, stainless steel, brass, phosphor brass, aluminium, plastics, polyoxymethylene (DelrinTM), nylon and copper. In 2012 Slaney Precision saw significant opportunities for growth through the ability to produce more complex parts than were then produced in Ireland and at lower cycle times.

Following a significant programme of research and investigation, the company identified a specialised CNC (Computer Numerical Controlled) machine that would ultimately allow the business to greatly increase its existing engineering capabilities.

The machine was the first of its kind in

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Ireland and because of the potential for it to generate greater service and job opportunities for the region, the Wexford Local Development organisation awarded a grant of €150,000 towards the machine’s purchase. The new CNC machine has allowed more detailed and cost-effective work to be undertaken, giving Slaney Precision a significant advantage in terms of both quality and service. Since capitalising on this investment the company has been able to complete orders for work that would have previously been outsourced to Asia and Eastern Europe, while delivering services that are unique in Ireland.

Today Slaney Precision maintains engineering capabilities that allow the company to manufacture anything from 5” to 65” diameter in a range of materials. Most of its machines have a C-Axis sub-spindle driven tool auto bar loader, which gives the option of running lights-out manufacture on suitable components.

With its C-Axis sub-spindle driven tool and auto

bar loader machines Slaney Precision can fully finish difficult parts in a single operation, which eliminates the need for secondary machining operations. These machines are able to turn, drill, mill, tap, bore, ream, screw and cut in one operation, which allows for extremely efficient manufacture. In recent years the company has continued to expand its manufacturing capabilities through the acquisition of a WT-150 twin-turret, twin-spindle turning centre from ETG Ireland.

Its comprehensive portfolio of manufacturing equipment has allowed Slaney Precision to develop a reputation as a leading Irish manufacturer of bespoke components to meet the technically demanding needs of its clients.

Slaney Precision provides precision engineering services to customers operating predominantly within the fields of oil and gas and general manufacturing. The company places customer service and the highest standards of engineering quality at the heart of its operations. As such

it began a programme of achieving ISO 9001 status during 2013 and was officially certified to ISO 9001:2008 during December 2014. The company’s dedication to delivering the highest quality in bespoke engineering solutions coupled with its on-going investment into advanced manufacturing techniques has given Slaney Precision a pioneering position within the Irish specialist project engineering segment. With a core of cutting-edge technology at its disposal, Slaney Precision is set to remain at the forefront of Ireland’s manufacturing sector well into 2016 and beyond.

Slaney Precision Limited Services: Specialist manufacturer www.slaneyprecision.ie

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Ransomes Jacobsen

Strimming along

nicely

A pioneer in turf care, Ransomes Jacobsen boasts an unrivalled understanding of turf maintenance and a strong reputation for quality, innovation and green initiatives

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ith innovation at the very core of its activities since its inception in 1789, Ipswich headquartered Ransomes Jacobsen has produced a number of the industry’s most important firsts over the years; these include the world’s first lawn mower in 1832, the first steam plough in 1856, the first petrol lawn mower in 1920 and the first self-propelled high work rate ride-on triple mower in 1974. More recent innovations for the firm include the first hybrid pedestrian greens mower in 2007 and the first hybrid ride-on greens mower in 2009 as well as the first triplex mini flail mower in 2013.

“Ransomes Jacobsen’s long history begins in 1789 when Robert Ransome invested the princely sum of £200 and started an iron foundry business in Ipswich, Suffolk, manufacturing plough shares for the local farming community. It was 40 years later in August 1830 that Edwin Beard Budding lodged the patent for the world’s first lawnmower, and, in 1932, Ransomes built the ‘Budding Patent’ under licence from the inventor. The way grass was maintained was thus changed forever,” begins Managing Director of Ransomes Jacobsen Alan Prickett. “Today, thanks to an unrivalled

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understanding of turf maintenance equipment, we are trusted to maintain some of the world’s most prestigious fine turf areas; these include palace lawns, legendary golf courses, cemeteries, stadia monuments and football pitches, the latter of which includes those at numerous FIFA World Cups.”

Thanks to strong industry knowledge and longterm experience, Ransomes Jacobsen operates in 28 countries across the globe and has an enviable portfolio of products available to customers; these include rotary mowers, remote controlled mowers, golf cars, utility vehicles, tractors, blowers, bunker rakes, aerators and sod cutters. Recent additions to the portfolio include the Jacobsen MP493 and MP653 rotary mowers, which are ideal for maintaining large parts of semi-rough and rough areas on golf courses and on municipal maintenance contracts. Powered by rugged and reliable 49hp and 65hp Kubota diesel engines respectively, the two rotary mowers also feature three all new rotary decks, one out-front and two wing decks.

As the lightest mower in its class, the Jacobsen MP493 will benefit from significant fuel savings thanks to its reduced weight. Additionally, the

mower complies with European Stage IIIA emission regulations thanks to the direct injection 49hp Kubota Diesel engine, therefore avoiding complex emission controls. The mower’s maintenance free direct drive decks, which are manufactured from high steel strength, offer customers a choice of width when it comes to cut options to enable the highest productivity in all environment.

Meanwhile, Jacobsen’s SureTrac four-wheel drive control system ensures superior traction when climbing or cutting side slopes, while four-wheel drive in reverse ensures surefootedness when reversing uphill.

As the more powerful 65hp version of the MP, Jacobsen MP653 has the latest European Stage IIB turbo-charged common rail diesel engine, which provides customers with cleaner running and the ability to use advanced electronics for more precise control. On top of this, the Jacobsen MP653 has enough residual power to support a fully air-conditioned cab and boasts three selectable drive modes: automatic, manual and creep. Automatic mode has a fuel saving system activated when the machine comes to a stop to reduce fuel consumption, while manual disables all automatic functions so the mower reacts and

drives like a standard mechanical over hydraulic drive machine. Creep, meanwhile, disables the cutting units and reduces the transport speed to eight kilometres per hour, which is ideal for those wanting to manoeuver in tight areas such as workshops or loading ramps. “Aimed at the municipal and golf markets, the new product has replaced a previous machine

that had been in the range for many years and its launch has generated sales at three times the previous levels. Our engineering team has done a great job that leverages new technologies in the control and operation areas, while our ISC team managed to integrate a complex project in line with tight launch timeframes. This machine adds new levels of productivity due to a wide range of

cutting widths and engine options,� says Alan.

A more recent product to be launched is the all-new HR700 wide-area mower, which features an industry-first 14 foot wide cutting width that enables it to cut up to 25 per cent more grass than traditional 11-foot rotary mowers. Launched in February 2016, the HR700 wide-area rotary mower combines the manoeuvrability and agility of a smaller mower with the productivity of a 14-foot cutting width, which will allow turf managers to mow up to 13 acres an hour.

This wide-ranging portfolio has enabled the company to accumulate a customer base that is split into three key categories: golf courses and golf resorts, municipal grounds maintenance departments and the groundscare contractors that serve them; the company also serves high-end homeowners. Although this diversification has enabled the company to remain strong financially, the company is currently facing some headwinds due to issues such as exchange rates and government cut backs, as Alan continues: “In terms of market conditions, austerity in the public sector is probably our biggest challenge at present, with many grounds maintenance budgets being cut back.

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Ransomes Jacobsen

Furthermore, growth in the golf market, which previous was evident for many years, has now slowed; this development has provided us with another challenge to maintain growth.

However, on the other end of the scale, we do see significant growth in the Asia Pacific region in the golf sector and continue to build our business down there with a team based in China, Singapore and Australia.”

To remain profitable during these economic difficulties in the market, Alan says Ransomes Jacobsen is continuing with its R&D programme, which will result in new innovations: “The objective is always to bring products to the market that leverage new technologies as well as manufacturing techniques and materials, which will ensure we not only remain competitive in the global market, but also satisfy our customers’ needs. A good example of product development is our Eclipse range of hybrid greens mowers, which completely remove potentially damaging hydraulic oil from the machines and guarantee the best possible cut on golf greens.”

Through ongoing innovation and product development, the grass will always be greener for Ransomes Jacobsen as customers from across the world seek out optimum quality solutions from the highly experienced and customer-orientated firm.

Ransomes Jacobsen Ltd. Products: Turf maintenance equipment

http://jacobsen.com

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Speedboard Assembly Services

Speedboard’s Selective Soldering line is used for complex doublesided, mixed-technology PCB assembly projects

Full speed

ahead

In a fast moving and competitive market, Speedboard attributes its success to its collaborative approach to business and its investment in manufacturing equipment that ensures consistently high quality

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tarting life as a bare-board manufacturer in 1983, Speedboard tackled its first Contract Electronics Manufacture (CEM) assembly project in 1988; for a then pioneering developer of electronic personal organisers. Today, the CEM is renowned for supporting its customers in hightech sectors - such as communications, defence, industrial, medical and security – by adding value to outsourcing arrangements.

In FY 2014-15, the company turned over £9.23 million, its best year on record and up 24 per cent on the previous year; a remarkable achievement in a market that, according to the latest Plimsoll Summary Analysis report on UK Contract Electronics Manufacturing, only grew four per cent over the same period. So what is the secret of Speedboard’s success?

The company’s CEM activities fall broadly into two categories, as Managing Director Neil Owen explains: “The first is printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) work, and our investment in the latest manufacturing techniques and equipment enables us to tackle increasingly complex projects.

Some of the work is traditional build-to-print but increasingly we are working closer to our

customers’ engineers on both Design for Test (DFT) and Design for Manufacture (DFM) issues.

The second main activity is final assembly. For some customers this can also include packaging and shipping product to their customers.”

Speedboard has all of the standard manufacturing equipment you would expect of

a traditional CEM, including five Surface Mount Technology (SMT) lines which, between comprise 15 Siemens SiPlace machines. The company also has a variety of standard test capabilities, offers Kanban stock holding and operates a Quality Management System which is BSI-certified as being compliant with ISO 9001.

The Five Directors. Left to right: Karen Heath (Supply Chain Director), Nick Fairhead (Sales & Marketing Director), Neil Owen (Managing Director and co-owner), Martin Bullimore (Operations Director) and Richard Watson (Financial Director and co-owner)

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A key differentiator between Speedboard and the vast majority of UK-based CEMs is that the company’s owners were previously customers of the company. This has instilled an extremely customer-focused approach to business and is reflected in its high customer retention rate.

Speedboard’s longest standing customer has been working with the CEM for over 23 years. Staff retention is high too. Neil comments: “Some of our key staff have been with us since our bareboard days in the early 1980s. Impressive in its own right but that’s also great expertise for any CEM to have in-house.”

Another differentiator is Speedboard’s willingness to invest in manufacturing equipment, and the associated training of personnel. In the last 18 months alone, Speedboard has invested a CAPEX value of around £200,000 in two additional manufacturing techniques.

The first investment was a Vapour Phase oven.

Compared to traditional convection reflow soldering, Vapour Phase affords much better control and stability over the entire soldering process, irrespective of variations in the board’s thermal mass. During the process, the PCB is suspended in the vapour of a boiling, inert liquid (which has a boiling point slightly higher than the solder reflow temperature). The PCB physically cannot become hotter than the vapour, thus minimising the risk of over-cooking heat-sensitive components.

The second investment was in a Selective Soldering line; ideal for tackling increasingly

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complex double-sided, mixed technology PCB assembly projects. The process has much in common with wave soldering but components are soldered on a pin-by-pin basis and without disturbing pre-placed neighbouring components.

Neil comments: “Both investments were made in light of the increasing complexity of PCB assemblies and to ensure we deliver consistently high quality.”

Speedboard’s success is not just down to its investment in manufacturing equipment, though.

Neil stresses that the CEM-customer engagement model must be mutually beneficial if both parties are to grow their respective businesses. “We firmly believe that the traditional outsourcing arrangement model, which is transactional based, is no longer able to produce win-win situations for the customer and the CEM. Instead, the engagement model needs to be collaborative, and more akin to how an OEM engages with its in-house shop floor. This is particularly the case where new product introductions are concerned and if continuous improvements are to be made.”

Proof of the ‘more collaborative’ relationship between CEM and customer working, and producing great results, is Speedboard’s recent receipt of an Outstanding Customer Service award from motion capture specialist Vicon Motion Systems Ltd. The award recognises how the CEM rose to both technical and logistical challenges during the launch of Vicon’s latest camera, Vantage, in 2015.

“A Vantage camera comprises three circuit

Above: The strobe board for Vicon’s Vantage camera is a metal-backed substrate, thus ruling out assembly using a convection reflow oven for fear of damaging heat-sensitive components. Speedboard’s solution was to use its Vapour Phase oven

Below: Assembled PCBAs and associated interface cables are built into a 1U 19” rack, ready for integration into a larger system

Speedboard Assembly Services

A Vocality BASIC radio is packaged prior to shipment to the customer. Packaging materials are managed on a min-max basis so as to integrate with Speedboard’s Kanban system

boards,” explains Neil, “all of which present significant manufacturing challenges. Its processor board is complex by virtue of having 16 layers, 800 PTH vias, 6,500 blind/buried vias and more than 30 BGA-packaged devices. Its strobe board is a metal backed single layer substrate, ruling out traditional convection reflow and warrants Vapour Phase. Lastly, the camera’s sensor board is a mixed-technology PCBA, dominated by a high-end, through-hole sensor device with several hundred pins and a tight pitch. For that we recommended Selective Soldering.”

Regarding the logistical challenges, one included addressing Vicon’s concerns over outsourcing so much work to a single CEM, as Speedboard is also responsible for the manufacture of another of Vicon’s popular camera ranges. Speaking at the award presentation, CEO of Vicon, Imogen Moorhouse, said: “Whilst outsourcing so much to a single CEM may seem risky to some, we enjoy a particularly open and trustworthy relationship with Speedboard and we have a variety of jointlydeveloped business risk reduction measures in

place that enable both parties to focus on their key areas of expertise. During the development of Vantage, we were able to treat Speedboard as if they were our own shop floor, and we do not believe any other CEM could have supported us in this way.” Speedboard also coped with a last-minute 50 per cent increase to already demanding launch quantities.

Also key to the successful launch of Vantage was the use of Speedboard’s New Product

Introduction (NPI) model. It extends beyond a typical build-to-print scenario by including an early review of the Bill of Material, the securing of long lead items (which can often be a governing factor in how quickly a product can reach market) and considerable DFT and DFM guidance. “These days, NPIs require a very open book policy,” says Neil, “as it is only through the sharing of information and allowing the CEM to contribute its expertise as soon as possible that realistic launch dates can be set and hit.”

Speedboard sees collaborative engagements as the way forward and has recently formed dedicated customer teams to support this. Each team is responsible for supporting a number of customers, and the allocation of customers to a team is based on a variety of factors such as product complexity, assembly complexity and whether or not box-build (final assembly) is required. Continuous quality improvement is on the agenda too, and Speedboard has signed up to the SC21 supply-chain improvement programme.

“We’re not resting on our laurels,” says Neil, “we’re on track for our turnover hitting the £10 million mark this year and we want to hit £15 million within the next five. How will we do this? We’re setting our stalls out to become ‘the CEM partner of choice’ for complex, demanding projects – and we envisage that the majority of the engagements with our customers will soon be collaborative, virtual shop floor type arrangements.”

Speedboard Assembly Services Products: • PCB Assembly • Final Assembly • New Product Introductions • Full Lifecycle

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Tronrud Engineering

Redefining manufacturing in

Industrial Automation With more than 5000 projects completed since 1977, Tronrud Engineering AS has developed a strong reputation as a leading provider of cutting-edge technology and specialised engineering solutions

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ounded by Ola Tronrud in 1977, in a workshop that was based on the ground floor of his house (Ringerike county), the Norwegian firm Tronrud Engineering remained a one-man business for seven years before Ola bought a new property to serve as the company premises in Hole County (Norway). From then on, the company saw extensive expansions – both in terms of acquiring larger and well-equipped production facilities as well as the increasing number of manufacturing projects that it was undertaking.

In 2011, the company relocated to Ringerike county and celebrated having its entire operations consolidated at one address - Eggemoen. And the company then began operating out of two brand new buildings with an area totaling 12,000 cubic metres.

Tronrud Engineering offers customised industrial products and technical solutions to a wide range of sectors including secondary packaging, defence, telecom, healthcare, oil and gas, maritime,

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aviation, wood-processing, automotive, recycling, energy and environment, food and beverages, photovoltaics and textiles. The company has also acquired a special competence in rendering services. They undertake both internal and external R&D assignments, machining through an optimal combination of manual and CNC controlled machines, programming of PLC, PC control, servo systems and databases, and design and assembly of a range of products. Tronrud Engineering also conducts steel and aluminium welding, water jet cutting and steel sheet work. The company’s core business, however, can primarily be categorised as ‘product development’ and ‘specialised machinery and standard products’.

Standing by its motto of ‘Putting Ideas into Practice’, Tronrud Engineering offers an ideal setting for innovation and optimisation. As a part of its product development capabilities, the company offers prototyping, R&D, mock-up possibilities with fast and in-house assembly and testing, design and engineering, software development, production and

assembly and complete production lines. During the design and development stages, the company employs advanced equipment and technologies such as additive manufacturing, which is a process by which digital 3D data is used to form a component - layer by layer - through the use of materials available in a fine powdered form. This technique enables creating products with increased design flexibility, lightweight yet stable construction; and the possibilities for rapid prototyping and mass customisation. Much of the specialised machinery that Tronrud Engineering offers started off as designs on the drawing board in its product development wing.

The company also manufactures standard off-the-shelf products that include secondary packaging machinery such as the TCP 160 (Case and Tray Packer), NCP 400 (Unique Compression Packer) and WP 3000 (Wrap Around Case Packer); the automated pallet label applicator LabelEx 255B, the TE Titan suppressor, the TC2 (a digital Jacquard loom), wax applicator machine,

Speedex (packaging machine) and machinery for proof coin production.

Since its inception, the company has completed more than 5000 projects and successfully met the needs of thousands of customers in different sectors across the globe. In fact, the history of Tronrud Engineering – in many ways – mirrors the manner in which industry has evolved in Norway, with the company’s main customers originally coming from the mobile phone and photovoltaic sectors. Following this, the company took on projects within the growing oil and gas sector as well as medical projects. More recently, the company has taken up projects catering to the food packaging industry. But over the years, the company’s regular customers have been the automotive and air & space industries.

