Ladbrook paints a picture of success
Paul Goodwin says it's a great feeling that paint kettles produced by Ladbrook are now on the shelves of major DIY stores
With tens of thousands of paint kettles for the DIY sector spinning off its high tech CNC equipment, and new large orders for the automotive sector in the bag, North Walsham-based Ladbrook has plenty to celebrate.
“The new metal spinning machine has been superb," said Paul Goodman, manufacturing director at Ladbrook. "We can now produce a paint kettle in very competitive time cycles and the quality and consistency of the products coming off the machine has been excellent and has exceeded our expectations. It's a great feeling to think that our products are now on the shelves of major DIY stores and in national catalogues.”
In addition to their success with the metal spinning side of the business, Ladbrook has also recently won large contracts for pressed metal parts for the automotive sector and the technology sector. It has also seen the manufacturing side of the business grow with the success of the ‘Little Smasher’, a glass-recycling machine.
“Despite the economic gloom that has been around, we've remained very busy and upbeat,” says managing director Mike Blowers, Managing Director. “We have a team of very talented engineers at Ladbrook and we have all been working hard to ensure that we continue to grow and succeed. It's been a very rewarding year so far - we have been awarded several contracts by well known and prestigious companies and we have several more in the pipeline.”
Metal Spinning is a powerful metal forming technique used to create conical and cylindrical shapes. As a metal disc is spun on a high-speed axis, it is shaped using CNC controlled tools.
An important aspect of metal spinning is that the material hardens as it is worked; this feature of metal spinning enables the manufacture of thinner, yet stronger components. In addition to this important engineering benefit, there are significant commercial benefits in that less material is required and it does not incur thetoolingcostsassociated with a pressed metal approach.
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