A Plymouth manufacturer is playing a key role in helping to develop a new seating system for wheelchairs that improves function and corrects body posture. Source Engineering, a specialist in pressed and machined components, has supported Matrix Seating with a complex stamped part that acts as a locking clamp for the company’s micro modules, which are shaped to deliver customised support.

A 5-strong engineering team has worked with inventor Dr Steve Cousins to come up with a 11-stage progression tool capable of producing the ‘lock’ in spring steel; vital for delivering strength and flexibility at a unit price that works. Around 120,000 of the components have already been manufactured and delivered, with an increase in sales from the UK, mainland Europe, the Middle East and the US set to result in surging volumes.

“Steve approached us about coming up with a stamped metal part to replace what was previously a plastic and then hybrid component,” explains Pablo Gutierrez, technical director at Source Engineering. “He’d been to a number of other suppliers, but we were the only one prepared to invest the design time in trying to come up with a solution that worked.”

The 11-stage progression tool has been proven to deliver both parts successfully, with the firm’s wire erosion capabilities producing an accurate tooling insert that fits like a jigsaw to create the different circular and hex-shaped holes.

Dr Steve Cousins, founder Matrix Seating, says: “Our manufacturing is all completed in the UK and Source Engineering is a very welcome addition to our supply chain, understanding the potential of our product and going above and beyond to deliver parts that have come through a tough engineering challenge.”

For further information
www.source-engineering.co.uk

North Rhine-Westphalia-based Wolfgang Fischer Stahl GmbH has installed a new B+S cut-to-length line as part of the expansion of its steel service centre. The investment allows the flexible production of flat and dimensional sheets in any batch size, which is not bound to the size of complete coils. Even different coating systems are no problem for the new, highly automated cut-to-length line.

“When expanding its machine park, Fischer Stahl attached importance to being able to supply its customers with even smaller lot sizes than before, if required,” says Dr Lutz-Stefan Heinrich, managing director of Schnutz GmbH, which belongs to the B+S group. “For this reason, it was clear from the outset that the new cut-to-length line had to be capable of processing partial coils.”

Another decisive factor in the choice of the B+S cut-to-length line was the gentle treatment of coated or pre-painted material surfaces, which is ensured by a special foiling system upstream and corresponding intermediate rollers within the high-performance levelling machines. A flying, high-precision slide shear also minimises the cutting tolerance.

From a coil store with three locations, a coil lift truck feeds the decoiler with coils of up to 15 tonne mass, which can be uncoiled either from above or below. If there is an intermediate paper layer in the coil, it can be removed cleanly by means of a corresponding re-winder and disposed of. Furthermore, it is possible to rewind coils that are only to be partially processed. The coil lift truck finally returns these partial coils to the coil store, where they are automatically weighed.

“In this way Fischer Stahl can also assemble small batch sizes and still always knows exactly what quantities are being returned to the coil warehouse,” Heinrich explains.

For further information
www.b-s-germany.de

A Midlands manufacturer and supplier of aluminium flat-rolled products has secured a £60m asset-based lending facility from HSBC UK to help diversify its product range and fuel future growth plans. One of Shropshire’s biggest employers, Bridgnorth Aluminium, produces metal strips for lithography printing. The business will use the funding from HSBC UK to diversify into different markets.

Bridgnorth, which has roots tracing back to 1933, will start to manufacture and supply new aluminium flat-rolled products to the drinks industry, helping to increase annual turnover by 40% over the next five years.

Mark Richards, finance manager at Bridgnorth Aluminium, says: “As a business with big ambitions we need to make strategic investments. Over the past 90 years, we’ve held a well-earned reputation for excellence in the lithography industry, which we want to extend into the drinks and retail markets. It’s an incredibly important and exciting milestone for us and we’re happy to have HSBC UK as a funding partner to help us on our new journey.”

The £60m, fully integrated ABL facility provides Bridgnorth with a significant increase in liquidity, allowing the company to invest in its future growth plans in a controlled and structured way.

Mark Lewis, relationship director at HSBC UK, says: “Bridgnorth has all the hard-working characteristics and heritage you’d expect from a long-established Midlands manufacturer, as well as the ability to look ahead through the lens of innovation. This is a pivotal move in the company’s history and is set to lay the foundations for a new, exciting chapter in Bridgnorth Aluminium’s story.”

For further information
www.bit.ly/3I8l0h2

A UK manufacturer of scaffold board end bands has posted an impressive 12% increase in volumes thanks to a timely investment in ancillary equipment and a switch to a 4-day working week. Chilwell Products, which is now under third-generation family ownership, has invested nearly £100,000 in equipping 11 of its power presses with the latest servo-feed technology from Bruderer UK.

Located at Stanton by Dale, the company was originally looking to continue using air feeds, but was convinced by experts from the high-speed press specialist to trial its MF-2P servo feeders and the results have been astonishing. Volumes have gone from 15.6 million to 17.5 million over the past 12 months and, better still, the firm has managed to achieve this in just four days, making Friday a permanent day off as a thank you (while all staff still maintain full pay).

“We always thought that using servo feeds would mean the material would slip when oily, but these initial concerns were quickly blown away once we put the equipment through a supported trial,” explains Laura Clarke, managing director of Chilwell Products and the granddaughter of company founder Derrick Telford. “Through experience we found set-up times were far quicker and the servo-feeds run the material significantly more efficiently than our incumbent air feeds: less jams, less downtime, and less material rejected and wasted. All making for much more efficient production.”

She adds: “With this in mind, we began to roll-out the feeders across every press in our factory and are now up to 11, with a 12th on order. Working 39 hours per week and overtime at multiple points throughout the year is now a thing of the past.”

For further information
www.bruderer.co.uk