Manufacturing a range of standard and bespoke beds is a labour-intensive process that includes welding, fabrication, assembly, painting and coating.
All of this is undertaken in-house at Norfolk-based Wrought Iron & Brass Bed Co, which has a manufacturing facility located on the Sandringham Estate.
The company, established in 2003, is a family-owned business making a range of standard bed frames that can be supplied ‘as is’ or customised to suit individual requirements.
The production process includes deburring the individual parts for each bed and brush-finishing some of them.
To automate this stage and reduce the time required from a week to a single day, the company invested in a Timesavers 22 Series dry finishing and deburring machine supplied by Dorset-based Ellesco (
www.ellesco.co.uk).
Marketing director Harry Thompson said: “The Timesavers machine has given us major time savings on what was an extremely labour-intensive process.
“As a result, we have freed up people to work on other things. As we develop the business, the Timesavers machine will also be a great asset in deburring flat-sheet products.”
While bed manufacture remains central, the increased efficiency and capacity created by the addition of the Timesavers machine is allowing the company to expand into other areas, with gazebos and garden sculptures now available (
www.wroughtironandbrassbed.co.uk).
“The plan is to have a standard range of these products, made from section material or flat sheet, but we have the flexibility and capability to offer a bespoke design and manufacture service.”