Key to Tronrud Engineering’s foray into the food industry is its acquisition of NOR-REG Systems AS - a developer and manufacturer of machinery in the highly specialised area of end-of-line packaging automation - in August 2015. The acquisition not only involved taking over all of NOR-REG Systems’ existing assets, intellectual property, patents and technology, but also taking on personnel from the firm. With the food industry at the heart of NOR-REG Systems’ expertise for more than 30 years, the company has developed packaging machinery for products such as dairy, frozen foods, fruits and vegetables, confectionary, tea and coffee, beverages, pet food and snacks. The company has extensive experience in handling both primary and secondary packaging at high speeds. With this strategic takeover, Tronrud Engineering aims to build on some of NOR-REG Systems’ technology and also become a reliable partner for the delivery of secondary packing machines to both existing and new customers of NOR-REG Systems.

Making sure these aims are met is Rune Nordby, Sales and Marketing Director of Tronrud Engineering AS, who joined the company in October 2015. “Since joining the company, my focus has been the acquisition of NOR-REG Systems and the integration of this company and its products into ours, so that we can meet the needs of the food industry across the globe.

This acquisition has not only ensured that we maintain a stable project delivery, but will also increase the turnover by taking up more projects and diversification of our customer base. Our expansion into the food industry has been into the meat, fish, dairy and snack sectors. In line with this development, we have focused on R&D, particularly for the fish industry, which of course requires the development of special machinery,” he comments. “We are currently looking at exploring new markets in the food and snack industry with these new system machines. The food industry is still a new market for us and we are looking forward to developing further in this sector.”

Having diversified its market presence and strengthened operations, Tronrud Engineering

aims to continue delivering optimum solutions to customers. Rune speaks of the road ahead: “We are currently involved in a lot of new projects in varied sectors - oil and gas, food industry, healthcare to name a few. We have recently entered into a contract with Pepsi Co., a leading American brand with a global presence within the snack food and beverage industry. As a part of this project, we are making packaging machines for their plants. We have also made some special machinery for Norsk Titanium, who will be an important customer for us over the coming years.

We are producing three 3D additive manufacturing machines to help them meet the increasing demand from a number of leading commercial aerospace and defence manufacturers.”

With its staff numbers increasing from 128

to 156 over the last eight months, this dynamic company is all set to deal with the influx in demand for its products and services over the coming years. “It is all about providing quality, affordability and reliable solutions and services to our customers. By continuing to lead the way when it comes to technology and service, we not only give our customers a competitive advantage in the market, but also increased profitability,” Rune concludes.

Tronrud Engineering AS Products/Services:

Supplier of specialised machinery www.tronrud.no

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Orbit One AB

The full circuit With roots dating back as far as the 1960s, Orbit One is today one of Scandinavia’s leading contract manufacturers of printed circuit boards, packaged electronics and electromechanics

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ince the business was founded as HGL in 1995, Orbit One AB has rapidly grown to represent one of Scandinavia’s largest specialist companies in the manufacture of circuit boards, unit-assembled electronics and electromechanics. Today the business is a globally leading supplier of contract electronics and systems supplier to a diverse range of industry sectors including Medical devices, Infrastructure, Clean Tech and Media.

During the early life of the business it was owned by international manufacturers including Ericsson, Nokia, ICL and SEC before the company was acquired through a management buyout by Christer Malm and current CEO, Mats Johansson in 2003 and finally renamed from HGL to Orbit One AB in 2004.

Today Orbit One is able to offer customised solutions through the entire value chain, including design, prototype, purchasing, production, testing, logistics and aftermarket services. The business currently employs some 670 members of staff that are deployed throughout its production units in Ronneby and Stockholm in Sweden and further units in Poland and Russia. “During the time of the management buyout the company owned a single factory in Ronneby in the south of Sweden with a staff of 100 employees and a turnover in the region of €12 million. Since then we have continued to develop the business and through the recent acquisition of a company named Flex (the former Flextronics unit in Ronneby, Sweden), we have reached a turnover of €100 million,” reveals CEO Mats Johansson. “In almost every year

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since Christer and myself took over the business something significant has happened within the business and it has enjoyed good organic growth over the years. I have recently taken over as CEO, while Christer has retired and Orbit One has continued to grow rapidly. The main sectors for the company at present are currently general industry and healthcare but IT, telecoms and media applications are also very significant markets as well.”

Orbit One acquired the Flex (formerly Flextronics) manufacturing unit in Ronneby during November 2015. The site was focused on manufacturing and logistics services for electronics in the industrial and infrastructural segments. The acquisition allowed Orbit One to

retain former Flex employees and allowed the company to become one of Scandinavia’s largest contract manufacturers, while Flex will continue to operate its design and engineering centres in Sweden, which were not part of the deal. “This was a large and strategically important acquisition.

Orbit One is strengthening its position in a tough and competitive market where consolidation is a condition for continued competitiveness and growth. The two companies complement each other very well and we will grow stronger through the merger and can thus both improve and deepen our offering to the market. The business in Ronneby is only 200 metres from Orbit One’s unit where we have both our headquarters and a manufacturing facility. Our intention is to continue to develop both operations’ activities, integrate processes and take advantage of the resources and the expertise available. Swedish industrial expertise is internationally acknowledged and we want to take advantage of and develop this offering,” Mats says. “We have been working very hard since November 2015 and have recently moved SMT production to one site and we are now working with full integration. The big advantage of the consolidation is that it is helping us to move in areas like Poland and Russia. We are expanding the potential of the whole group with these big acquisitions, so it is something that is really very positive for the entire company. We also have good strengths in other fields that all fit together very well, not simply from a customer perspective but also in terms of competence.”

The success of Orbit One in recent years and

the importance of the acquisition of Flex to the business is demonstrated by the fact the company has increased its employee base by 220 people in the past 12 months alone. Over the coming years, Orbit One will continue to focus on the integration of Flex into the business and on furthering its presence in the global market. “We are working with a lot of international companies like Atlas Copco and Siemens and a huge range of well-known businesses across our portfolio. We have a broad base of product applications, which is an important strength for the company as it means that if the market changes in one area we will have other customers that can act as a balance. I think that the market remains very difficult to predict.

Within the Scandinavian region during 2011-2014 for example, there was a dramatic drop in turnover and profit throughout the industry, which made some consolidation necessary. The more positive news is that electronics are becoming increasing present in all kinds of devices today. From that perspective the market is very interesting and growing with new technologies being introduced everyday,” Mats concludes. “We are very aggressive on the market right now and are meeting a lot of clients, while at the same time we are working on the integration. We now have 18,000m2 of production in Ronneby (total space is around 30,000 sqm) space and we want to move all of our

production under one roof. We are also looking to upgrade our other sites with some assets and over the long term we would like to continue to have good organic growth and will also look at the possibility of becoming a public company within the next three to four years.”

Orbit One AB Products: Printed circuit boards, packaged electronics and electromechanics www.orbitone.se

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KMP PrintTechnik AG

A strong

footprint Since its foundation in 1988 in Eggenfelden, Bavaria, by Heinz G. Sieg, KMP PrintTechnik AG (KMP) has grown into one of the European market leaders in the supply of compatible printer consumables

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riginally focused on ribbon production, the 600 employee strong KMP PrintTechnik AG (KMP) today offers a vast range of printer supplies to customers while operating under the experienced direction of Heinz G. Sieg and his son, Jan-Michael Sieg. Proud to be a family business with tradition and a forward thinking approach to business, CEO Jan-Michael Sieg discusses the reasons behind KMP’s success: “Our strengths lie in the exceptional quality of our products as well as the quick time it takes for us to deliver products to the market; we also have a wide product range, which is a great advantage for us. On top of this, our brand name of KMP is strong in Europe and particularly in Germany; known as KMP Classic, this range consists of our ink and toner products.

“Another integral part of our success is the development of new products, which stems from market analysis on different printer devices or other products; this work involves looking into a new product and possible market shares before we create a new product for said printer in

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Apple watch stand

Germany with support from development and production colleagues in the Czech Republic. It is ultimately about evaluating an upcoming product and working out whether it is a good product for our B-2-B customers or our industrial customers and then creating a product for this item. In 2015 alone we launched 400 new products.”

Having embraced the new laser and inkjet printing technologies at the right time, the company has developed a strong reputation and long-term experience in modern printing, with the majority of its revenue now earned from ink and toner cartridges. Tested for absolute reliability via 11-step quality control and numerous independent tests, the company creates first-class products by using high-quality pigment and dye based inks to ensure high colour accuracy, reliable performance and consistency.

Viewed as the perfect alternative, inks and toners from KMP work perfectly in printers and are as colour-intensive and glossy as inks and toners from the original manufacturers; this cost advantage is further increased thanks to KMP’s commitment to recycling and remanufacturing

many of its inkjet and toner cartridges, which not only lowers long distance transportation but also reduces each customer’s carbon footprint.

On top of this, the company doesn’t use harmful substances, which also helps protect workers, customers and the environment.

“There is a big trend coming up in Europe, one of which involves the EU and the circular economy, which is where we keep resources for as long as possible through re-use before recycling. Although recycling is a big part of our production, this is a task we are working on to fulfil the government’s requirements while also helping our customers to re-use their carbon footprint too. For example, if you use one of our XXL toner cartridges, you can save up to 50 percent of printing costs and conserve resources.

We want our customers to be aware about the opportunities that our products offer them when it comes to reducing their carbon footprint or enhancing their environmental balance sheet,” explains Jan-Michael.

Alongside these continuing developments in toner cartridges, inkjet cartridges, ribbons, franking supplies, large format ink and thermal transfer ribbons, KMP has also been developing a recently launched series of innovative products for the protection and care of Apple products, as Jan-Michael comments: “This is a complete range of products to protect your Apple Mac, iPad, iPod, Apple watch and so on and is aimed customers who have a service team of sales reps or technical staff that are always on the go.”

Products within this range include a watch stand, which boasts a stylish and innovative German design and high stability due to its aluminium base.

Suitable for all watch versions, the stand also has an innovative cable guideline that prevents the knotting of the cable and good operability of the watch, even when it is charging.

Other products in the Apple series include a protective case for MacBooks (Air 11/13, Pro 13/15, MacBook 12”), which is shock-absorbing, light and flexible; easy to attach due to snap-on closures and ensures access to all ports. KMP has also created a protective glass case/cooling case for the iPhone6 and 6Plus, which prevents heat radiation and boasts a simple, elegant design.

Furthermore, a high-quality Protective Skin with a

patented solution is included in the new portfolio.

Continuing with its trend for meeting market needs, the company is also adding sleeves for the iPad and iPhone and further accessories for upcoming iPhones.

In line with these developments the company has continually invested in new manufacturing equipment to ensure ongoing innovation. As Jan notes: “We recently invested in new CNC lines and filling machines; this is a necessary part of our success. If we are going to launch hundreds of high quality products every year, we must invest in new production lines or completely new machines. It is our goal to stay strong in the

market and grow in the ink and toner branch; however, our main challenge is to grow the new brand KMP Creative Lifestyle Products, and reach the same level of brand awareness that we have achieved with KMP Classic line (inks and toners).”

KMP PrintTechnik AG Products: Protective products for Apple and printer supplies www.kmp.com/en/home.html

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Brafe Engineering

Casting

call

Brafe Engineering has become a leading UK manufacturer of high-specification special alloy castings thanks to adapting to market trends and the ability to deliver a complete service solution to customers

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ince its foundation in 1966, Brafe Engineering has diversified its activities over 50 years to become a leading manufacturer of precision engineering castings globally. This commitment to continued improvement when it comes to technical expertise and investment in facilities has enabled the company to gain strong knowledge in more than 250 advanced grade alloys, including Hastelloy, Monel and Duplex Stainless Steels, as well as delivering a single service solution to customers in a broad range of industries. In fact, clients of Brafe Engineering range from those within the oil and chemical industries, to those operating in the petrochemical, marine, food processing, environmental control and paper and pulp sectors.

By offering this complete service solution to clients - which covers everything from consultation through to design, casting, machining, quality control and certification - with an industry leading turnaround of critical components, the company has developed an excellent reputation for reliability and flexibility. This way of working is attractive to clients who are seeking out one key manufacturing partner as opposed to working with a network of organisations.

Recent projects that have allowed Brafe Engineering to demonstrate its manufacturing capability include the Umm Lulu development

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project in Abu Dhabi, a major oil and gas project that involved three of the company’s big customers operating in the supply of flow products. Other projects involving blue chip organisations include the Ichthys LNG project and the Hebron Project for Exxon Mobil.

One key factor to the company’s success is modern and well-equipped facilities, which include a precision sand and Repliwax (investment) foundry, a high specification machine shop with full CNC and manual machining capabilities. With the capacity to cast up to 2500kgs gross weight in a wide range of advanced materials, the specialised

silicate sand foundry with induction melting furnaces enables Brafe Engineering to focus on casting with a high mix – low volume approach, which is supported by full traceability and quality assurance to meet the growing needs of its clients.

Discussing recent challenges within the industry, Business Development Manager of Brafe Engineering Adam Dalby states: “There has been a huge increase in the level of expectation for our customers, with the key demands being lead time, cost and quality. The expectation of improving quality and performance while lowering lead times and costs is a difficult paradox to understand.

Despite this, we are seeking to tackle this increased expectation by investing in the skills of our employees; this is something we see as paramount to us performing as a business that meets our customers’ requirements.”

Alongside this focus on enhancing the skills of its personnel, Brafe Engineering is also seeking to tackle the challenge of skills shortages in the manufacturing sector by taking on a number of aspiring engineers through apprenticeship programmes. “We are taking necessary steps with regards to apprenticeship programmes across the factory and are actively recruiting people with the skills we require to satisfy our long term strategy of staying abreast of key technological developments. With the industry ever improving

with developments such as 3D printing and 5-axis CNC machining, we need to be ready to react as quickly as possible to the advantages which these technologies provide to those in the manufacturing industry,” explains Adam.

While investing in its people is integral when it comes to the future success of Brafe Engineering, this is just one area that the company is focused on. Known as the ‘3-P’s’: plant, people and process, the company believes that continually investing in these parts of the business will ensure its competitive position is maintained.

So far this way of operating has proven fruitful for Brafe Engineering, with the company announcing it has added more than £500,000 to its turnover over the last 12 months in April 2015. Backed by support from the Business Growth Service’s Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS), the company made a number of improvements to processes to better position itself for the £60 billion that has been invested in civil nuclear new builds in the UK. Improvements within the business include the development of a formal training programme for all inspectors and production operatives in the company, enhanced CMM calibration arrangements and a system that demonstrates capability to customers and third parties. Although 95 per cent of its output is exported, these developments have opened a wealth of opportunities to Brafe Engineering that are a little closer to home.

Following these improvements, Brafe Engineering was introduced to Fit for Nuclear (F4N), an initiative that offers a business improvement journey that identifies strategy and implement new processes. On top of this, F4N secures necessary accreditations and provides supplier matching opportunities, which will further enable Brafe Engineering to tap into the growing nuclear sector.

In line with this trend for improvement, Brafe Engineering is preparing for the future with its extended premises. Due for completion in May 2016, the move into an additional location will

open a new chapter for the highly successful and adaptable firm as it continues to meet the demands of its customers while operating in a range of evolving and challenging industries.

Brafe Engineering Products: High quality castings and fully machined parts www.brafe-engineering.co.uk

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Carrs of Sheffield

Hallmark of

distinction

With 40 years of industry experience, Carrs Silver represents a leading name in high-quality, British-made silverware and cutlery

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perating from the UK’s fifth largest city, Sheffield-based Carrs Silver has a prestigious history that dates back to 1976 when the former production engineer Ron Carr established a business as a self-employed jeweller, producing hand crafting silver jewellery designs.

Carrs of Sheffield Limited was incorporated soon after in 1977, during the same year as the Silver Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The rapidly expanding business moved into its first industrial premises, where it continued to produce an increasingly large range of silver jewellery and commemorative products.

By 1992 Carrs was ready to move to its newly built 80,000 sq. ft. premises from where it immediately began planning for further product development and expansion. The company began manufacturing a comprehensive range of cutlery patterns and tradition silverware products throughout 1994, which rapidly became a much sought-after line with customers globally. The

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following year the company opened prestigious retail concessions in London’s Harrods and Selfridges department stores and by 1996 Carrs silverware could be purchased from high-end retailers in over 50 countries around the world.

Throughout the opening decades of the 21st century the significance of Carrs, its silverware and cutlery brands has continued to grow.

“I am proud to be able to say that Carrs is now the largest silver giftware and cutlery manufacturer in the UK,” reveals Managing Director, Richard Carr. “We have however grown from a humble beginning, expanding from a workshop rented for £2 per week to a purpose-built state-of-the-art factory of over 100,000 sq. ft., plus satellite units and a number of sub-contractors. This has been the result of almost four decades worth of effort, enterprise and lifetime dedicated to making top class products for a worldwide clientele.”

In 2009 Carrs Silver purchased Osborne Tableware, one of Sheffield’s oldest and most respected cutlery producers with a heritage of

more than 300 years encompassing unique style and a comprehensive range of iconic patterns. The Osborne Collection has a soul and charm that is unlike anything else and offers clients seeking the finest quality in a wide choice of both traditional contemporary designs in electro plated nickel silver (EPNS) and sterling silver, some of which can also be further enhanced with fine gold. Today like other lines in the company’s comprehensive collection of silverwares, The Osborne Collection is available through the Carrs concession within The Silver Room at London’s prestigious Harrods department store, as well as through Selfridges and other key stockists throughout the UK. “The acquisition of the assets of the Osborne Group, the largest cutlery-blanks manufacturing organisation in Britain, has given us access to what is believed to be the most comprehensive range of cutlery patterns to be found anywhere in the world, with an incredible archive of hundreds of cutlery patterns spanning over three centries,” Richard elaborates. “Today our range embraces

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the most comprehensive variety of silverware manufactured in the United Kingdom, backed up by a young design team that ensures that we stay at the forefront of fashion whilst still reflecting the very best of British traditions and craftsmanship.

