Gardner sows future seeds
Page 10
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L GARDNER and Sons of Manchester has increased the capacity of its Barton Hall engine works by having a new crankcase manufacturing system installed.
The £4.5m automated system is designed to produce as required all variations of crankcase required for Gardner 6LX and 8LX engines, and has the capacity to be changed quickly to produce new designs as they come on stream.
The new system was conceived three years ago, and has removed a bottleneck in the engine production process. As a result of its completion, capacity has been increased significantly to allow the company to cope with future demands once the recession ends. In addition, the production ensures consistent quality, reduces unit costs and the amount of money tied up in engines awaiting completion.
At its heart, the system has seven automated machining units supplied and built by Vickers subsidiary Kearney and Trecker Marwin Ltd, of Brighton. Each of the seven KTM 2500 units has a magazine loaded with 40 machine tools required to complete each type of engine crankcase.