Excellence in Galvanizing
South West Galvanizers is ending the year with a major facilities upgrade which will improve operational efficiency and enable it to undertake larger projects in 2013.
The Crediton-based plant is investing over half a million pounds to install a longer galvanizing bath at its Lords Meadow Industrial Estate plant during the site’s Christmas shutdown period later this month.
The state-of-the-art tank, which will measure 10.25m long by 1.2m wide by 2.7m deep and offers a significant expansion on the firm’s current galvanizing bath, which measures 7.5m long by 1.1m wide by 2.5m deep. Once fully operational next month, the enhanced bath will enable longer work to be galvanized, a process which sees clean steel dipped into molten zinc at temperatures of up to 450°C to provide a long-lasting protective coating against rust and corrosion.
Tony Wonnacott, General Manager at South West Galvanizers, which employs 60 staff, explained: “This new galvanizing bath will make a big difference to the work we can carry out in the future. As well as allowing us to handle larger loads, the upgrade will also see us improve the overall layout of our plant, enabling us to run a more efficient and resourceful production line, which is great news for our customers throughout Devon and the wider region.
“Continually investing in modern, state-of-the-art equipment and improving our facilities like this enables us to carry on delivering consistently high-quality galvanizing in a cost and time-efficient manner. To keep disruption to an absolute minimum, these improvements will be undertaken to a very tight schedule over our Christmas shutdown, with the new bath fully operational early in the New Year.”