One of the keys to our success has been that of self-sufficiency, so much so that silver is melted, cast and rolled at one end of the factory and emerges at the other as a finished product. Woodworking and cutlery manufacturing divisions, together with the first in-house hallmarking operation, provided by the Sheffield Assay Office complete a unique self-contained manufacturing facility.”

Presently Carrs exports to more than 80 countries globally, with export revenues representing over 50 per cent of the company’s turnover. “We have a very varied client base that extends across the globe. In the UK, which is our strongest market, we supply silver giftware to over 800 top quality high street jewellers who promote the Carrs brand. We also have long standing relationships with many of the large multi-channel retailers in the UK. America is our biggest single export market where we supply many large well-established multi-channel retailers along with a selection of boutique tabletop stores in many of the major cities. Other important export markets for us include Asia, the Middle East and of course Europe,” Richard says. “The highest revenue generating lines are from our sterling silver giftware collection. The product categories are focused around photograph frames, children’s gifts, and barware and gents accessories.”

With a unique manufacturing process that merges traditional techniques with the latest technology, Carrs operates from a self-sufficient

“The luxury hospitality market it currently a major target area for future growth, with a main focus on cutlery, in stainless steel, silver plated and even sterling silver. The luxury hospitality market is a much larger business segment than the silverware retail market that is currently our main business, so developing our brand within this new market is a very exciting prospect for Carrs,” Richard concludes. “In terms of our vision for the next few years, obviously we hope for a larger share of the hospitality market and we would like to see the other aspects of the Carrs business continue to progress. We are committed to bringing younger people into the manufacturing side of the business and training them in the traditional and modern techniques we preach here at Carrs of Sheffield.” foundation that allows the company to be in almost total control when it comes to managing deadlines and meeting the standards of its demanding client base. These strengths combined with its exemplary history in the manufacture of exquisite silverware will be defining factors for Carrs as the company seeks to continue its growth into new markets globally over the coming years.

Carrs of Sheffield Products: Designer and producer of hand crafted siverware and cutlery www.carrs-silver.co.uk

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FANUC UK

A new era for

automation

Having merged its robotics, controls and machine tools divisions into one building in 2015, FANUC UK has enjoyed 20 per cent growth on the previous financial year

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art of the global FANUC organisation, FANUC UK has developed a strong reputation for providing groundbreaking industrial automation and robotic solutions to a diverse range of customers. Operating from its Coventry based facility, which is used as a single customer support portal for its three core businesses, the company pushes the boundaries of innovation in its supply of high quality products. From CNC controllers, lasers, robots, machining centres, wire EDM, injection moulding machines to fully integrated factory automation systems, FANUC UK has versatile technologies to suit every manufacturing process.

Keen to enhance synergy, FANUC UK integrated three of its divisions into one at FANUC UK in 2015, which resulted in the company announcing a sales increase of 20 per cent on the previous year. With total control and flexibility over its products, systems and automation projects, the company then turned its

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attentions to training engineers across the board in all areas of the business to further bolster growth when it comes to services/spares and machine sales. These developments have clearly proven fruitful for FANUC UK, with the company undertaking its first major automation cell incorporating both robotics and machine tools.

This installation consisting of nine robots and nine machine tools was ordered as a single source solution for an automotive supplier, this landmark project played an integral role in the company’s successful 2015.

“We had a strong second half of 2015, with steady growth in all areas of the business,” says Tom Bouchier, Managing Director at FANUC UK. “The main growth has been in injection moulding on the special purpose machines side of our operations; we have gone from ten units a year to 100 units this year on the RoboShot machine range, which is a significant increase. The robots have also witnessed strong growth, with an estimated 30 per cent of the market share coming from robots in 2015. One reason for this growth is the fact manufacturing is returning to the UK, which is fantastic; there is a real feeling of buoyancy in the industry.”

Following this strong performance in all areas of the business, FANUC UK is now preparing to move to larger premises in line with the group’s investment programme for continued expansion across the globe, as Tom notes: “We’re currently at the stage of signing a contract and hope to be in the building by February 2017. The new location is at the Technology Park in Ansty, on the outskirts of Coventry and will be four times the size of our current premises.”

Alongside these developments, the company has also had a change in management. Previous Managing Director Chris Sumner is now focusing his attentions on the group’s goal of delivering the best response times in the industry, and he will

be facilitating this new strategy across 17 offices in Europe. “It is FANUC’s philosophy that service comes first, which is why we are working on informing people of our capabilities as a systems provider that can provide full turnkey automation

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FANUC UK SCHUNK GmbH & Co. KG SCHUNK GmbH & Co. KG of Lauffen/Neckar is a German family-owned company and global player in one. The company was founded in 1945 by Friedrich Schunk as a mechanical workshop and has developed under the leadership of Heinz-Dieter Schunk to a competent, world market leader for clamping technology and gripping systems. Today, the company is run by the third generation siblings Henrik A. Schunk and Kristina I. Schunk. More than 2500 employees in eight plants and 30 directly owned subsidiaries and distribution partners in more than 50 countries throughout the world ensure an intensive market presence. With 11,000 standard components SCHUNK offers the world’s largest assortment of clamping technology and gripping systems, and with 2550 SCHUNK grippers the largest product range of standard grippers. The complete program of gripping systems comprises more than 4000 components.

packages to a broad range of industries; robot users know of our strengths but we need to highlight our capabilities and products to other sectors,” explains Tom. Indeed, with more than 100 models, FANUC offers the widest range of industrial robots in the world and covers a broad spectrum of applications and industries. Easy to operate, these robots provide customers with complete

flexibility thanks to a number of applicationspecific options, simple integration, payloads up to 2.3 tonnes and maximum reaches up to 4.7 metres. The most recent robot to join the company’s extensive collection is the world’s first heavy lifting collaboration robot, the CR-35iA, which has a 35 kilogramme payload and is able to work side-by-side with human employees thanks to the use of intelligent sensors that automatically

stop the robot should it touch a human operator.

Eradicating the need for external safety devices, this incredible technology opens up a new era for manufacturing, where humans and robots will be able to work even more closely on tasks, which will thus enhance productivity and efficiencies across the plant floor. As opposed to the company’s standard yellow colour for its robots, the ISO 10218-1 certified CR-35iA is covered by a soft green cover to reduce any impact to the human body, while also distinguishing the safe collaborative robot from a standard robot.

By combining the repeatability of a robot with the dexterity of a human, customers will benefit from increased productivity, improved health and safety in their workforce and a more competitive business.

With more innovative products due to be launched in April 2016, FANUC UK is certain to continue bringing its customers into a new age by redefining factory automation capabilities through advanced artificial intelligence. This innovation, alongside its focus on marketing itself as one company with a comprehensive range of products and services, will also aid the firm in reaching its goal of doubling growth over the | next four years, as Tom concludes: “Put together with the new management team, we will strive to meet this business plan to double growth once again by highlighting our strengths to customers. Four years ago we were at £25 million turnover and we’re just under £50 million in 2015; it is our focus to continue this trend moving forward.”

FANUC UK Products: Industrial automation and robotic solutions www.fanuc.eu/uk/

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What More UK Ltd

Big plans in

store

With more than 800 high quality products being exported to 64 countries, What More UK is the UK’s largest manufacturer and brand leader of plastic housewares, gardening and storage products

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stablished only 17 years ago in 1999, What More UK Limited has grown rapidly through acquisition, expansion and investment in its state-of-the-art manufacturing and distribution plant to become a leader in the field of plastic housewares, garden products and houseware, and a brand and market leader in the UK. “We now turnover £50 million and the boss has purchased a further seven acres on the site for our future development; a move that secures the future growth that What More UK will create,” says Tony Grimshaw, Director at What More UK Limited. “We have 1800 independent customers in the UK and all major UK retailers stock our products in the country. Furthermore, in 2008 we only had one export country, Ireland, and today we export to 64 countries; this incredible growth was recognised in 2014 when we were very proud to be awarded the Queen’s Award in International Trade. More recently we have become finalists in three categories at the Red Rose Awards 2016.”

He continues: “This is a major change from when we were first established with only 15 products, nine of which were garden planters, and there is not a lot of call for garden planters in November! In the first year we managed to turnover £4.2 million, so the birth of the company was anything but easy, and we had to fight tooth and nail to get on the first rung of the survival ladder,” addsTony.

Although the early years were challenging, the company decided to merge its strengths, such as excellent production facilities and dedicated staff, with a sales force who knew the industry and a service-orientated distribution team to further enhance its capabilities in a competitive industry. Following a relocation

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from Blackpool to seven acres of land in Altham, Acrrington, the company developed the site and by 2005 the whole occupation was housed here.

However, following further growth, the company needed outside warehousing and now occupies a 500,000 square feet area for production and distribution.

It is in here in its cutting edge factory that the company manufactures a vast catalogue of plastic housewares and storage products under the brand name WHAM; items include buckets and bowls, recycling bins, plant pots and laundry hampers.

“From very small storage boxes to massive 160 litre storage boxes, anything you would find in the house, garden or garage that is made from plastic is made by What More,” highlights Tony.

Not a company to rest on its laurels, What More is continuously seeking out new products to add to its vast portfolio, through investment in new machinery or through acquisition, as Tony continues: “At the end of 2014 we purchased the presses and moulds of a famous Lancastrian Bakeware manufacturer, which included taking on board some very experienced engineers and production people. Had we not done this, 100 years of bakeware expertise would have been lost

forever. Following the acquisition, we spent most of 2015 rebuilding presses and sorting out the mould stock and are now ready to go.”

Following this development, the company went onto finalise the purchase of Hong Kong based PushPan, a company that manufactures a patented baking product range that is well-established across the globe. “This is the perfect fit to our more conventional bakeware products. Eventually we

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What More UK Ltd

countries with a total population of 4.3 billion, we can say our products are available to more than half the world’s population, so the trick is getting these people to buy our products. We are working very hard to solve this challenge,” concludes Tony.

What More UK Ltd will bring the production of PushPan to the UK, reversing the trend of taking all manufacturing to China,” explains Tony.

Elaborating on why What More UK expanded into the bakeware market, Tony states: “First and foremost it was an obvious bolt-on to what we already do as the two generally have the same retailers. There were also social reasons; by allowing the Lancashire-based company to pass away, the north of Britain would be losing its only remaining bakeware manufacturer and the family name on the company, which had been around since 1887, would be gone. The skills lost would be irreplaceable and it would have opened the door to even more Chinese imports.”

Alongside acquisitions, the company has invested both in its staff and facilities to maintain its leading reputation. For example, over the last 18 months the company has spent millions on replacing its injection moulding machines with Krauss Maffei machines from Germany, an investment that will continue for two more years until all of its 55 machines are replaced. “Investment covers all areas of our business,” confirms Tony. “The most important area is our biggest asset: our colleagues.

As a team of 235, we spend money on training the team, keeping the team healthy and on paying wages that ensure our staff have a life outside of work. Meanwhile, when it comes to products, we spend £2.5 million on product development to ensure we provide oxygen to sales and feed the demand buyers have for new products.”

As a company that is hungry for growth and ongoing success, What More UK is focused on doubling its turnover by 2025 by honing the foundations of its success: good people, new products, new equipment and new facilities. In addition, the company will naturally continue its trend of seeking out strategic acquisitions to accelerate growth, while also finding ways to

attract new customers to its high quality products.

“Our aim in the next seven years is to become a £100 million turnover company. Dependent on which search engine you use, there are 196 countries in the world, which is home to 7.2 billion people. Because we export to 64

Products: Plastic housewares and storage products

whatmoreuk.com

Select Colours

Set up in 2008 Select Colours is a successful independent business, supplying tailor made coloured and additive masterbatch to the thermoplastics industry.

Select Colours focuses on providing a high quality rapid service for bespoke colours in the polymer of your choice.

To ensure your unique colour and technical requirements are met we will agree on colour standards and a technical specification with you.

Concern for the environment led Select Colours to achieve ISO 14001 Environmental registration in 2012.

As part of this commitment one of the services we offer is to re-colour redundant stock turning it into useable stock.

Select Colours is focused on working closely with the What More team to meet their needs and gain new business for their continuous growth.

This is achieved through rapid response to colour matching and delivery services.

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Todd & Duncan

A fine

yarn

As the world’s finest quality spinner of cashmere yarn, Todd & Duncan uses its 140 years of history to deliver superior quality, exceptional customer service, innovation and integrity

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ounded in 1867 in Scotland by William Todd and James Duncan,Todd & Duncan originally began operating at its mill in Alva, Clackmannanshire. In 1897 the company expanded with the acquisition of Kinross spinning mills in Loch Leven and moved the entire business to its new facility following a fire at the Alva mill in 1906. A milestone for the company took place in 1946 when a young entrepreneur entered the family firm who was convinced the future of Todd & Duncan lay in specialised high value knitting yarns. By focusing on these yarns instead of the broad range of textiles that the company traditionally produced, Alan Smith saw potential in the market for a specialist skill in spinning high quality single ply cashmere yarn.

The rest, as they say, is history. Since then the company quickly established itself as the world’s largest and finest quality spinner of cashmere yarn; a reputation that has been maintained through significant investments in technology that not only enhances performance, but also boosts productivity and the consistency of the natural

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fibres. Furthermore, following a dip in profits during the 2000’s, the company sought out a European management team who came up with strategies to increase sales, boost margins and enhance customer service levels, as well as improve product quality, performance and manufacturing efficiency. With these strategies a success, the company was back in profit by 2008.

Following a five year partnership in which Ningxia Zhongyin Cashmere Company supplied cashmere fibre to Todd & Duncan, the Chinese firm took this working relationship to the next level in September 2009 when Todd & Duncan became its subsidiary.

As the largest cashmere dehairing and combing operation in China, which has also been ranked as the leading cashmere company in China since 2004, Ningxia Zhongyin Cashmere Company has guaranteed access to the world’s finest cashmere fibre. Recognising the heritage and integrity that the Todd & Duncan cashmere brand represents, as well as its potential to accelerate market share both in its home market and throughout Europe, Ningxia

Zhongyin Cashmere Company acquired the Scottish firm to exploit these opportunities.

Keen to manufacture cashmere yarn from a traditional Scottish manufacturing base that maintains a strong pride in high quality craftsmanship, Ningxa Zhongyin not only brought a mill but a market that will have authenticity for its global customer base.

Todd & Duncan, meanwhile, has benefited from financial security and new direct access to the Chinese market.

Today the acknowledged leader in the production of cashmere yarns of the highest quality, the company’s products are used by the world’s most famous knitwear brands. However, to retain its crown, the company is committed to constantly refining and developing new textures and colours that are in line with current or upcoming fashion trends.

This dedication to staying at the forefront of innovation can be seen in Todd & Duncan’s Spring/ Summer 2015 collection, which was inspired by light installations by international artists such as

Morellet and Navarro as well as water colour and ink paintings by William Johnston. On top of this, the bright bold and brash works of David Batchelor and all types of street graffiti inspires the collection.

Within the collection are a rhapsody of new colours to create a vibrant energy for customers throughout the summer that are seeking individuality. Colour snap shots for the season included Rainbows, vibrant rich soaked colours such as black, trance, azurite, bleu celeste, vanilla, krill and lipstick to create a portfolio of bold hues; Denim Dreams, a range of never ending blues mixed with off-whites, and Graffiti, with surfaces covered with bold shapes and scratchy linear marks in an array of colours or monochrome.

Also new for the season was Consort, a smart cashmere/silk blend yard that has all of the natural characteristics of silk on show; it is ideal for fine gauge knits and is multi-plied for a more casual look, and Helix, a new metallised two-tone wrapped yarn in a spectrum of colours that offers a spider web effect with an etched look that worked well with the new summer brights.

Meanwhile, the company’s Autumn/Winter 2015 Collection focused on the infinite nature of colour

and used the likes of Louise Bourgeois’ exhibition ‘Insomnia’, which featured 220 night-time doodles, and Kate MccGwire’s exhibition ‘Lure’, which presented extraordinary feather installations, as inspiration. Denim also made a return, this time with new multi-ply Denim marls – nine clever colour twists that are knitted on the 2.5 ndle or by hand.

Alongside this product development, the company also introduced Tweedsmuir, a new addition to the Tweeddale collection, which offers a heavier look with interesting colour combinations and is knit on 8ndle and multi-ply for 5ndle.

Lomond, a lambs wool textured slub yarn with a striking colour offering, was also part of the collection.

With stock service, sales support

and product development remaining at the forefront of Todd & Duncan’s operations, the company seems to have its future sewn up as it continues to deliver optimum quality cashmere yarn to top fashion brands, couture houses and international contemporary designers across the globe.

Todd & Duncan Products: Cashmere yarn www.todd-duncan.co.uk

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BAE Systems

Flying

high

Global defence, aerospace and security firm BAE Systems is teamed with Northrop Grumman and programme lead Lockheed Martin to deliver the F-35 Lightning II, the world’s largest defence programme

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esponsible for the design, manufacture and assembly of the aft fuselage and empennage for each fifth generation F-35 Lightning II, aka Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), BAE Systems will be setting new standards for assembly precision and pace throughout the programme.This is thanks to digital design and precision manufacturing techniques that have been pioneered by the innovative company.

Furthermore, BAE Systems is also responsible for the design and delivery of core areas of the vehicle and mission systems; these include the fuel system, crew escape, manufacture details and life support system as well as UK aircraft carrier integration and Prognostics Health Management (PHM) integration.

On top of this, BAE Systems is providing expertise

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to Autonomic Logistics and Global Sustainment (support), flight test support, structural testing and UK weapons integration to the programme.

Meanwhile, BAE Systems’ Military Air & Information business is supporting sustainment efforts on the programme.The company will be an integral part in developing the F-35 global sustainment model and will be at the forefront of sustainment activities for the UK fleet on behalf of the F-35 team.

State-of-the-art in every respect, the F-35 Lightning II is a stealthy, versatile, all-weather attack aircraft that is capable of operating from both land and sea. Chosen for its accuracy and expertise, BAE Systems is involved in all three variants of the F-35 programme: the Conventional Take Off and Landing

(CTOL or F-35A), the Carrier Variant (or F-35C) and the Short Take Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL or F-35B). As the producer of approximately ten per cent of each F-35’s airframe, the company is using its superior manufacturing strengths to make the rear fuselage and tailplanes fit together with such precision that there are no gaps that will reflect back radio waves. By manufacturing the components to two or three 1000ths of an inch, the stealth jet will become all but invisible to radar.

