RSSBack

16 July 2015

Croft AM to the rescue

When a leading manufacturer of bead mills and laboratory/production mixers needed help, Croft Additive Manufacturing were ready and able to take up the challenge. An urgent request was received by Croft Filters Ltd’s staff for a specialist wedge wire product similar to a type of filter but used in a bead mill. The wedge wire product needed to be produced quickly as the client had been let down by another supplier whom thought they could make it but stood down at the 11th hour.

Eiger Torrance of Warrington, Cheshire had a very special design brief to work to and were having difficulties locating someone who could firstly manufacture this sophisticated product and secondly to get one made within a few days as they had a customer order held up awaiting the part. The component Eiger Torrance needed typically would be on a lead time of anywhere from 4-6 weeks with most Wedge Wire manufacturers, but as Croft Filters has a sister company that specialises in 3D Metal printing, this was made in just 2 days from confirmation of order. There were additional benefits having this 3D printed, the part was manufactured as single piece construction, often boasting more strength and rigidity over traditionally welded together assemblies and in many cases has a reduction in weight too.

Mr Alan Poole, Spares & Service manager at Eiger Torrance Warrington said “Thanks to Croft we were able to fulfil delivery of a clients new bead mill machine on time, we haven’t used either of the Croft companies before but will now be placing our future orders with them as not only were we impressed by the quality and fast turnaround of our product - but discovering 3D metal printing has opened up so many avenues and I’m sure there will be more products we will be ordering using this fantastic technology”.

Neil Burns, Director of both Croft Filters Ltd and Croft Additive Manufacturing also commented “3D metal printing has been around for years but it is only very recently through media coverage that the full benefits are being understood by the public and industry.” He added “Croft invested in a metal additive manufacturing machine over 2 years ago and has already produced many innovative products that were not possible using traditional manufacturing methods. It’s great to hear a success story of this kind where our services had such a valuable impact for our client.”
 


Back to top