Surface World June 2019 Surface World June 2019 | Page 68

CONVEYORS & MATERIALS HANDLING Bradbury Group invest in a new conveyor and paint facility and choose Amber Industries Bradbury Group has been designing and producing industry-leading physical security solutions since 1991. Now spanning three sites across England and Scotland, including a 135,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility based in North Lincolnshire, they are one of the nation’s leading manufacturers, suppliers and installers of steel doors, architectural doors and communal entrance doors. Their steel doors can be configured for personnel, fire exit and substation applications, and are available with a wide range of security, fire, flood and acoustic accreditations. Offering an extensive portfolio of physical security solutions, we also supply a wide range of security grilles, cages, crowd control gates, and bar sets. 66 JUNE 2019 Having reached capacity at their previous site, Bradbury Group needed to relocate to a new, much larger facility to enable the continuation of their ongoing growth. The company had grown by approximately 20% year on year for the last five years, and it therefore became necessary to increase their capacity. As part of the move, the Group has completely revolutionised its door production process into a more streamlined and, in some parts, largely automated production line. They have moved from a batch process to an inline production flow – the result of which has dramatically changed their door production time from days to hours. Amber Industries were invited to attend Bradbury Group’s new site to discuss conveyor layout options based on utilising an AT100 Power and free range, which has the ability to allow products to be loaded stationary and diverted between paint booths. echelon storage prior to loading to minimise floor space. Once products are loaded onto a load bar, the operator selects booth one, two or three to determine the destination booth. Once painted, the product travels through a paint curing oven before being transferred again into echelon storage for cooling, prior to offloading. Andy Edser, Engineering Director of Bradbury Group, comments on the bespoke system developed by Amber Industries: “The main benefit of the new paint line has been the ability to paint a product a different colour every three minutes. In line with our new streamlined process, and to cater for the vast number of variant orders that we receive, the ability to react quickly, change colours and not delay the manufacturing process at the paint stage is an excellent benefit for us. Bradbury Group already had a history with Amber Industries, with two existing conveyors from Amber being used in painting applications. During the initial discussions, it was obvious that Amber understood the company’s vision and felt they were able to deliver. “The timescales were tight on the project and Amber handled the timescales extremely well. Their delivery was on time and the installation went very well. The overall experience was excellent; there have been some modifications required, and Amber has always carried these out in a timely manner. Amber’s support has been good and as such, the working relationship is strong.” Amber designed the scheme to allow the products to flow as part of the production line, with empty trolley units waiting in Telephone: [phone] Email: [email protected] Visit: www.amber-industries.ltd.uk twitter: @surfaceworldmag