Key to delivering this level of smoothness is the company’s cutting edge facility in Samlesbury, Lancashire, which has been transformed through £150 million investment that ensures it not only delivers optimum quality parts, but also meets the challenge of quadrupling the rate of production

while halving the cost in the next three years.

These enhancements are in line with the ‘Blueprint for Affordability’ that has been agreed between the US Department of Defence and contractors to halve costs by streamlining production, as Jon Evans, BAE Systems’ Head of F-35 Operations, notes: “There is no simple answer as to how we will meet this challenge, however, I like to refer to the four P’s: product, plant, process and people. Firstly, we need to install the necessary plant and capacity to deliver the planned rates; next we need to enable the people to be able to build the product and also equip them to help improve the way it is built.Thirdly, during the learning phase the operators will also find innovative ways of improving the process, which may need engineering support or offline development to complete prior to introducing improvements onto the line. Finally, we are investing in our employees’ abilities with the Business Improvement Techniques (BIT) NVQ programme in LEAN. We know the hours it takes to make each section and we have planned how this will reduce going forward.”

So far the £150 million has gone on a 10,000 square metre titanium machine shop that opened in 2010 where parts for the F-35 are ground out

Droop+Rein

of titanium by eight automated milling machines; these have just three operators monitoring them and another two personnel who set up specialised tools that remove excess material; meanwhile, other employees on the floor remove excess metal from finished parts. In addition, the company has also invested in a new office building and an extended

The Starrag Group brand Droop+Rein is the manufacturer of overhead gantry type machines for producing high precision composite parts like aft fuselages and tails. The machines – which align perfectly with the Starrag Group’s philosophy of ‘Engineering precisely what you value’ incorporate a patented volumetric compensation and automated laser calibration system which enable the machines to achieve a full five-axis volumetric accuracy of 55 microns. This ensures production safety. The machines linked to flexible manufacturing systems with part washing units and workpiece handling by pallet transport system improve productivity by 20 per cent. The machines offer the highest degree of reliability, thereby ensuring a seamless production process.

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Magellan Aerospace

Magellan Aerospace is a global, integrated aerospace company that provides complex assemblies and systems solutions to aircraft and engine manufacturers, and defence and space agencies worldwide.

Magellan designs, engineers, and manufactures aeroengine and aerostructure assemblies and components for aerospace markets, advanced products for military and space markets, industrial power generation, and specialty products.

BAE is a principal sub-contractor for the delivery of the F-35 programme and has world leading expertise and operational capabilities. BAE and Magellan are integral stakeholders in the F-35 programme, working together to provide sophisticated major assemblies for this global, next generation fighter.

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manufacturing facility, which opened in 2012 as the second part of a three phase expansion plan to meet production plans and remain at the forefront of UK manufacturing.

“We have demonstrated continued investment in our facilities over the past 13 years.That investment included the new titanium machining facility, which allows flexible manufacturing and an initial extension to the assembly facility in 2011; this will be completed by our latest extension. We are also

particularly proud of the assembly facility’s moving Integrated Assembly Line, or IAL, which first came online in 2012,” says Jon. “The IAL ‘pulses’ currently every four days – usually on a Monday.The lines moves as one so every section has to be balanced in terms of work content and also complete before the deadline to allow the line to move as one.”

The line is a multi-model line making all three variants of the F-35 aircraft down the same line.

A pair of products (port & starboard) will move down the line together. At each station work will be completed prior to the pulse.The pulse is effectively a very complex overhead crane system that moves the product along every four days.

“Jigs and fixtures are selected from a store based on the programme order of variants.The line also transfers the product to the machining centre, the spray facility and the equipping sections.”

In December 2015 the company announced it had begun work on a major extension to its cutting edge manufacturing facility, which will further prepare the site for a significant boost in production. Following the start of the project, the UK Government recently committed to 138 F-35

BAE Systems

‘

The eventual plan was always to build one aircraft every day so planning ahead and installing a building large enough to cope with the growth required in time for the necessary line expansion is key

Lightning II STOVL variant aircraft for the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy.

The 4,500 square metre expansion is due for completion in January 2017 and is the final part of a three phase plan for the facility. Originally opened in 2003 at a cost of £11 million, the facility will be capable of manufacturing over 160 aircraft sets annually once completed; this is a whopping increase of 250 per cent from current numbers.

“The continued development gives BAE Systems the necessary physical space for the installed capacity to operate within in order to achieve the planned rates F35 is predicting.The eventual plan was always to build one aircraft every day so planning ahead and installing a building large enough to cope with the growth required in time for the necessary line expansion is key,” states Jon. With the increased rates and cost reductions,

BAE Systems has a challenging few years ahead of it, but the company is relishing the opportunity to meet demand through ongoing investments in both employees and facilities, as Jon concludes: “You could sum it up by saying we have built 240 aircraft in 15 years and have to build another 200 in the next three, however, our continued investment in people and in facilities – especially through the latest extension work to our assembly facility - demonstrates we are ready to meet that challenge.”

BAE Systems Products: Future technologies, combat and trainer aircraft, complex surface ships and combat vehicles www.baesystems.com www.manufacturing-today-europe.com 85

Lawrence David

Body

builders

Proud to create more than just trailers, leading UK manufacturer Lawrence David designs every component in-house and uses cutting edge technology to ensure complete customer satisfaction

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ince its foundation in 1973, Peterborough based Lawrence David has grown to become the UK’s leading manufacturer of trailers, curtainsiders, box vans, refrigerated and rigid bodywork and one of the most respected trailer manufacturers in the UK. Viewed as the strength behind the haulage industry, the company offers customers engineering expertise, optimum quality products and exceptional customer service while progressing with a culture of continuous innovation. Key to this ingrained culture is the company’s in-house design capabilities, its continuous investment in state-of-the-art technology and a team of highly experienced, competent and dedicated craftsmen who strive for the best possible solution to each customer’s requirement.

By having total in-house control over component designs, quality and performance, Lawrence David can deliver all of its trailers with a minimum five year warranty and guarantee absolute satisfaction and confidence for its customers. Moreover, the company’s attention to detail means the next unique innovation is never far away, while its constant investment in facilities and personnel ensures its leading reputation at the forefront of the trailer industry is maintained.

Within its portfolio are box vans, fuel savers,

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fridges, curtainsiders and double deck trailers; all of which are custom-built with the unique needs of each customer in mind.

With more than 40 years of experience, Lawrence David also lays claim to being one of the biggest body builders in the UK for the haulage industry and a pioneer when it comes to innovations and engineering firsts. Within its rigid portfolio the company offers an 18 tonne rigid curtainsider, an 18 tonne rigid fuel saver, 3.5 tonne bonded Luton box van, a 7.5 tonne rigid and a 7.5 tonne rigid curtainsider. On top of this, should spare parts be required, the company can ship genuine parts and replacement components to the customer.

Alongside these manufacturing capabilities, Lawrence David has also invested in dedicated facilities in Peterborough and Corby to repair and refurbish trailers and bodies. Services include full chassis and body shot blast, repaints, new curtains, new doors, overall height increases and accident repairs.

One example of the company’s market leading capabilities was announced in February 2015 when Elddis Transport celebrated clocking up one million kilometres in its first longer semi-trailer from Lawrence David. The bespoke trailer has averaged 981 kilometres per day since it was delivered in May 2012 and has resulted in Elddis

NWE Network Engineering FIX high performance cargo securing systems by NWE Network Engineering - captive - suspended- self-retracting – ground level operation.

If it’s just 50mm straps you want then FIX-Strap to EN 12195-2 LC2,500daN, self-adjusts to load height, pulls clear for loading/ unloading and is easily positioned over the target cargo.

For more complex loads, FIX-Road to EN 12195-2, is a very special high performance retracting load securing tarpaulin. Pulls clear for loading/unloading. Can give lashing capacities in excess of 30,000daN. FIX systems can assist DVSA compliance when correctly used.

NWE greatly appreciates Lawrence David’s support and confidence in FIX systems.

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Lawrence David

Transport ordering ten more trailers from the company.

Today operating across seven sites and more than 420,000 square feet of manufacturing space, Lawrence David made the strategic decision to expand in the first quarter of 2015 following increased demand for its services. In response to the market, it acquired a Peterborough property that is comprised of three interlinked

warehouses and office space and totals 161,151 square feet of space. Furthermore, the site extends to approximately eight acres, thus providing Lawrence David with excellent space for immediate use as well as further development opportunities in the future.

Having already reached 60 to 70 per cent capacity, further expansions are looking increasingly likely as Lawrence David continues to take on major contracts such as the delivery of 40 trailers for Butterkist; as part of an order from world-leading logistics firm CEVA Logistics, Lawrence David will design and build its new trailers, with TUV EN12642XL certified bodies as standard. The trailers will include Armoursheet ‘plus’ load-bearing curtains with straps and webbing handles on both front and rear curtain poles for easy removal, while the design of 13.7 metre long trailers will be topped off with Butterkist livery. With front and rear Lawrence David ratchet tensioners, a Just Modal landing gear, Michelin alloy wheels, a pull-out ladder and rear buffers for scratch-free loading, these new trailers are certain to ensure the delivery of

Butterkist popcorn around the UK for many years to come.

Another notable contract for Lawrence David involved the promotion of safer trailers for the public and operators alongside its long-term customer DS Smith Logistics. For this project, the company retrofitted one of DS Smith’s pillarless curtainsiders with a portfolio of health and safety conscious devices; these includes a fully EN12642XL rated ArmourSheet, automatic rear step illumination lamp, a Lawrence David patented curved ground coupling, its latest strap safe load securing system; a fully integrated soft dock system with audible warning, porthole in the roof to act as skylights, side marker lamps incorporated in the indicator/repeater system, two high level rear indicator lamps and two high level rear stop lamps.

Currently being trialled by a number of longterm customers, the curved ground coupling is industry leading in terms of driver safety as it provides comfortable, ground level Suzie coupling of the trailer connections, with no working at height or getting behind the cab. Once all retrofitting was complete, DS Smith employed the services of the German independent test agency TUV to perform both static and dynamic tests on the trailers, with Lawrence David passing on all counts.

With a number of successful years behind it, the company aims to continue this positive trend of growth by investing in new machinery and equipment at its new facility. Furthermore, Lawrence David will seek out new contract opportunities at exhibitions and events such as the CV Show in Birmingham, which it attended in 2015. During this event, the company secured a prime position at the heart of hall five, stand 5D70 to exhibit three products: the EN12642XL pallet network double-deck trailer, the 18 tonne EN12642XL curtainsider vehicle and its latest home delivery vehicle.

Through showcasing its superior products and manufacturing capabilities at notable events, while also maintaining a culture of continued improvement and advancement in all areas of the business, Lawrence David is certain to remain in demand and retain its crown as the leader in trailer and commercial vehicle body manufacturing.

Lawrence David Products: Trailers, curtainsiders, box vans, refrigerated and rigid bodywork

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ABT Products

A comprehensive

service

With 45 years of experience in the design, testing and production of cabs, chassis, rollbars and equipment ABT Products Ltd has become the first choice partner for global OEM manufacturers

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ormed in 1964 by Anthony BeachThomas, ABT Products Ltd was incorporated in 1971. Throughout the 1970s and early 80s the company developed and manufactured its own range of agricultural equipment such as cultivators, bale wrappers and bale handlers that were used by customers across the globe.

With an expanded factory and a neighbouring factory purchased in 1986, the company progressed into the manufacture of cabs for forklift trucks in 1988; this further diversification of its operations meant ABT Products Ltd required a larger factory, which resulted in the purchase of a 3.2 acre Ashburton site and the construction of a new purpose built 2787 square metre factory in 1989. By 1993 the company had become a significant supplier of cabs to the forklift industry and a well-known supplier of chassis for sports cars as well as ABT’s own brand of agricultural machinery.

Following further expansions of the factory in

1997 and 2007, the factory reached 6000 square metres - making it the largest industrial vehicle safety structure manufacturer in Britain - and enabled the company to invest in an autophoretic paint plant in 1999 that could provide customers with optimum corrosion protection. Involving the high quality surface cleaning of ferrous metal and an anti corrosion treatment, the autophoretic treatment increases product life as it provides in excess of 1000 hours of salt spray protection. In 2006 and 2008 ABT invested once again in new technology with the introduction of an in-house purpose built rig and the commissioning of a new HD CNC three metre bed plasma machines respectively. The former enables the firm to carry out ROPS/TOPS tests, while the latter investment enabled the firm to produce profiles up to 32 millimetre thickness.

“The autophoretic plant is one of our key facilities, as it is the only process that will give this level of internal corrosion protection on ferrous metal,” begins Mark Hignett, Director and

Co-Owner of ABT Products Ltd. “On top of this, it is one of the largest sub contracting plants in Europe, which means we can put products with dimensions of up to 3.2 metres by two metres by two metres through the corrosion protection process in comparison to other plants that can only put through small items as their tanks are smaller. Because of the size of our tanks we can put a whole cab through or a whole chassis.”

A major development for the highly successful firm took place in 2011, when it was not only acquired by Mark Hignett and Tim Morris, but also merged with Loadmac. Today ABT Products is the UK’s leading cab, rollbar and chassis manufacturer for niche OEM’s, while Loadmac truck mounted forklifts are designed and built at ABT with sales in the UK and also further afield, to Australia, the US and Canada.

“Since becoming involved in ABT, we have concentrated on not just being sub contract manufacturers, but on manufacturing partnerships; this development means we now make complete

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complex machines for customers to the point they are shipped directly to our customers’ distributors.

The business has gone through a real evolution over the last 42 years, expanding from three employees to the 100 we have now working in our 3.2 acre factory. We can now also do everything physically under one roof; from design and procurement, we can take on the whole supply chain, which is highly attractive to customers who would otherwise have to deal with 50 or 60 suppliers for their product. Instead, we do all of that for them so we become their one supplier,” explains Mark.

Quantum Mouldings

John Goff, Purchasing Manager at ABT Products commented: “Quantum Mouldings have been a key supplier of GRP (fibreglass) mouldings to ABT for over 20 years. Low volume parts are made by hand, higher volume parts are manufactured by injection (RTM) moulding. Parts are produced in a stunning and durable gelcoat finish negating the requirement and cost of painting. Liaison between Quantum and ABT at the design stage has enabled products that are both high quality and low cost. Quantum’s professionalism and consistent performance has placed them as one of ABT’s top suppliers.”

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“Another benefit for our customers is that we design and manufacture our own tooling in-house,” adds Tim Morris, Managing Director and Co-Owner of ABT Products Ltd. “Very few customers can go to a manufacturer and say ‘we want this machine’ or ‘we want you to design this’; it really is as little or as much involvement as the customer wants. Furthermore, if a customer comes to us and doesn’t have a clue what they want, we have the latest 3D CAD and FEA software and highly experienced design engineers, which means we can create concepts and ‘virtual’ test them to ensure they are structurally sound. We also offer prototyping and pre-production, so even if they come up with the most basic idea we can take them through the design process, right through to full production.”

Highly flexible and comprehensive in its service delivery, ABT Products Ltd is focused on providing customers with quality appropriate to their industries standards at the best possible price.

This dedication has recently been celebrated, with ABT Loadmac currently flying the flag for Herefordshire manufacturing after being chosen as one of the 1000 companies to inspire Britain, as Mark highlights: “We were noticed for a number

of reasons but the main ones were a growth in export due to our market leadership in Australia with the Loadmac truck mounted forklift; this product was 100 per cent designed, developed and tested by ABT. Other reasons include the fact we engaged heavily in a knowledge transfer programme with a local university, our cash generation and re-investment; we were also recognised for our financial performance and the consistency of this.”

Like many companies with strong growth, the success of ABT Products Ltd stems from

ABT Products

our working patterns and begun a two-shift system that has resulted in extra capacity and opportunities to take on new projects. We are actively looking for two or three new projects that will have annual production runs of 200 to 2000 units per year.”

ABT Products Ltd Products: Cabs, chassis and rollbars

www.abtproducts.com innovation and investment in both facilities and staff rather than strict cost control. Not only investing in new equipment such as a massive six kilowatt laser with a 4m x 2m cutting bed and new paint facilities, the ISO 9001 certified company has also been developing its new apprenticeship scheme, as Tim notes: “An integral part of our new apprenticeship programme involved going directly to schools and cherry picking the best students from the selection process for the apprenticeship course. We got to pick the right people and now have a strong group of apprentices; we are looking

to roll this out this year and then keep taking on two or three apprentices each year. We also take on students from university when they take a sandwich year in the hope that when they finish university they come and work for us.”

With cutting edge facilities and a new method of getting the cream of the crop when it comes to apprentices, the future looks positive for ABT Products as it seeks out new projects and opportunities in the market, as Mark concludes: “We were originally a single shift company, however, we have recently modernised

Wye Cylinder Engineering (WCE) Ltd Wye Cylinder Engineering (WCE) Ltd designs and manufactures hydraulic cylinders. The company’s objective is to supply a quality product at a competitive price complete with a high level of product knowledge, service and back up support.

WCE manufactures a standard range of cylinders that can be supplied from stock. It also supplies a wide range of hydraulic cylinders for a large number of different applications some of which are supplied to some very well known OEMs within a variety of industry sectors.

Its dedicated management team has in excess of 45 years experience and knowledge in the design and manufacture of hydraulic cylinders.

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Amcanu

Sound

opportunities People sit at the heart of Amcanu, a company committed to delivering high quality solutions to global customers in a flexible and diversified manner

Mulmuf Exhausts

Mulmuf Exhausts is one of the leading exhaust manufacturers in the UK and Ireland. It specialises in industrial and off road equipment. It can design to the specific requirements of its customers and always works to the highest quality standards. It manufactures exhaust systems for generators, diggers, tractors, forklifts and screening / earthmoving equipment.

Tawi UK Ltd

As a leading manufacturer of innovative and bespoke lifting solutions for industrial applications, Tawi is a key supplier to Amcanu. With regards to materials handling a 180kg Tawi VacuEasylift, mounted on a gantry crane and suspended from the building is already in operation and two additional 500kg and 2000kg hoists are currently being installed to provide enhanced product handling capabilities.

