An ongoing surge in demand for round, flat and profile wire has seen Black Country-based
Alloy Wire International (AWI) take on an additional 8,000ft
2 of space and spend nearly £100,000 on new technology. The company has refurbished two units that sit adjacent to its headquarters on Narrowboat Way in Brierley Hill to give it the opportunity to reposition production cells for greater efficiency and to free-up room for the installation of new machinery.
This includes housing a new piece of equipment that produces smoother, high-performance wire for use in tougher conditions, vital to meeting the requirements of major automotive, nuclear and aerospace customers. Together, the investments will ensure AWI continues to offer three-week lead times for its 62-strong range of exotic alloys for over 6,000 customers in 15 different sectors.
AWI managing director Tom Mander said: “There are few companies in our sector who can continuously offer the turnaround times that we can -especially in this era of supply chain disruption. This is a massive USP for our business and allows us to win work from nearly 70 different countries, supplying critical material to clients operating in automotive, aerospace, defence, medical, nuclear and space.”
He continued: “In order to maintain our level of manufacturing and delivery performance, we have to continue to invest in our capacity. Acquiring and refurbishing the two recent units is critical to achieving this. At the same time, we have successfully spent more than £30,000 on laser-guided measuring equipment. Its sensors determine when the wire is out of tolerance, with automatic shutdown function when this happens. This means that it doesn’t have to be manually monitored with a micrometre, saving us both time and resource.”
62 exotic alloysAWI manufactures round, flat and profile wire in 62 exotic alloys, including Inconel, Monel, Hastelloy, Nimonic and Waspaloy, for customers worldwide — more than 60% of the firm’s annual turnover is generated from exports. The company’s largest international territory continues to be the USA, followed by France and Germany, thanks to the hard work and contacts of long-term agent Sopa Stahl.
As well as technology, AWI has also expanded its workforce to 33 people, strengthening its testing department with the recent appointment of a new lab technician. Andy Tomlinson joined last month and is involved in internal trials, R&D support and testing most of the alloys before they are despatched to customers.
Mr Mander concluded: “Our quality and attention to detail is second to none and we wanted to support our testing team with the addition of a new specialist. Again, this will ensure we can deliver the fastest and most accurate testing, while keeping lead times as short as possible.”