Howco Group has invested more than £3m in new equipment and machinery at three of its UK plants, including £1.6m at its facility in Sheffield.
Investments by the firm, which distributes raw materials and manufactured components for wellhead, downhole, safety valves and completion equipment, include a new CNC milling machine along with two purpos- built batch heat treatment furnaces.
Andrew Marwood, European operations director, says: “Our two new aerospace standard heat treatment furnaces feature the latest technology in pulse fired burner control. Each offers precise temperature control throughout the operating range and, along with a dedicated rapid charger for loading and unloading products, they exceed the demanding standards required by our clients.
“Both furnaces have access to the multiple quench media of water, polymer and oil making the entire treatment process more cost efficient and effective. They complement our existing range of 30 ton and 10 ton capacity furnaces to form our centre of excellence for processing the high integrity Nickel and Duplex parts which are used extensively throughout the global oil and gas industry."
Other investment includes further machine tools for its pre-weld production cell and to provide new machining capability. It has also invested in a horizontal boring machine, the Hyundia Wia KBN 135, for finishing machine components weighing up to 10 tons.
