Moreover, the consistency of the rails is much better in terms of dimensional accuracy and quality of finish. Twenty or so shower cubicle manufacturers around the UK reject only a few percent of bright anodised rails delivered by DJ Stanton, compared with up to a third from other suppliers.

Dave Stanton commented, “There was a wide variability in our formed and machined rails by the time we got them back from the polishers. Some were acceptable while others were absolutely dreadful and had to be repolished by us, or scrapped.

“Either the surface marks were not completely removed, or the grain of the polish was in different directions all over the surface. Such imperfections show up after anodising and render the component unacceptable for an application where cosmetic finish is important.

“As the rails were polished manually, which is an arduous job anyway, it was not practicable for an operator to use a heavy jig to hold the components during polishing. So they tended to distort under the heavy pressure that is needed to achieve a deep lustre in a short cycle time.”

Not only is the polishing better and more consistent by robot, but the cycle time is also three to four times faster. Other components that have been polished in the robot cell include curved handles for up-market cookers and railway carriage window frames.

The extruded rail, which can have a wall thickness as thin as 0.7 mm, can measure up to 1,200 x 1,200 mm for the luxury shower cubicles in which DJ Stanton tends to specialise these days, most of the mass production market now being served by Asian suppliers.

D J Stanton Tel: 01608 737452