Tooling business on the up
Lodent's new dedicated EDM shop
Now entering its thirty-fifth year in business, 2011 has seen Lodent Precision invest in four wire erosion machines and centralise its clean machining on one site.
The two new and two used wire-cut machines, along with four existing wire-cut machines, two CNC EDM machines, a manual EDM and a small hole drilling EDM have now been moved into their own dedicated 630m2 facility, along CADCAM and inspection departments.
Following the downturn in the 90s, Lodent diversified from its original business of mould tool design and manufacture into press tooling and precision engineering.
Lodent Precision now employs 42 people and are continuing to grow. With a healthy order book and ever growing reputation for quality this year has seen Lodent take its first orders for tooling to be supplied into mainland Europe which is proving to be a largely untapped but evolving market for British tool makers.
Director Chris Sharratt says that the company doubled in size in 2009 and new orders have given it the confidence to ‘go again’.
“We have all of our clean machining on one site along with the technical services we offer as a company. The move has proved to be another positive for us. We must have one of the largest EDM facilities in the UK and the experience to back it up”.
The past seven years has seen Lodent grow, mainly due to the press tool side of the business, supplying customers in automotive, construction, domestic appliance and power generation industries.
Lodent is seeing a marked increase in the number of enquiries for plastic mould tools.
“We have maintained a customer base which required high quality multi impression tools both here in the UK and the USA. The past six months has seen a marked increase in enquiries from UK moulders who have by admission have seen a sharp increase in prices from Chinese tool makers. These price increases have made us very competitive. With our knowledge and local support, 2012 looks like being another year of growth for Lodent Precision,” adds Mr Sharratt.
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