Commenting on the working relationship between the two companies, MD of Amcanu Owain Davies said: “Tawi has been excellent at helping us design a solution to our lifting requirements and we feel that what they provide us with is a very cost effective and worthwhile service that helps us greatly with our processes and business needs.”

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ounded in 1975 and now into its second generation of family ownership, South Wales based Amcanu has amassed years of expertise in sheet metal manufacture and today is a leading specialist in high performance industrial enclosures.

Supplying to a host of international OEMs, the core of the company’s offering revolves around helping engine-powered systems, such as pumps, compressors and engines, meet the various noise regulations imposed upon construction, mining and quarrying sites around the world. However, a highly flexible and proactive approach to the market has resulted in a company that is able to react well to changing market conditions and take advantage of emerging opportunities.

“We consider ourselves to be a glass-half-full organisation, even through challenging times,” begins current MD Owain Davies. “We were hit very badly in 2008 and 2009 by the recession because at the time we were supplying to a lot of hire equipment suppliers, a segment that lost its funding overnight. We had to cut the workforce in half and lost a lot of money. However, it forced us to do a lot of restructuring and, despite the pain, it has made us stronger.” Finally recovering around 2011, progress since the downturn has been exceptional to the point of exceeding pre-recession performance.

Keen to adhere to its philosophy of sticking to what it knows, Amcanu today splits its core focus into three key areas: industrial enclosures for sound insulation, enclosures for digital technology, such as for Renishaw’s

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industrial 3D printers, and small subcontracted projects for local customers. “Years ago a water pump would sit in the middle of a quarry or a construction site and it was noisy and dirty but nobody bothered about it. Now however, because of new regulations and legislation around the health and safety of on-site workers and their environment, we have seen a strong market open up,” Owain explains.

As part of the global Xylem group, dewatering and liquid transfer pump manufacturer Godwin is one of Amcanu’s major customers, with products operating in over 150 countries. Working closely with the customer, Owain and his team have developed a complete enclosure system which integrates all the necessary components whilst regulating noise emissions and increasing the airflow for optimum engine performance.

Successfully applied to a broad range of Godwin systems, the work has led to subsequent discussions with Xylem to develop a new globalised standard for its attenuation enclosures.

Similar collaboration has been necessary in the development of what Owain refers to as a “supersilent” enclosure system for Hydrainer, a leading manufacturer of hydraulic submersible pumps. With the remit to reach a benchmark for sound attenuation of 70dB(A) at one metre, encompassed by an easy-to-maintain modular system, the equipment is currently operating in the centre of London on the prestigious Crossrail programme, amongst many other sound-sensitive applications.

It is clear that Amcanu learnt from the challenges it faced during the recession and the growth that followed its recovery has exemplified this not only in its ability to diversify and focus its core offering, but also in its understanding of the market conditions. “The markets in India and China are learning about what we do and it could be a challenge to stay ahead of this potential competition,” Owain expresses.

“There are also opportunities developing in some of the emerging economies in Africa and South America. However keeping control of our costs is paramount as we approach this because we consider ourselves to be sheet metal tailors catering for the premium market where customers are willing to pay that bit more for quality and service.”

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Amcanu

Long-term relationships with customers play a major part in occupying this premium position and it is the company’s people that make this possible. In fact, people are absolutely central to Amcanu’s business as Owain goes on to discuss: “Our core values centre around being part of this community, employing local people and supporting apprentice training. I came in as an apprentice working around all the business areas so I understand the challenges that everyone faces on a daily basis and this is true for our entire management team. We support this with continued training opportunities and investment into our staff and as such have a very high retention of people.”

Having celebrated its 40th birthday in 2015, Amcanu is now gearing up to reach the next level of success with renewed vigour. “As a business that survived and successfully recovered from the economic challenges we are now confident to put some investment back into our operations.

Therefore 2016 will be all about investing in our continued growth with new equipment, such as a £300,000 powder coating plant, as well as new people and skills in order to secure new and existing opportunities and improve our quality offerings,” concludes Owain. “This amounts to a five year plan in which we hope to double the size of the business and create even more opportunities for both our global customers and our local communities.”

Amcanu Ltd Products:

World-class specialists in manufacturing sound attenuation enclosures

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Applied Component Technology (ACT)

Applied

expertise

Collaboration and innovation combine with Applied Component Technology’s expert production capabilities, resulting in it occupying a leading position in the UK’s automotive, and now aerospace, supply chain

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espite being a relatively young company, formed in 2012 from the assets of a previous company fallen into administration, Applied Component Technology (ACT) has quickly proven itself to be a key partner to the UK’s growing automotive industry. “Essentially we are an automotive Tier 1 and Tier 2 supplier of interior components and systems,” begins Managing Director, Dermot Sterne. “Our focus in this industry is on lightweight materials, and we have a UK-leading capability in structural composites for interiors, which is a real advantage.

The core products include loadfloors, safety nets, roller luggage covers and a variety of plastic trim components, both for interior and exterior applications.”

However, with 60 highly skilled employees working from a single 2700 square metre site, complete with in-house design and engineering competences, ACT has established itself as an agile, quality focused and highly innovative manufacturer.

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As such it has begun to set its sights beyond the automotive industry and into new markets. “We have very recently moved into the aerospace interiors market as manufacturers of a novel

sustainable, lightweight, high security aircraft galley trolley called SmartCart,” Dermot continues.

“Manufacturing exclusively for Flightweight Ltd, we are the first to market in this industry with a

Left: SmartCart assembly cell

Dermot Sterne (left) and Mark Pople with a composite loadfloor

new product that uses an electronic seal (from Security Seal Technology Ltd), novel natural fibre and bioresin composite panels and is modular for easy repair.”

By working closely with Flightweight, ACT has illustrated its ability to add value right through both the design and development stages in anticipation of manufacturing and launching a product. “This was a short project in terms of its timeframe so we have embraced help from a variety of sources,” highlights Dermot. “Firstly, we are grateful to the Welsh Government who provided support with capital investment for the high quality, error-proofed production line – with full traceability of raw material, back to the harvest from where the natural fibres came. This support will also help to create around 20 new jobs once SmartCart is in full production.

“We have a highly skilled team of engineers and product development people here at ACT. However, at key points in the project we supplemented that team with staff from Jigsaw Business Group, who provided specialist skills in a very flexible arrangement. Furthermore, as we

enter production we are working very closely with Percival Aviation Ltd to handle the aerospace production approvals necessary to launch the product into the global market. Other suppliers such as EcoTechnilin, the supplier of the innovative raw material, also readily joined our team to add their expertise when required.”

What resulted was a highly collaborative development process allowing ACT to become a fully integrated member of a supply chain in a new and opportunity-rich market. Combined with the

Jigsaw Business Group

Jigsaw Business Group is a business consultancy that helps organisation improved their people, processes, and profitability. A great example of this is the recent joint project with Applied Components Technology (ACT).

Manufacturers are amongst the most prolific and successful innovators in the UK. ACT had been through some tough times when we were asked to support them on this innovative project. With our established network of professional practitioners, we were able to put together an experienced, cross functional, new product development team to help ACT design, develop, source, produce, test and launch this revolutionary new smart galley cart.

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Applied Component Technology (ACT) Tente Castors

Tente Castors is one of the leading manufacturers of castors and wheels worldwide, with products that are suitable for any industry. It can provide a solution to your problems. Its range of innovative products includes its e-drive unit to make moving heavy loads much easier to its aviation castors that save on fuel costs. Its CAD files are straightforward to incorporate into your designs, and its teams are available to answer any queries.

SmartCart

ATM Automation Ltd

ATM Automation Ltd was commissioned by ACT to produce an intelligent manufacturing assembly line.

The key requirement was to ensure the build was to the correct specification and each subcomponent would have full traceability.

ACT selected ATM’s unique, market-leading Build Assist software and assembly system, for this stringent requirement. ATM supplied a full line to enable ACT to produce a variety of carts from a single component to a complete cart with the full history of each subcomponent; hence making each assembly a unique cart with its own ‘VIN’ number, much like manufacturing an automobile.

expertise and commitment already held within the firm, the final product has been awarded ‘Smart Product of the Year 2016’ by EEF – a recognition which, as Dermot points out: “Is a real pat on the back for the team here. The collaborative nature of the project is reinforced by the EEF accolade being a joint award with Jigsaw.”

The SmartCart project undoubtedly brought with it a wealth of potential for the future success and continued growth of ACT and Dermot is keen to point out the advantages that can now be applied to its automotive offering. “This new expertise in sustainable composites and the associated capital investment mean that we can also offer such materials to vehicle manufacturers and suppliers who value sustainable components as part of the vehicle’s overall ‘life cycle analysis’ approach to energy use,” he says.

In terms of quality, the new production line for SmartCart implements a new benchmark for assembly processes, revolving predominantly around the ‘no-fault-forward’ principle. With the aim to replicate its approach in future projects, it adds significant value to a range of capabilities that already includes compression and injection moulding, die cutting, high frequency welding,

automated gluing and sewing, as well as general assembly.

With such significant development on-going ACT looks set to experience a strong future within two industries that are showing positive signs of growth. Despite some uncertainty around the UK’s position in the EU, Dermot is generally confident, saying: “With the UK hopefully set to reach the milestone of manufacturing over two million cars in the next few years, the future for us in that sector is very promising. The trend for the large vehicle manufacturers to use very large global suppliers who can support them across different continents is here to stay. So, whilst ACT continues to supply to OEMs directly with some products, we predict that in future years our client base will become dominated by the large Tier 1 suppliers, who require manufacturing and/or design support local to their UK customers.

“In terms of aerospace, we supply exclusively to just one customer, who sells the SmartCart to airlines and catering companies around the world.

However, it is a well known fact that the aircraft industry is also growing fast, driven by emerging market activity, so the future for Flightweight and ACT looks very promising here too.”

In this respect then the next 12 months, and indeed beyond, will be focused very much on building upon recent successes and general market positivity. “Our attention will be on the launch of the SmartCart and growing our automotive business,” concludes Dermot, speaking about the short-term goals. “We are really well placed to supply the UK automotive sector and are already working on some exciting new projects both in the car segment and also in the bus and coach segment, where we have recently won a large piece of interiors business.” In the longer term combining this strategy with a fresh approach to lightweight and sustainable ‘green’ materials will be key as it looks to expand its footprint.

Ultimately, ACT is a glowing example of a UK manufacturer able to combine leading expertise and production capability with an open, innovative and, critically, collaborative approach to both new and existing channels. It is with this in mind that the future for the company, no matter what the market may try to throw at it, looks set to be very fruitful indeed.

Applied Component Technology (ACT) Products: Leading manufacturer of interior components www.applied-components.com

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Lambert Engineering

Precise

planning

A solid combination of values and world-class engineering skills set Lambert Engineering apart as a multi-award winning innovation partner

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t 2015’s The Manufacturer MX Awards one company stood out amongst the rest, winning four awards including the main prize of Manufacturer of the Year. Also winning the Customer Focus, Innovation and Design, and Leadership and Strategy awards, Lambert’s success at the awards topped off another year

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of significant growth that saw it reach sales in excess of £20 million. Founded back in 1973 by Chris Lambert and Peter Wainman as a small engineering shop, four decades of experience define the company’s current offering to the market that make it a leading innovation partner in the development of bespoke automation systems.

“At present we have 190 people split across three individual business units,” begins Sales Director, Matthew Cox. “The first is automation systems (AS), which accounts for around 50 per cent of our sales, and is essentially the design and build of specialist automation machinery.

The second is our equipment engineering (EE) division, which allows customers to operate on a build-to-print basis, whereby they design the system and utilise our manufacturing expertise to realise it. This accounts for an additional 40 per cent of our business. The remaining business then comes from our precision components (PC) segment, which focuses on parts.”

“They have to be developed at the same time to make a good use of time and money – it is pointless developing a product that can’t be manufactured effectively. In the past we would reverse engineer some of the products to make them automatable, but now we make sure to get involved right at the start, in some cases actually developing some of our customer’s products in their entirety. This is why working partnerships are crucial.

“The other driver was to fully develop our service offering to the client. It is to become closer to the customer, to promote the whole idea of partnership and to allow us to differentiate our customers so we are giving them something really special and unique.

Something that would never go to their competition.”

In approaching its working relationships, Lambert very much considers itself a key partner to globally leading clients, mostly coming from the healthcare and FMCG markets. In cementing these partnerships, and in order to capacitate future growth aspirations, in 2014 Lambert opened its state-of-the-art innovation centre.

Named the Peter Wainman Innovation Centre,

after the company’s co-founder, the facility reinforces Lambert’s pro-active approach to research and development – the cornerstone of its market offering.

“The first rationale behind the centre’s development was the need to help our customer base to develop products as well as the processes that go along with them,” explains Matthew.

Halcyon Drives

Halcyon Drives is an electrical engineering firm based in Leeds, West Yorkshire. It has been working with Lambert Engineering for over 30 years, providing quality control systems with a flexible customer focused service. Its offering also includes specialist distribution for a small number of partnerships with world-leading manufacturers including ABB, Rockwell Automation, Riello UPS and PULS. It also provides exceptional service levels for the commission, repair and maintenance of ABB Variable Speed Drives.

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Lambert Engineering Stäubli Robotics

Life Science Automation Solutions.

Bringing you high speed and reliability for higher productivity and quality.

Stäubli Robotics, the market leader with a global presence, is your innovative partner for automation in sterile or standard environments, high end or routine tasks. Stäubli robots deliver clean, consistent performance ensuring the highest levels of product hygiene, safety, flexibility and productivity. Focusing on lean manufacturing its advanced solutions have the power to increase your productivity, improve your processes, save time and reduce costs.

DE-STA-CO

For more than 50 years, CAMCO products have been the industry standard for the highest quality cam-actuated motion control products available. DE-STA-CO manufactures a wide range of CAMCO motion control products including indexing drives, linear and rotary parts handlers, precision link conveyors, servo-mechanical drives, and custom cams.

Its customer base covers a wide range of industries requiring a global customer service network offering consistent solutions and program support. CAMCO brings a philosophy of quality unsurpassed by its counterparts.

It serves designers, builders and users of specialty automation equipment worldwide with manufacturing facilities in both North America and Europe.

In 2007, Lambert was subject to a management buyout, which has seen its sales increase from £8.5 million to the £20 millionplus that it now experiences. Looking forward the company sets its aspirations on 90 per cent growth over the next five years. Commenting on the company’s ability to achieve such levels of growth Matthew puts its strength down to its clear vision, breadth of offering and the skills of its people. “I see that our focused strategy and sense of knowing precisely where we are going

and how we are going to get there makes us stand out as a business,” he says. “Then, without our people and their skills we wouldn’t be able to exist. They are part of our mission statement of empowerment – we empower them and make them the best they can be and this is vital to the continued success of the business.

“In addition to this we have a great set of ethics and values, and we tend to align ourselves with customers who share these. This is all about establishing strong partnerships both with our customers and suppliers, creating an environment that allows everyone to add as much value as possible. The final thing that sets us apart is our technical excellence. Operationally, we try to be as enlightened as possible, as lean as possible and as cutting edge as possible with regards to the tools and expertise we can bring.”

Placing this robust proposition within the context of current market conditions suggests that the future for Lambert looks positive.

Matthew notes his confidence in the strong market, particularly pointing out the continued drive towards innovation and product development that exists within many industries around the globe. “Every big international market leader is in that position because they come up with clever and innovative products on a consistent basis,” he says. “This is how they stay ahead of the competition. We don’t really see this changing much, as even throughout the last recession the company performed extremely well because it was focused on those areas of new development and innovation.” By operating in its core healthcare and FMCG segments on a global scale Lambert is also able to avoid exposure to difficult sectors that are subject to political and economic influences, such as the oil and gas market.

Considering this is the case, it is no surprise that Lambert’s target over the next five years is to grow to sales worth £35 million. The next 12 months will be key to supporting this as the company focuses on growing its talent with young engineers and graduates, expanding its service offering to the market, both before and after the point of sale, and adding to its customer base. By continuing to serve the unique needs of global leaders as a critical innovation partner, Lambert looks set to experience a long and prosperous future.

Lambert Engineering Services: Produce bespoke turnkey automation solutions for specialist assembly needs

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RUWEL International

A structured

future

Leading European producer of printed circuit boards (PCBs) RUWEL International GmbH has strengthened its operations thanks to an organisational restructure and 20 million euros of investment over recent years

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ince it was founded by Mr. Fritz Stahl in 1945, RUWEL has been headquartered in Geldern, Germany.

RUWEL International GmbH today is renowned as the oldest operating PCB producer in Europe and a leading producer of circuit boards for high reliability applications. “Following the death of Mr. Stahl in 1991, the company was acquired by a local investor in 1993, who went on to acquire further PCB manufacturers,” begins Gerard van Dierendonck, Managing Director at RUWEL International GmbH. “However, the PCB market was impacted by production in China, with approximately 100 bigger PCB manufacturers now left in Europe in comparison to the 1500 that were in operation in the 90s.

In 2009 we were acquired by Unimicron Group, one of the global leaders in the PCB industry, which boasts a turnover of $2 billion annually, in line with its strategy to deliver a one-stopshop solution to European customers within the automotive industry. Since then there have been

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Heimerle + Meule – Precious metals unlimited Heimerle + Meule GmbH was founded in 1845 and is Germany’s oldest gold and silver refinery. The precious metals expert specialises in separating materials and substances that contain precious metals from production processes. As a leading manufacturer of precious metals products, the company also offers high quality materials and semi-finished products for the jewellery, wedding ring, electronics, electrical and dental industries. In the field of electroplating, surface refinements can be added to all of the metals and applied in a range of industries. Additional innovative product areas include investment products and the electroplating chemistry and equipment sector.

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further investments and developments. Today we focus on high tech, low volume products for customers in the automotive, renewable energy and industrial sectors.”

