(L to r) Kierandeep Bal (Coventry City Council), Jason Aldridge (Arrowsmith Engineering) and Laura Delahunty (CWLEP Growth Hub)Warwickshire-based
Arrowsmith Engineering, an aerospace supplier which manufactures bespoke precision components for customers worldwide, is continuing with its growth plans after buying a DN Solutions’ (formerly Doosan Machine Tools) DNM 4500 vertical machining centre (VMC) supplied by Leamington Spa-based
Mills CNC, the exclusive distributor of DN Solutions’ machine tools in the UK and Ireland.
With the assistance of the
Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership (CWLEP) Growth Hub, Arrowsmith Engineering’s managing director Jason Aldridge successfully applied for an £8,400 top-up grant to purchase the new VMC for specialist work for orders for Rolls-Royce, Meggitt and Incora. The company contributed £76,000 to the purchase.
This was the second grant the business has received through the Investment Fund after receiving £24,026 in March 2019 towards a machining cell comprising a Doosan DNM 4500 vertical machining centre (equipped with a fourth-axis unit) and an M0617 collaborative robot (cobot) with a 1.7m reach radius and 6kg payload capacity (equipped with a Schunk Co-act EGP-C electrically driven two-finger parallel gripper), also supplied by Mills CNC.
Mr Aldridge said the new advanced machine would enable the business to operate more efficiently against competitors from overseas. He added: “The new DNM 4500 machine makes us more competitive because it can be linked to our cobot and is therefore assisting Arrowsmith to achieve our digitalisation and automation plans. Furthermore, purchasing this digital-ready machine allows us to adapt our milling system which makes us more compatible to the latest technology which is required by our aerospace customers all over the world.
Latest technologies“We need to be cost-effective so that our customers like Rolls-Royce, Meggitt and Incora continue to bring their work to us, which is keeping manufacturing in the UK. This grant has helped us to buy the latest equipment available to enable this. Our order book is now growing again after Covid-19 and there is growth throughout the aerospace industry. Customers are buying their products from all over the world which means we have to be as competitive as we can and to do that we have to have the best kit to make full use of the latest technologies.”
Laura Delahunty, account manager at the CWLEP Growth Hub, said: “Arrowsmith Engineering is one of the region’s leading aerospace precision component manufacturers and this grant is helping the company to meet its increasing number of orders cost-effectively as well as hopefully winning new work. The aerospace industry was severely hampered by the pandemic and it is great to see such an established business from our area bouncing back even stronger.”
Kierandeep Bal, business development advisor at Coventry City Council, added: ““The Investment Fund Programme is all about supporting businesses which are looking to grow and expand and that is exactly what Arrowsmith have achieved with a helping hand.”
The Growth Hub is supported by funders including Coventry City Council, Warwickshire County Council and Warwickshire’s District and Borough Councils.