Builders Merchants Journal – BMJ Publishing to Builders Merchants and the UK merchanting industry for more than 95 years
Leisure Sinks, UK manufacturer of domestic stainless steel sinks, has increased its productivity thanks to a new £1.2million investment at its factory in Long Eaton.
A new sink press has been installed at the East Midlands facility and will improve efficiency for the brand and provide a 50% increase in capacity.
The new machinery took four weeks to install and benefits from electronic shimming technology, which enables complex geometric shapes to be produced from sheet metal via close control of blank holding pressure. This works by hydraulically raising and lowering special blocks into the pressure pad, which deflect a special top plate to squeeze the material or let it go during the stroke. Doing so provides the machinery operators with an infinite variety of forces and pressures.
Encompassing this technology eliminates the risk of wrinkles and cracks by electronic control of the material flow. It also offers a deeper draw when compared to a more conventional system, resulting in less tension and a smaller grain size in the finished product.
John Peter, trade sales director at Leisure Sinks, said: “The new sink press will considerably improve productivity, as well as maintaining the high standards of design and quality Leisure Sinks is renowned for. It offers easy and fast tool changing, with reduced polishing costs and start-up times, adapting to our existing production processes with ease. So, not only will the new machinery handle the demand for our sinks, it will also allow us to produce more models at a greater rate than ever before.”