The acquisition of RUWEL and a strategic restructure in 2013 has put the company in a unique position, as it is now able to offer high reliability PCBs from both Europe and Asia thanks to its facility in Kunshan, China. From its German site, the company is able to offer benefits such as quick turnaround and short delivery times to European customers due to its highly flexible production lines and small to medium lot sizes where low minimum volume is required for highly

complex products. Cutting-edge technology used here includes HiCu profile, metal inlay, hybrid constructions and wirelaid. Meanwhile, the sister site, Unimicron Kunshan, focuses on high volume, cost-effective, yet high quality products that have few design changes over time. Although delivered from China, Gerard notes that the company has the same points of contact as the European plant.

“We are the only PCB company to be owned by a Taiwanese company, which means that if there is a problem in China we have some power to solve that problem for Europe; this offers reliability and instills confidence in our capabilities for our customers.”

RUWEL International

Alongside this restructure, RUWEL has also enhanced production services through a 20 million Euro investment from its parent company over the last two years to not only ensure a swift turnaround and optimum quality but also boost its reputation as a technological trendsetter. “Here in Geldern we have a fully digital plant, with a digital light source for our inner layers, outer layers and our solder mask,” says Gerard. “For the production process of the PCBs you must use a light source and with that light source you put a certain geometry on the resist. If you do this with conventional light you work with films and installing the films takes 15 to 20 minutes, however, with digital equipment you can do this behind a computer with an automated return; this reduces the time frame of this process. Next is the precision of conventional lights that you can make reliable; let’s say it is 100 micron line/space, but with LDI technology you can go down to 50/50, which is another advantage.”

Other capabilities are the 352 (263 contracts and 89 temporary contracts) employees, strong plant include production of PCBs from 2 to 16 layers, copper thickness from 18 μm to 210 μm and 400 μm, a volume range for serial production, from five square metres to 5000 square metres; mass production related prototyping and a wide range of technologies such as heat management, radio frequency, high current applications and

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RUWEL International

Atotech

Although Atotech’s history traces a long way back, the company was officially founded in 1993. Today, it’s a global leader in plating chemicals, equipment and services for printed circuit board (PCB), package substrate and semiconductor manufacturing, as well as decorative and functional surface finishing. Within the chemical sector, Atotech has developed distinct capabilities in two core businesses: electronics and general metal finishing. The company has its head-office in Berlin, Germany, with presence in 47 countries serving over 8,000 customers.

Along with a comprehensive range of solutions, Atotech is known in the industry for its extensive R&D, carried out at its TechCenters network. Equipped with latest technology, processes and highly skilled professionals, these TechCenters are also dedicated to ongoing trainings – both for their team and customers. The TechCenters have also helped Atotech build an unrivalled portfolio of sustainable solutions.

Atotech works in close collaboration with the customers each step of the development stage: from process development, sampling to qualification runs in production-sized plating lines. Two such customers include Ruwel international and Unimicron Group with whom Atotech has had a long-standing partnership.

optimisation for assembly and integration.

With approximately 50 PCBs in each modern day car, this major investment has not only put RUWEL at the forefront of PCB production thanks to its ability to develop highly complex products in a short time frame, but has also ensured it maintains its long-term reputation as a company to be trusted. “Our name is steeped in history and people trust us,” confirms Gerard. “On top of this, seeing is believing; if we have people come visit our site they are always impressed at our technology and strong performance.”

Nevertheless, compared to other companies, RUWEL views HDI, Semiflex and similar demanding technologies as tried and tested, and is instead focusing on consistently aiming higher. By constantly upgrading equipment and its processes, the company is able to produce capabilities with high reliability, high complexity, high speed, high current and heat management and intends to enhance technological innovations further over the coming years. For example, with a current aspect ratio of 10:1 for standard samples and 12:1 for small samples and small series products, the company intends to reach 12:1 to 14:1 respectively by 2018.

“By 2030 it is likely there will be fully autonomous driving cars, which need a lot of PCBs that we produce both at our Geldern site and our sister site in Kunshan. Another thing we will be focusing on is lowering our energy consumption, with the goal of having approximately 50 per cent of our energy consumption made by solar by 2035,” concludes Gerard.

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Grundfos Manufacturing

Get pumped!

Celebrating its 40th year in operation in 2013, Sunderland based Grundfos Manufacturing Limited has developed a leading reputation in advanced pump solutions and is viewed as a pioneer in water technology

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ith an annual production in excess of 16 million pump units, and 19,000 employees globally, Denmark-based Grundfos Group is one of the world’s leading pump manufacturers and the largest manufacturer

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of circulators, covering approximately 50 per cent of the global market. In addition to pumps, the group also produces standard and submersible motors as well as cutting-edge electronics for monitoring and controlling pumps.

These products are manufactured in the

BioBooster and Lifelink divisions, which form part of its new business activities, as Mark Lister, General Manager of Grundfos Manufacturing Limited, explains: “Grundfos is committed to delivering solutions that strengthen reliability and sustainability of water supply in the developing world. Grundfos Lifelink water solutions combine our innovative and reliable technology with professional service networks to support operations on the ground.

“We believe that partnerships across sectors and business model thinking are also needed to provide sustainable and scalable solutions. Grundfos addresses the missing link to sustainability in water supply through innovative Grundfos Lifelink solutions that take a holistic and long-term approach.”

On top of this, the group has also introduced Grundfos Blueflux, a new technology label that ensures equipment is of optimum quality.

Since its establishment in 1945, Grundfos Group has expanded to more than 55 countries and is represented by over 80 companies such as the UK based subsidiary Grundfos Manufacturing Limited. Based in Sunderland, the 190-strong

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The Grundfos brand is synonymous with quality. We are a premium brand that the customer trusts as they know Grundfos has the performance and history that will ensure success for their projects.

In England, our focus is developing customeroriented solutions; as more than just a pump company, we can provide full offsite manufactured solutions to meet our customers’ needs company works closely with other UK based subsidiaries Grundfos Pumps Limited, Bedforshire, Grundfos Service, Lancashire, and Grundfos Watermill, Kent.

It is in Sunderland that the company produces and distributes items, from small domestic circulators through to larger applications that go into buildings in the UK and Ireland; these include the Shard and Heron Towers in London. The company also manufactured a range of products to support the Olympics in 2012.

Discussing the company’s operations, Mark explains: “The Grundfos brand is synonymous with quality. We are a premium brand that the customer trusts as they know Grundfos has the performance and history that will ensure success for their projects. In England, our focus is developing customer-oriented solutions; as more than just a pump company, we can provide full offsite manufactured solutions to meet our customers’ needs.

Although globally there are pressures in some of our core markets, in the UK we see strong growth in this area across commercial building services, fire suppression and water utility markets.”

Despite a continued focus on domestic water pumps, Grundfos Manufacturing Limited made the strategic decision to diversify its services with bespoke solutions in 2014 after developing a range of engineered-to-order fire suppressant units. Targeting the engineer-to-order sector, the company has been creating specially made fire suppressant packaged pump houses (PPH) to meet its customers’ specific needs, a move that resulted in seven contract wins in 2014 for delivery to customers including an oil refinery, a Welsh hospital and a UK power station.

Suitable for schools, commercial buildings, retail outlets, general industry, MoD and hospitals, the PPH’s are constructed, pre-wired and tested to individual site requirements at the company’s Sunderland facility prior to dispatch. They can also be built fully compliant to any known fire standard and can cater for virtually any quantity of pumps required. Furthermore, they are fitted with a choice of components from trusted suppliers to guarantee a robust yet cost-effective solution. Having passed all quality checks and achieved duty parameters that prevent incorrectly sized equipment reaching the site, units will arrive at the customer’s facility ready to be connected externally, mechanically and electrically. Because the products start immediately, customers benefit from reducing labour and time on site costs.

In addition to this product development, Grundos Manufacturing Limited - as well as the group as a whole - is focusing on Innovation Intent, a programme targeting sustainability, a changing world and ground-breaking technology. One example of this is the company reducing its consumption of clean water by 15 per cent, corresponding to 300 cubic metres, in line with the group’s water strategy of halving its consumption of clean water by 2025 in comparison to numbers in 2008.

To make this reduction possible, the company is using rainwater to flush toilets in part of its factory as well as in its newly renovated offices through a rainwater system that it developed.

Taken from a downpipe that collects water from a roof covering some 2000

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Grundfos Manufacturing

metres, the water is then led to a three cubicmetre tank before it is pumped to where it is used via a small holding tank that is automatically supplied with mains during dry periods. All valves, sensors and pumps in the system are monitored and controlled via a dedicated Grundfos Rainwater System controller, which is now marketed externally. So far, the rainwater system has been sold to 200 customers in Belgium, while

the Sunderland based firm considers reducing its water consumption further through increasing

the capacity of its tank and connecting new pipes to more toilets.

Within the city of Sunderland, Grundfos Manufacturing Limited is seen as key player in the community. The company is one of the city’s largest employers and regularly raises money – internally and externally – for local charities, as well as being a long-term supporter of a special needs academy in the city. Grundfos also supports local children’s football teams.

Mark Lister is a key member of the Sunderland Business Group, an important body of city business leaders, as well as the regional North East Chamber of Commerce. The company is also a founding supporter of the city’s Work Discovery Week, which links the city’s schools with its largest employers.

The Sunderland site prides itself on its impeccable health and safety record. Last year the company celebrated three years without a serious accident – quite an achievement for a busy manufacturing plant. A few months previously, GML had been awarded the prestigious gold award from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) for its health and safety record and the innovative measures it had introduced in Sunderland.

Moving forward, Grundfos Manufacturing will remain focused on maintaining and enhancing its existing product range to meet the needs of clients in the future. It will also develop an engineered-to-order service for larger products and commercial applications that go offsite, which will enable it to design, build and distribute bespoke commercial engineered-to-order systems and solutions that will go into some of the most iconic buildings in the UK and Ireland.

Grundfos Manufacturing Limited

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Capital Coated Steel

We’ve got you

covered Gary Hunt, Managing Director

Following a relocation to premises at the North Black Vein Industrial Estate, Wattsville, Capital Coated Steel anticipates a turnover of more than £40 million in 2016 as it seeks to diversify its broad customer base

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s Europe’s largest independent specialist distributor of precoated steel, Capital Coated Steel processes more than 70,000 tonnes of steel annually to all pre-coated steel markets in Europe and further afield and boasts a strong reputation as a leading expert in its field.

“Capital Coated Steel was set up in 1972 by my father John Hunt, when the market for precoated steel was in its infancy, mainly supplying the roofing and cladding market. The company has grown with the boom in the product’s usage over the decades and now reports a turnover of nearly £40 million,” begins Gary Hunt, Managing Director at Capital Coated Steel. “Our core markets are very broad and include automotive, domestic appliances, building exteriors and interiors, ceilings, lighting, office furniture, electronic enclosures, office furniture, doors and garages, food panel industries and manufacturers, air conditioning and the refrigeration industry.

Effectively, if you need a steel box, large or small, it can be made from pre-coated steel.”

Products within the group’s portfolio include Laminates for interior or exterior application, Co-Laminates for surface critical applications, Polyester for internal or external use, Tata Colorcoat Prisma, a range of technically superior building products; Tata Colorcoat HPS200 Ultra, reliable, durable, building envelope products, Tata Colorcoat LG, affordable, high performance building products, and PVDF with exceptional UV resistance.

Elaborating on the advantages of pre-coated steel in comparison to post powder coating steel, Gary continues: “There are huge environmental and cost benefits as our customers do not need to invest in a powder-coating plant or face the energy, time, resources and costs involved in running one. It also allows for better quality control as our pre-coated steel is delivered to the highest standards from the best mills. Purchasing pre-coated steel from Capital Coated Steel also means that we handle the whole supply chain on behalf of our customer, reducing the pressure on resources and space internally.”

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Meanwhile, the group’s services include corrugating and profiling, multi blanking and decoiling, warehousing and distribution, slitting and shearing. For corrugating and profiling, the group offers four types of roll formed strip; box profiled sheets that are available in 32 mm or 26 mm deep, 16 mm liner panel and 19 mm corrugated sheet that conforms with the requirements of BS 3083:1988. If condensation is an issue, anticondensation felt can be offered on both 32 mm

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and 26 mm box profiles. Meanwhile, for multi blanking & decoiling, the group has over 40 years of experience in decoiling, edge trimming, centreslitting, multi-stranding and filming. Decoiled sheets can range from as small as 100 mm to more than 6000 mm, with a gauge range from 0.2 to 2.0 mm. It now has slitting capacity from 0.15 mm to 1.6 mm thick and from 6mm wide up to 1600 mm.

Complementing the group’s long-term

Capital Coated Steel First Minister of Wales Carwyn Jones with Gary Hunt

expertise is its commitment to continuous improvement, with millions invested in new equipment and facilities to ensure it operates with enough capacity and efficiencies to not only meet the demands of global players, but also niche firms. This way of operating has resulted in an enviable reputation for putting the customer first.

The most notable investment in recent years for the group took place in 2015, with almost

four million pounds spent on the purchase and refurbishment of the former Tata Steel plant in Wattsville, South Wales. Acquired to create new headquarters and a production base for all companies within the group under one roof, the relocation has enabled all 110 employees within the group, including those at Brunel Steel Services, a supplier of non-prime, pre-finished steels, Forall decoiling and shearing services, Macward Steel Slitting Services and Odoni-Elwell, cycle storage

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Capital Coated Steel

consultants to work in a more collaborative environment and also take advantage of a more efficient and cutting edge plant.

The new site has also provided Capital Coated Steel with significantly increased capacity, which enables it to meet the growing worldwide demand for its products. In line with this increased capacity, the investment also naturally included the acquisition of new equipment, as Gary highlights: “In 2015, Capital Coated Steel invested £3.5 million in a new 130,000 square foot premises and the very latest equipment including a two million dollar light gauge slitting line.

Manufactured by Red Bud Industries of Illinois, US, which also assisted in the installation of the new line, the machine is capable of slitting 300 metres of coated steel a minute and over 500 tonnes a day. The new slitting machine is in addition to the company’s three other slitting machines, three cut-to-length lines, two guillotines and three roll formers for roofing and cladding.”

With up to 20 per cent of its turnover being exported to Europe, Capital Coated Steel is faced with a challenging market due to the strength of the pound over the Euro; however, as a group that remained profitable during the recession, it is quietly confident about its future.

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As demand increases for its products, the group plans a period of consolidation.

“In the last two years we have invested a lot of money in getting the right processes and facilities in place. We are now returning to full production, having made the biggest move in the company’s history with minimal disruption for our customers, so the next 12 months will be spent using that investment to the fullest and continuing to build and maintain relationships with our customers. We are also continually looking at new markets, especially niche markets, and making the most of our recent investments to further expand across Europe with the goal of further cementing our position as Europe’s largest independent specialist distributor of pre-coated steel. We have a philosophy of being easy to deal with. Call us and we’ll do our best to fulfill all your pre-coated steel needs,” concludes Gary.

Capital Coated Steel Products/Services: Pre-coated steel www.capitalcs.com

Swift Group Laufenberg

The drive to

thrive

Innovation, value for money and customer engagement all define Swift’s current success and with momentum growing the future looks bright for the UK’s leading caravan manufacturer

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Behind this success we have a very sound business and a management team with over a hundred years worth of combined experience and a fantastic team of people that are aligned to the company vision of delivering the very best market-leading products

Nick Page

ow employing over 1000 staff and turning over more than £200 million annually, Swift Group has grown to become the UK’s largest leisure vehicle manufacturer since it was first established back in 1964. With a range of products designed to suit all budgets and requirements, Swift is the leader in the tourer caravan and motorhome markets with shares of 40 per cent and 22 per cent, respectively.

Possessing a 20 per cent share it is also amongst the leading producers of holiday homes.

When Manufacturing Today Europe featured Swift back in May 2015, Group Commercial Director, Nick Page, spoke of the company’s approach to innovation and the unprecedented growth it was experiencing, achieving record sales and having already sold out of its 2016 season motorhome production capacity. Today, the success story continues with improved sales

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Swift Kon-Tiki

performance and a number of awards under its belt. “All our products have been greatly in demand over the last few years,” Nick begins.

“Last season we sold out a little too early and this season is looking similar.”

Whist the domestic UK market remains a key stage for Swift, over the past few years its export activities have seen considerable growth, notably increasing 34 per cent over the past two years. Putting this into context, in 2015 the company placed 95th in the Sunday Times Top Track 200 for Britain’s Private Companies with the Fastest Growth in International Sales. Markets for the group now extend across the globe from Europe and Iceland to Sri Lanka, South Korea and Australasia.

“Behind this success we have a very sound business and a management team with over a hundred years worth of combined experience and a fantastic team of people that are aligned to the company vision of delivering the very best market-leading products,” Nick explains. “In terms of our products we deliver an outstanding array of features including SMART HT – the world’s most advanced caravan construction system – innovative styles and designs, and great value products, all supplemented by an ability to react quickly to market demands.”

The latest addition to Swift’s innovative range of product features is Swift Command, which features across the top end of both its caravan and motorhome ranges giving customers the ability to monitor and control certain features like lighting and heating remotely via the internet or through an app.

Such commitment to delivering high quality product offerings to the market has resulted in a number of prestigious awards over the years. Most recently Swift was awarded the Best Family Caravan under £15,500 at the National Caravan Awards 2016 for the Sprite Freedom 6TD package it offers. Providing exceptional affordable value for families, the caravan utilises the innovative SMART Plus construction process that is normally reserved for the more expensive models. “We were also recently awarded the Luxury Tourer of the Year 2016 for the Elegance/ Continental range from Caravan Times,” highlights Nick. “Importantly this was voted for by actual customers, rather than journalists, and is testament to the high quality product offering and superb user experience our customers have had with this exceptional range of caravans.”

Also helping to solidify its position as a leading player in this consumer market is an exemplary approach to marketing. “We have run a number of different initiatives that have worked for us over the last 12 months such as ‘First Time Buyer’ and ‘Swift Experience’,” Nick continues. “These

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Swift Group Swift Escape

Swift Elegance

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Overall we have a very exciting year ahead and are looking forward to the new 2017 season where we have some exciting product launches including a new highly appealing leisure vehicle targeted at attracting new customers to the industry

are designed with the aim of attracting new customers to the industry, to visit shows and to hopefully help them on their way to leisure vehicle ownership. The ‘Swift Experience’ follows several existing Swift owners via social media and PR activity showcasing how appealing ownership is and the myriad of opportunities it opens up.

