Agricultural drying and processing equipment company Alvan Blanch has invested in the largest bending machine of its kind in the UK.
The North-Wiltshire based manufacturer hopes the investment will help drive down its cost of production and deliver on growth potential.
The new automatic bending cell robot will aid the firm in speeding up, reducing the cost of production and preventing backlogs.
Alvan Blanch predicts that the investment will be “instrumental” in its ambitions to double production in future.
The new equipment offers a greater level of automation, it said, with pre-punched steel sheets being fed-in by the machine itself.
Wireless laser sensors automatically control the bending, delivering a perfect bend every time. It will also be able to run overnight.
The new acquisition comes as part of a broader strategy of investment in automation to improve productivity and enable the business to realise its goals of continued growth in “exceptionally competitive” global markets, Alvan Blanch said.
Managing director at Alvan Blanch, Andrew Blanch, said: “Automation has been transformative to this business over recent years and despite how far we have come on this journey there is so much more yet for us to achieve.”
Alvan Blanch
Alvan Blanch, based in Chelworth, Wiltshire, has over 70 years of experience developing and manufacturing equipment for the post-harvest agricultural industry.
As part of its wider cost-cutting and sustainability drive, the company has also invested in a new heat-insulated roof for the factory, with mounted solar panels, as well as a new air source heat pump.
Its latest investment this spring has been to plant up a woodland strip with over 1,000 trees, to create a sheltered corridor for wildlife to pass by the production facility.
Further new investments in automation of production will follow in the autumn, the firm said.
