Peter Cookson, who has more than two decades’ experience in industrial vacuum brazing, has joined the Wallwork Group (www.wallworkht.com) to lead a programme of expansion in this area.

A new vacuum brazing workshop in Manchester is close to commissioning, adding to existing facilities at the group’s Cambridge site, which are set to double. With recent additions to its capacity in Birmingham, the group can now undertake more work plus larger and more-complex work, including single pieces up to two cubic metres.

Mr Cookson (pictured) says: “These are exciting times. To capture a larger slice of the premium vacuum brazing market in the aerospace, motor sport, scientific equipment, nuclear and oil and gas industries, Wallwork
is investing £2 million over the three locations to meet growing customer expectations.

“Much of this is going into facilities, specialised equipment, bespoke jigs and tooling. The group already has Nadcap approval for heat treatment at Manchester, and plans are in hand to accelerate Nadcap applications for heat treatment and vacuum brazing at Cambridge by early 2016.”

Wallwork is known throughout the engineering sector for its comprehensive range of heat treatment and hard coatings services, which improve the performance of wear parts and other critical components.

Manchester site director Ian Griffin said: “Peter adds a new depth to what is a well-established and highly regarded department. We are confident that with the expanded and upgraded facilities, we will give an exceptional level of service to our customers, from prototype and development work through to volume processing — all under stringent quality control and backed by our commitment to rapid order turn-round.”