We believe that this has definitely encouraged new customers into the industry.”

To cope with such popular success and the ensuing growth, Swift undergoes a continuous programme of investment to improve manufacturing capabilities and increase production capacity. Back in May 2015 Nick mentioned the £1.5 million investment into a state-of-the-art CNC router, and it is currently in the middle of a further £1.75 million programme to install a new laminating facility. The new facility will allow the company to produce panels to a high quality standard as well as enabling it to change the technical specification of its entire touring caravan and motorhome product line up bringing noticeable customer benefits.

“In addition to this a new assembly hall will be built adjacent to the current production facility here in Cottingham allowing us to consolidate our holiday home business onto one site,” says Nick.

“The new facility will also incorporate a large covered storage area for just-in-time component delivery. Preparatory works have already started with the main element due for completion before

April 2018 giving us the additional production flexibility with an enhanced ability to respond appropriately to the market. Ultimately, it clearly signals the business’ intent over the coming years to increase its production capacity.”

Over the next year Swift plans to continue its trailblazing progress in the industry with further innovative product, service and initiative launches further anchoring the company at the forefront of the industry across its entire range. On a concluding note Nick sums up the company’s positivity as it looks towards the future: “We will be continuing our sponsorship of Team Wiggins in partnership with Sir Bradley Wiggins and are providing two new 2016 motorhomes for the team to use during the Olympic build up. Overall we have a very exciting year ahead and are looking forward to the new 2017 season where we have some exciting product launches including a new highly appealing leisure vehicle targeted at attracting new customers to the industry.”

Swift Group Products: UK’s leading manufacturer of motorhomes, caravans and holiday homes www.swiftgroup.co.uk

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Cheesman Products (Automotive) Ltd

A stainless

record

With a history dating back over more than four decades, Cheesman Products (Automotive) Ltd. represents one of Europe’s most experienced exhaust system manufacturers

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ince John Cheesman and his wife Mary founded the company in 1973, Cheesman has earned an admirable reputation in the design and fabrication of stainless steel products, specialising in tube bending and the production of exhaust systems.

John’s extensive industry experience was a major factor in Cheesman becoming well known throughout the market. While John and Mary took semi-retirement in 2002, Cheesman is still owned and managed by the Cheesman family and continues the tradition of fabricating high quality stainless steel tubular products.

“Cheesman produces original equipment parts for low volume vehicle manufacturers. This can range from sports cars and mobility vehicles through to road sweepers and military vehicles.

We have supplied some of our customers since the mid-1970s and continue to do so,” elaborates Managing Director, Paul Cheesman. “We see ourselves as a dependable and approachable company and can offer extensive manufacturing

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experience, exemplary customer service and on-time delivery records that speak for themselves. Our attention to detail in the manufacture of parts and our ability to listen to our customers’ requirements are key factors in how we operate.”

By working in close collaboration with clients, Cheesman is able to design and manufacture a portfolio of products that typically comprises exhaust systems including front pipes, silencers, tailpipes, water pipes, air cleaner pipes and an extensive variety of welded assemblies. The initial

development of products can be undertaken using the intended vehicle to ensure simplicity of design, functionality and best fit, before the creation of a ‘master pattern’ from which all subsequent parts can be derived. As an alternative to using the vehicle, existing parts or engineering drawings can also be used to create the master pattern. The company’s in-house coordinate measuring machine (CMM) capability is finally employed for checking the accuracy of dimensions of parts.

Cheesman is an expert in delivering parts that fit the unique needs of its clients within the automotive market. Batch quantities manufactured by the company are typically of between ten and 500 units, depending on the product, but quantities as low as five off can be catered for if required. These products are predominantly manufactured in 304 stainless steel, but can also be fabricated in 409 stainless or mild steel should the client have a particular need.

Its depth of knowledge in exhaust manufacture, ensures that Cheesman can offer optimum design solutions that make practical, economic and aesthetic sense. The company’s dedication to delivering high-quality and on-time product solutions has enabled it to develop on-going customer relationships that, in some cases, have lasted for as long as 40 years. “In 2015 Cheesman

delivered 98.1 per cent of its products on time despite moving premises and the machines being ‘down’ for the period of one month. Factoring out the move we would have delivered 99.83 per cent on time,” Paul reveals. “We strongly believe that any customer who uses us as a supplier deserves to receive their products on the date that they requested and that those products both fit the vehicle and perform as intended. This is especially important when supplying direct to a vehicle production line as we do by means of our Kanban delivery service. With a long history of content customers and minimal returns or rejects our products and designs have shown themselves to be truly impressive.”

The company’s move to new premises has given it the opportunity to further expand its manufacturing capacity to meet the technically demanding requirements of its clients. The business, based in Woking until April 2015, started with a single manually operated hydraulic mandrel tube bending machine with a capacity of ø1.1/2” x 20 swg, which is still owned by the company today for posterity. Currently Cheesman operates from a 17,000 sq ft, specially refurbished facility, located in Ash Vale, on the Surrey/Hampshire border. Over the years the company has continued to invest in machinery and equipment

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We strongly believe that any customer who uses us as a supplier deserves to receive their products on the date that they requested and that those products both fit the vehicle and perform as intended

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Cheesman Products (Automotive) Ltd

and now has a range of CNC tube bending machines with the ability to bend up to ø4”. This investment has increased not only the company’s manufacturing capacity, but also the demand for increased workspace within the business, resulting in the move to its current location. With the company’s move successfully completed, Cheesman will seek to continue to expand its service to clients old and new.

“During our time in Woking we initially increased the size of our premises by adding mezzanine flooring. Later we took on an

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additional unit to the two that we already occupied. We were overdue a move to larger premises but finding somewhere that met our requirements proved difficult. However we now have an enhanced layout of machines and space in which to better organise our production runs.

We are looking to make use of our improved facilities by expanding our customer base with the view to forging more long-standing client relationships with companies in a variety of market sectors,” Paul concludes. “I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the contribution made by our staff, some of whom have been with us from the mid 1970s. Our team takes pride in their work and the products they make by following the Cheesman philosophy of keeping the customer happy at all times!”

Cheesman Products (Automotive) Ltd Products: Original equipment parts for low volume vehicle manufacturers www.cheesmanproducts.co.uk

Iggesund Paperboard

A neat

package

With a rich heritage extending back for more than 300 years, Iggesund Paperboard AB has developed a leading reputation specialising in the manufacture of paperboard for the packaging and graphics sectors

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ggesund Paperboard was founded within Sweden’s Hudiksvall municipality during 1685 and since its incorporation the company has continuously striven for quality and innovation. The business began with the production of highquality tissue paper and made the decision to expand into the production of paperboard for packaging in 1963.

Managing the new venture under the brand name Invercote, the decision to diversify represented a strategic choice to enter into the manufacture of paperboard at a time when there was no regional market for the product and relatively little know-how regarding the technology used during production.

The move to diversify into the manufacture of paperboard would prove to be a highly successful decision for Iggesund and today the company has more than 50 years of expertise and paperboard know-how. The business operates as part of the Holmen Group and is recognised as a strong contributor to the Group’s overall financial strength. Holmen generated 15,994 MSEK during 2014, with an operating profit of circa 1284 MSEK. The company has land ownership comprising some 1.3 million hectares, encompassing one million hectares of productive forest and 218,000 hectares in natural reserves.

Today Iggesund manufactures its lines of paperboard products under its Ivercote and Incada brands. The Invercote family of products is produced from pure virgin fibre sourced from sustainably managed Swedish forests. The brand has an established reputation as one of the world’s best performing paperboard for packaging and graphical applications. It is a multilayered solid bleached board (SBB) that is preferred by some of the most demanding brand owners in a number of industry sectors for its durability, versatility and taint and odour neutrality. The Incada family consists of products that are customised for different end-user applications. Incada is manufactured to the highest quality and holds a prominent position within the market as a multilayered folding box board (FBB) that is based entirely on virgin fibre of known and traceable origin.

Incada is used for various graphical applications, such as picture postcards, brochures and book covers, and also for the packaging of cosmetics, health care items, confectionery, pharmaceuticals and tobacco products. Incada is also an ideal base for plastic extrusion coating and laminations.

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Iggesund Paperboard

Since the first introduction of its Invercote brand, Iggesund has steadily increased its presence within the global market. The Invercote and Imcada lines are manufactured in two state-of-the-art mills, located within Iggesund’s mill in Sweden and its Workington mill in the UK. Incada products are manufactured at the company’s Workington mill, which is fully powered by biofuel, while Invercote products are produced at the Iggesund mill using 99 per cent biofuel, although on occasion the plant is run fully on biofuel, such as during December 2014 for example. Furthermore, Iggesund also adds further value to its Invercote and Incada brands at its converting plant located within Strömsbruk in Sweden, where it applies various barriers and surface films and foils.

Paperboard is combined with various plastics, films, foils or other additional paperboard layers, to attain specific properties. The choice of material is determined by the desired property and complete descriptions of the product can be acquired by studying the specifications of the laminate together with those of the paperboard products itself. The applied barriers can protect against moisture, grease and heat, as well as further strengthen the paperboard, or combine several of these functions. Iggesund Paperboard representatives often participate in the packaging development of its clients, thereby acquiring a broad overview of packaging solutions. This knowledge can help determine the best solution for the product’s journey through the distribution system from

manufacturer to consumer. In addition to what is presented in the Iggesund catalogue, there are other products and combinations paperboard solutions available.

Further to its on-going push for creative solutions and innovation, environmental awareness and sustainability are key objectives for Iggesund.

This was demonstrated in November 2015, when the company was awarded the Environmental and Energy Awareness Award at the CN Group Business Awards. The event’s judges selected Iggesund as the victors in recognition of the scale of the contribution to the reduction in fossil fuel CO2 emissions resulting from its investment in its Workington biofuel CHP plant. The biomass boiler at the Workington mill was started during 2013 and was an investment of 1305 MSEK (£108 million). The reduction of fossil carbon dioxide emissions is equal to taking 65,000 cars off the road.

The company was also acknowledged for having shown commitment to improving its impact on the environment through a dedicated and structured approach to maximising its process efficiencies within its wider pulpmill, boardmachine and finishing operations over the years. This is exemplified by ongoing work in preparation for certification under Energy Management Standard ISO 50001 to complement the existing Environmental Management Standard 14001.

“We can be very proud of the award and what it recognises in Iggesund Paperboard. It is a reminder that we have achieved an enormous amount already in recent years,” commented Jonny Lowe, head of HR at Iggesund Paperboard’s Workington Mill. “We still have some exciting developments ahead in this area and through people continuing to engage with identifying and proposing ideas and opportunities for our future energy and environmental improvements we will be able to maintain this progress into the future.”

Iggesund remains committed to providing the best standards of quality, as well as the highest standards of customer service to new and existing clients. To further demonstrate what the business is cable of, Iggesund has been busy during 2016 attending industry events including DSCOOP Tel Aviv, LuxePack Shanghai and DSCOOP San Antonio. With a firmly established reputation and high market visibility, Iggesund is a proven marketleader in packaging solutions.

Iggesund Paperboard AB Products: Manufacture of paperboard for the packaging and graphics sectors

www.iggesund.com

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VCST Industrial Products

Geared

up

As a key supplier to the automotive industry, VCST’s commitment to innovation and customer relationships have been critical to it occupying such a leading position in the market

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irst established in 1972 as a subsidiary of the DAF and Volvo Group, VCST Industrial Products is now a key supply partner to some of the biggest and most reputable names in the automotive industry.

Volkswagen Group, General Motors and Ford count amongst its light passenger vehicle market, whilst Caterpillar Perkins, DAF PACCAR and Cummins feature in the medium-heavy client list.

The company’s current market offering mainly encompasses toothed components, as in gears for engine and transmission applications, but also includes related shaft and brake products. It is a portfolio which has very much developed out of VCST’s close engagement with the industry as a key supplier as well as its unrivalled manufacturing capability.

Current CEO Eric Willekens explains that at the turn of the new millennium engine technology within the passenger vehicle industry progressed in a number of ways demanding a partial transition from belts and chains, that had previously been relied upon for timing applications,

to geared systems. What has followed is a period of market growth facilitated by VCST’s innovative development of geared timing and NVH-mitigating (noise, vibration and harshness) engine-balancing systems. “Today you can find gears in a whole variety of applications,” he explains. “From camto-cam and balancing applications to the accurate timing of all kinds of periphery devices like oil pumps, fuel pumps and HVAC systems.

“As such our business is split into three divisions: engine applications; transmissions, which includes both gears and shafts because customers wanted a one-stop-shop for these interacting components; and aluminium brake blocks for electronic brake systems, which again resulted from our machining capacity and existing customer relationships.”

Over its history VCST has developed an unrivalled depth of specialist knowledge within the fields of gear geometry and design and this, as Eric points out, is one of the company’s key USPs. “A lot of customers praise us for our competence and knowledge in the design and development

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of complete gear systems and turnkey solutions, and this recognition has often been realised by a number of key supplier awards,” he highlights.

“Over the years we have been able to exploit this competence and have set up a fully-fledged R&D department to support our engineering operations and ensure that we can be a good partner to all of our customers in the design and development of new solutions. Very often OEMs and T1 suppliers, who are confronted with new engine designs and regulations, knock on our doors to ask for support in the development of associated gear components.”

Enhancing this approach to innovation is a strong globalisation strategy – one that has defined VCST’s growth over the past 15 years.

Starting in 2001 with the opening of plants in Germany and the US, new sites in Mexico, China and Romania have followed and it is now active in five of its ‘best-cost’ markets. “This not only provides excellent customer proximity in the various regions where they are most active, but it is also a major strength of us as we embark on global projects for our customers whilst still supplying them from local sources,” Eric continues.

However, whilst a lot of VCST’s strength comes

2-S - Petrofer

New generation of base oil (= GtL technology) with low emission and excellent cutting and grinding properties.

Established in 1948, Petrofer is a privately owned company, located in Hildesheim, Germany. As a result of continuous research and development, high levels of innovation and extensive expertise, Petrofer has continued to optimise its products by working in close cooperation with customers like VCST, ZF and VW. Today, with over 600 high-quality chemical products, Petrofer is one of the world’s leading companies for industrial lubricants, specialised liquids and process technologies, with 42 locations worldwide. For the Benelux area 2-S is Petrofer’s partner for its portfolio and technical support. 2-S is an ISO9001 company with its own lab facilities.

Visit 2-S at the TechniShow in Utrecht, Netherlands 15-18 March 2016, to hear about innovations about emulsions, neat oils and cleaners. Exhibition hall 12, booth C 119

Your technologic innovative partner in fluids for the metal industry www.petrofer.com www.2-s.eu

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VCST Industrial Products

from within, as it continues to innovate both alongside and ahead of its customers’ trends and demands, Eric is also keen to reward its own key supply partnerships. In particular he points out grinding specialist Reishauer, which has been essential in providing top quality solutions to the wider market. “During gear development it is very important to understand NVH characteristics and in terms of geared components these issues arrive at the point of contact between two gears,” he explains.

“In order to mitigate this NVH behaviour you have to be able to control the microgeometry of the gear and this is a very intricate process. We rely very heavily on our state-of-the-art tooling and equipment in ensuring we can meet these high quality requirements during the finishing operations and working with our suppliers at both the development and operation stages results in a very good marriage. This helps develop a fully integrated value chain to reach the best results for our end customers.”

As it progresses along this path of continued development VCST aims to invest around 10-12 per cent of its total revenues into ensuring it can remain competitive in a wider industry that is always moving forward. By looking carefully at these strategic decisions, standardising its solutions and operations as best as possible is key to ensuring it can create long-term sustainability whilst keeping its customers and its relationships with those customers at the heart of everything it does. Not only is it investment into cutting-edge technology alongside its suppliers that facilitates this, but also its continued approach to idea generation and the industrialisation of its core competencies and patented solutions.

In 2015 VCST experienced its biggest year yet with a turnover of 170 million euros, the third consecutive year of ten per cent growth, and continuing this trajectory is a defining feature of the company’s future outlook. “In line with this aspiration the biggest challenge for us is managing growth to ensure that we can be sustainable in the long-term in light of a market that has the potential to can fluctuate quite quickly,” Eric comments. “Therefore over the course of 2016 will be looking at managing and establishing our newest plants in Romania and China where we see the biggest growth coming from in the near future, and ensuring we can balance our global presence in the best way.”

Furthermore, by making significant steps with its globalisation and innovation strategy, continuing

to support and develop its people will also play a key role in achieving further success over the coming years. Eric notes that nourishing and nurturing the talents and creativity of its employees is essential to VCST’s future and it is this commitment, combined with its unique customer relationships within the automotive market that will drive the business’s success well into the future.

VCST Industrial Products Products: Specialist manufacturers of automotive gear and brake components

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MORNOS

Containing

growth Continued investment means that MORNOS has its sights set on a growing European market

M

ORNOS was first founded in 1991 as a packaging materials manufacturing company in Thiva, Greece and in the years that have followed it has grown through a strategy of acquired and organic growth to become one of the country’s leading packaging firms. Predominantly active in the food industry, Mornos has a vast range of state-of-theart manufacturing facilities and demonstrates a number of different capabilities including injection moulding, thermoforming and printing. What results is a portfolio that encompasses everything from flexible and rigid plastic solutions to bottle crates, barrels, carton boxes and a variety of paper packaging solutions.

“It is this complete range of capabilities and our cutting edge equipment combined with the broad knowhow and experience of our people that really sets us apart in the market,” begins Marketing and Exports manager Sifis Kalfaoglou.

“This is then bolstered by an extensive client base

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made up of major multinationals.” Amongst this client list sits a host of high profile international household names like Heineken, Nestlé, Carrefour, Coca Cola, Pepsico, Fabulous Bakin’ Boys, The Co-operative Group, Unilever and Shell.

Sifis notes that the vast majority of MORNOS’ activities revolve around the food sector, and its manufacturing facilities aptly illustrate both the reach of its expertise and the types of products delivered to market. “We have three different segments in our production line,” he outlines.

“The first involves our thermoforming and injection processes, which can provide printed, sleeved or labelled cups and containers. The customer base here is mainly the dairy industries for yoghurt and ice cream, but also for retailers and distributors for the disposable items they produce.

