Surface World August 2019 Surface World August 2019 | Page 52

ELECTROPLATING, ANODISING & GALVANIZING
Rapid expansion at anodising centre
specialising in automotive applications
BCW Treatments Ltd
on Innovation Drive in
Burnley is an aluminium
anodising facility opened
in early 2015 to provide a
full service to companies
using the subcontract
machining services of BCW
Manufacturing Group’s
machine shops on the same
industrial estate.
Anodising is carried out in a Galvatek
automated finishing line supplied by Turbex,
which was deemed to be the best all-round
package of three alternatives considered.
Currently, an average of 2,600 square
metres of product per week are finished
across more than 240 part lines.
The Turbex automated
anodising line at BCW
Treatments, Burnley.
Two overhead transporters dip fl ight
bars carrying aluminium components
into 15 tanks sequentially. Up to fi ve
jobs can be processed simultaneously
in the line.
One of BCW’s automotive contracts involves
the production of aluminium components
mainly from A365 castings, 6060 extrusion,
superplastic 5083, and 5754 sheet for a
premium automotive customer in the UK
specialising in manufacturing luxury sports
cars and grand tourers.
More recently, the subcontractor has received
further business from another prestigious UK
automotive customer that produces high
performance 4x4’s and special operations
vehicles. The work will start at the end of
2018 and entail the installation in an adjacent
factory of a line for passivating components as
a corrosion resistant pretreatment.
Enquiries have also been received for
finishing lightweight components for aircraft,
such as cabin seating, and for electric cars,
hybrids, amphibious vehicles and lorries.
Consequently, by the end of the decade, the
firm is destined to become a major force in
component finishing in the north of England.
Dr Andrew Wilson, managing director of
BCW Treatments explained, “Although more
than a century old, modern anodising is an
exacting discipline requiring extremely close
control to achieve the highest quality and
even more importantly the correct film
properties.
“Some manufacturers’ car parts are
adhesively joined rather than welded and a
nominal thickness of the anodic layer of
between two and 10 microns is required,
above which there is a risk of components
pulling apart under stress. A tolerance band
of four to six microns is achieved in the
Turbex line, so precise is the process.”
An enterprise resource planning (ERP) system
drives the finishing process in Burnley, raising
each manufacturing order and triggering the
issue of material. The line’s control system
learns which aluminium products are
mounted on which universal or part-specific
jig by scanning the manufacturing order.
Once it knows the part number, the correct
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AUGUST 2019
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