“The second is our flexible packaging line, which is accompanied by both Flexo and Gravure printing machines. Sitting within this is a selection of laminators, slitters, punching machines for aluminium foils, and converting machines for different bag shapes. PE extruder lines and a fully equipped prepress room support this capability.

Finally we have our Litho printing line for the manufacturing of printed cartons from cardboard up to 600gsm. Window patching, paper cup printing, UV coating and gold foil are all features made possible by this line.”

The majority of this production is carried out at the company’s main facility, now based close to Athens, which provides 300,000 square metres of space (40,000 square metres of which is covered), including warehouse capacity. However, a manufacturing site in Albania adds plastic barrel and irrigation pipe manufacturing facilities to the portfolio. Investment into equipment and

procedures to maintain this highly modern, stateof-the-art capacity is an ongoing commitment.

A dedicated R&D department ensures that the development of particular solutions and products are adapted inline with customer needs. Whilst Sifis expresses that much of its product line is

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MORNOS

made up of standard components, it is able to work with its clients to ensure it can come up with the most cost effective solutions. A pre-press department also maintains strong co-operative relationships with customers’ marketing experts to ensure that the best possible presence of the final product.

“Quality is also a major commitment for us at MORNOS and we have all the relevant certifications for the products that we supply, from ISO 9001 to BRC/IOP and IMS/FDA regulations,” explains Sifis. “Supplying into the food

industry means we take this responsibility very seriously and, as such, our qualifications cover all food safety aspects and related standards.”

Sitting next to its responsibility for high quality standards is MORNOS’ approach to its environmental impact and sustainable performance. Whilst it actively works to comply with the ISO 14001 environmental management system, the company also demonstrates a proactive attitude through a number of initiatives.

For instance when it comes to energy usage, over recent years the business has installed modern lighting equipment throughout its plants, which has resulted in a marked 80 per cent reduction in power for lighting needs. On top of this it is currently exploring the possibility of natural gas usage.

Furthermore, the business commits to an emissions management system (RTO), a rigorous recycling programme and ensures that its secondary packaging materials are made from 70 per cent recycled paper alongside the reuse of pallets. In addition to this a team of R&D engineers research and collaborate on a continuous basis to improve its own product offerings with the aim to lessening their environmental, social and economical impact.

Business for MORNOS at present is strong with particular growth coming from its export market. Continued investment into its facilities and product development will be key to securing further expansion in Western Europe, which will be a key strategic driver for the company over the coming months. Securing this ambition will take the company one step closer to achieving its ultimate vision to be the most credible and effective partner for its customers, aiding them through a complete range of solutions and services to reach product success.

MORNOS Products: Leading Greek packaging firm www.mo.gr

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IPG Photonics UK

Broadeninghorizons IPG Photonics continues to bring new innovations to market, which are designed to drive value and efficiency into high-value production processes

A

s an internationally leading supplier of high power fibre lasers and amplifiers, IPG Photonics is revolutionising the performance and utility of manufacturing across numerous applications and industries from materials processing and micromachining, to telecommunications, medical and other advanced applications. From four production facilities in the US, Germany, Russia & Italy and supportive sales offices in the United Kingdom, Japan, Korea, India and across Europe, the company is the leading vertically integrated manufacturer. IPG has developed a strong reputation for leading design, quality and supply.

Due to its unique approach to product innovation, the company has strategically placed itself within the manufacturing industry as a leader of technical solutions, displacing traditional products with superior performance and value.

One display of this revolution in practice is with

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the development of IPG’s Laser Seam Stepper (LSS) system.

“The LSS is designed as a ready alternative to traditional Resistance Spot Welding (RSW),” explains Director of Sales and Service at IPG Photonics UK, Mark Thompson. “In transportation the market is moving towards the use of lightweight materials and there is often a need to join lightweight or dissimilar materials. The LSS will complete production grade joins in half the cycle time of RSW and is capable of joining dissimilar materials; typically aluminium to automotive grade steel or another grade of aluminium.”

Within the automotive industry, and other high-volume production environments, RSW has dominated production lines for years, despite the high process speed and increased component strength offered by earlier laser joining technologies. One key advantage afforded by traditional RSW is the integrated clamping technology that retains the workpiece safely,

accurately and repeatedly. The LSS system from IPG was developed to combine the advantages of the RSW clamping technology with a faster laserwelding process.

The LSS is designed to be a maintenance free fibre laser combined with a simple robotic C-gun clamp tool that results in superior process speeds and inherent safety features. An integrated laser welding head within the G-gun clamp realises the X-Y welding motions. The system will only release its laser power when the clamp is in full contact with the material to be welded, so that safety is built-in by design. The basic version of the tool is capable of welding linear seams with a typical length of 20-50mm. A beam wobble function allows a characteristic weave pattern to manipulate the welding seam, increasing the weld area.

In terms of process speed, a typical stepping operation with 30mm welding seams, spaced by 30mm achieves a welding velocity around

connection to laser sources

connection to laser sources

component

30mm in 1.7-2.0 seconds. Within the context of automotive ‘body-in-white’ processes, when compared to traditional RSW applications, significant time and cost reductions are realised.

For example an RSW cycle of 30 joints might take 75 seconds. The LSS tool, will achieve similar weld criteria with only 15 seams; taking only 37 seconds. With less floor space and less capital investment cost the overall benefits of upgrading from RSW to LSS are clear to see.

“The LSS system has been primarily adopted in automotive overlap welding and aluminium joining after four years production and development in a fully-automated car plant,” Mark continues. “Within this environment there are a number of other benefits that present themselves. For example, not only does LSS provide the ability to weld dissimilar materials, but it also allows for the overlap width to be reduced without compromising joining performance. This results in reduced weight

and improved passenger viewing angles.”

As a representative example of this, the clamping brackets of the LSS tool will allow vehicle designers and manufacturers to reduce the flanges from 15mm (required for RSW) to a range from 6-10mm, depending on application.

This not only facilitates noticeably larger passenger viewing angles but can also increase the A/B pillar entrance areas by eight per cent and significantly reduce weight.

To further demonstrate the competitive advantage that the LSS tool brings to the automotive industry, Berlin-based INPRO, which counts names such as Daimler, Volkswagen and Siemens as its partners, carried out an economic comparison between wobbled-beam LSS and RSW methods. After review, it was concluded that the performance of the wobbled seam produced by the new LSS welding module is comparable to or even better than RSW, whilst completing

the task in half the time.

Significantly this can result in a cost reduction of six to ten per cent under an assumed condition that sees a fully automated production run of 800 units in a three-shift operation.

“It is important to note that the LSS system can be applied successfully to any high-volume production industry where steel or aluminium is widely used,” Mark points out, noting in particular the maritime and furniture industries that have already adopted the technology in some places. “Until now the system has gone through a programme of continuous development and future improvement processes will remain aligned with customer demand. As such, we are open to working with major manufacturers to enhance the benefits of LSS for their applications.”

The LSS system is a key example of how IPG approaches the international market to drive value and efficiency into new and existing manufacturing processes; in doing so IPG helps facilitate its customers’ transition into the future.

With the growth of high value manufacturing ongoing at a considerable pace, the company has paid particular attention to its UK business by investing in a new UK Sales and Service Centre.

“With this established our UK team now have the responsibility to drive growth in the adoption of high power fibre laser applications,” highlights Mark.

“IPG’s products are widely used to deliver improved value in a variety of applications including cutting, joining, drilling, marking, 3D printing, cleaning and cladding. We are working closely with the UK’s manufacturing supply chain to support growth. By transitioning to an increased use of fibre laser technology, our customers are benefitting from higher productivity and significantly lower cost of ownership.”

IPG Photonics UK Products: Leading global supplier of high power fibre lasers and fibre amplifiers www.ipgphotonics.com

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‘‘

United Cast Bar

Setting the

bar

Since the company was first incorporated during February 1998, United Cast Bar Limited has forged an impressive reputation in the production of Unibar Continuous Cast Iron from two of Europe’s most prestigious foundries

U

nited Cast Bar Limited (UCB) was formed just under two decades ago by the merger of three of Europe’s most prestigious continuous cast iron bar foundries. Together Eurocast Bar Limited (UK), Starkey’s Technicast Limited (UK) and Cast Profil SA (Spain), along with their associated stockists and service centres, combine over 120 years of industry experience. This allows UCB to synergise its leading technical and manufacturing procedures, quality systems, control parameters, commercial rationalisation and supply logistics systems to provide a complete turnkey solution. From this solid base, the company has developed its comprehensive range of Unibar products, across a host of materials in both standard and bespoke measurements and shapes.

Presently UCB has locations throughout the world, including two foundries located in Chesterfield, UK and Zaragoza, Spain. The company’s distribution network is currently

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established throughout the UK, Germany, Italy, Austria, Czech Republic, Sweden, France and Turkey, and South Korea. While furthermore, UCB also maintains a strategic partnership with Elcas BV based in the Netherlands. During its history UCB has strengthened and extended its sales structure and sales network by providing a manufacturing base that is able to produce over 80,000 tonnes of Unibar products, with over 20,000 tonnes permanently held as standard stock within its foundries and distributors around the world. Since 2014, UCB has increased its capacity through the investment of £6 million in new melting facilities in Spain and the UK, as well as new laboratory and machine shop.

The aim of the development of Unibar is to establish standards of quality, consistency and customer service that exceed current market demands, coupled with the best technical and commercial support. At the core of the business is the UCB manufacturing process, which allows the company to manufacture products

to the highest standards. The Unibar horizontal continuous casting machine consists of four major units comprised of a holding furnace with liquidcooled dies; a pulling unit; a notching and breaking device; and a control panel that regulates the flow of coolant and the speed of casting and that also co-ordinates the function of the other three components of the machine.

The manufacturing process employs a closed system, in which a liquid-cooled die is built into the holding furnace so that the liquid metal enters the die without coming into contact with the atmosphere. The bar itself is pulled horizontally so that the metal flows more uniformly and is always subject to a much higher ferrostatic pressure when compared to sand castings. This process combined with the rapid cooling of the die, ensures superior soundness, good surface finish and homogenous structure as well as excellent structural cohesion throughout the section. As a result of this operation, the periphery of the bar is solid the moment it leaves the die and cooling

fresh fractures on every length of bar produced.

During July 2015 UCB further established itself as a leading manufacturer by producing the largest diameter cast ever fabricated in the UK at its site in Chesterfield. In an impressive feat, the company was able to successfully produce over 180 tonne of 700mm dia in both flake and nodular iron grades. Commenting on the achievement, Managing Director of the United Cast Bar (UK) facility, James Brand said: “This production run marks the culmination of many years hard work in design of equipment and process flow. It supports and expands the already broad product portfolio, opening up yet more doors for our sales people.”

2015 continued to represent a highly successful year for UCB within the UK with the production of a second run of the company’s second largest rectangle bar in 750mm x 550mm dimensions, due to all of its previously produced stock selling very quickly. This led Group Managing Director, Alessandro Rottach to praise the UK operation for the development, while adding: “United Cast Bar’s balance of efficiency, flexibility coupled with

our broadest product offering for the market from both our UK and Spanish operations, make UCB an invincible force in the continuous cast iron market.”

Through the culmination of investment into the company’s manufacturing capability, its dedication to market-leading levels of customer service and quality and its specialist Unibar manufacturing process, UCB represents an industry leader with a strong reputation going into 2016. Furthermore, its comprehensive portfolio of standard and bespoke products that are available through a strong global distribution network will ensure that the company is on had to supply customers old and new, when and where products are required.

United Cast Bar Limited Products: Manufacturer of cast iron bars www.unitedcastbar.com

system (which also conforms the profile shape), while the core remains liquid. The rapid cooling process causes the periphery to have very fine graphite in a predominant ferritic matrix with a high material cohesion, which is much higher than is obtained in sand casting.

The lack of porosity, slag and other inclusions are ensured by the Unibar Process, which combines with other advantages to deliver a significantly greater level of fatigue strength.

Starter bars are inserted into graphite die prior to filling the holding furnace. Upon entering the die, liquid metal freezes on the protruding bolts and is subsequently extracted by means of standard round pulling bars connecting the starting blocks with the drive mechanism. After the newly cast material has passed the pulling mechanism, the pulling bars are disconnected and the material itself is notched and broken into individual bars. These are commonly between two and four metres long and the quality of the material can be readily checked by observing

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Jacob Pipework Systems

Jacob pipework in a sugar factory

Solid flow of

success Occupying a leading position in the market is the result of many years worth of customer relationships and continuous innovation for Jacob Pipework Systems, which now looks forward to expanding its international presence even further

F Patrick Jacob, Managing Director

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r. Jacob Söhne GmbH & Co. KG was first established back in 1928 and is now the leading global supplier of modular pipework systems. Compared to the rest of its market, Jacob has the widest offering of around 7000 standardised products geared towards providing comprehensive solutions to dry product transfer and contaminated air extraction needs within an industrial environment. With a number of plants situated around the world and even more sales representatives operating in over 40 countries, Jacob has laid down a footprint in numerous industries from pharmaceutical and food

to chemicals, plastics, oil mist extraction and other major industrial applications.

“Basically, anywhere dry product needs to be transported throughout a process, or contaminated air needs to be removed from a space, our modular systems can provide key benefits,” begins Managing Director, Patrick Jacob who goes on to discuss the company’s main sales channels. “We cater to the plant engineering and mechanical engineering experts around the world. Germany is a major stronghold for us as it is a large exporting nation and we have a lot of plant engineers here who carry out international business. In terms of sales it is generally split equally

Modular pipework application

Pipework for the chemical industry

between domestic and export, but in reality, because a lot of our domestic customers are operating on a global platform, it is weighted more towards the export side.�

It is not only the breadth of products that marks Jacob out as a leader in the market able to provide a one-stop-shop of pipework solutions from bends to turn-head distributors, but also this international presence and stock flexibility. Five daughter companies make up the Jacob Group, consisting of two production sites in Germany, and one each in Italy and the US. Sales-wise, two main offices are set up in the UK and France, and its network of representatives takes this around the world.

Feedmill

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Jacob Pipework Systems Swivel pipe switch, food grade

‘

We are able to understand the market, respond to demands and develop new products accordingly, as well as providing excellent German engineering to our customers.

“When it comes to our product, availability is key because whilst it can still represent a significant investment, it is not usually the first priority in a major plant construction project for many of our customers,” he says. “This means they want a very flexible, modular pipework system that can be delivered very quickly and we are perfectly placed to provide this.”

At its largest plant in Germany, Jacob holds around ten million euros worth of stock in one of the largest warehouses of its kind. A total of around 14 million euros is held across the group and in Germany alone this equates to one million individual items. “Having multiple production locations also gives our customers confidence in delivery as if one site encounters an issue, another can take the additional load and provide this production stability,” Patrick adds.

Within its production sites the combination of highly skilled and knowledgeable labour with state-of-the-art automation technology enables Jacob to run high volume production lines with consistent quality but also an adaptive, solutions-led process. “Automation drives productivity and reliability, and we are the only ones in this industry large enough to make use of this technology,” Patrick continues. “However maintaining a high level of skilled labour, which we do through continuous training, is rewarded with very low turnover rates, so we are able to understand the market, respond to demands and develop new products accordingly, as well as providing excellent German engineering to our customers.”

When it comes to innovation the company approaches product development from two strategic angles. As the largest supplier in the market with such a long history and robust reputation, it has become the partner of choice for many of its customers when they start looking at new processes and products. “We are often included at this phase to help develop the best solutions and we can gather really good market feedback this way,” says Patrick.

The second stream of development comes from the business’ large technology and engineering department, which retains a focus on innovation by looking at what products can be improved and what new systems could be launched to market.

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Illustrating the success Jacob has experienced from this approach, Patrick outlines three of the company’s recent and most important innovations.

“Firstly we have developed an economical connection method called QUICK CONNECT, which is essentially a pull-ring that provides a very quick and easy method for putting a system together,” he describes. “The installation of pipeworks is very time consuming and labour intensive and the longer this takes, the more expensive it gets. Therefore this system becomes very cost effective. It is also very flexible, making cleaning and adjustments very simple to carry out.”

Two other key developments are related very closely to the food industry where quality assurance is absolutely essential. For example, over the last couple of years it has developed a Food Grade line, which is the only modular pipework system in the world certified by both the US FDA and European EC1935/2004 accredited standards agencies. This assures that all products that pass through remain safe to consume and unaltered in terms of quality. “Continuing this we have also launched the Detectable Design line, which revolves around making the seals that sit between two joining components, metal detectable,” Patrick explains.

“This means that should a seal enter the process, for whatever reason, they will be detectable by the manufacturer’s metal detector system and safely

removed. Of course they are food-grade certified so no contamination will have occurred but our customers appreciate that we can safeguard against this. Again, we are the only company in the industry able to offer such a solution.”

With a strong market around the world and a leading position in the development of new and innovative products, the future for Jacob looks positive. At POWTECH 2016, the sector’s biggest trade show, it will be launching a new service innovation and over the coming months continued investment will be pumped into expanding its technical capability to aid more efficient production. “However our main strategy as we move forward is going to be on expanding our international presence,” concludes Patrick.

“We are finalising a new plant in Italy, which will significantly increase production capability there, and we hope to do something similar in the US to offer our products to more international companies whilst being able to service them locally.”

‘

With a strong market around the world and a leading position in the development of new and innovative products, the future for Jacob looks positive

Jacob Pipework Systems Products: Market leading supplier of industrial pipework systems

www.pipe-systems.eu

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ESKATE is a leading manufacturer and supplier of clamp rings and flanges for pipe connections.

With 30 years’ experience, ESKATE has advanced to become Germany’s number one manufacturer. Top quality and extremely short lead times are the major strengths of the company. Europe’s largest on-site stock and cost effective manufacturing processes enable ESKATE to offer very favourable conditions to its customers. “We are continuously improving our production processes and developing new ways of manufacturing our current product range,” says Werner Breitenkamp (CEO). “Utilising the most modern of bending technologies we bend all sizes of pipes and other parts from the smallest radius to the largest sections for a variety of industries, including offshore, architectural steel construction, infrastructure, machine construction and the petrochemical industry. ESKATE has infinite possibilities for bespoke solutions.”

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