Charles H Coward Ltd group is a family run foundry business originating and based in Sheffield that specialises in the manufacture of both ferrous and non-ferrous castings for a worldwide network of industries.
The company has recently gone through the process of increasing capacity for production through installing new and upgraded equipment whilst also expanding their site with a new warehouse and adding to their dedicated and professional team at the Sheffield site. Through government grants and hard work the company has been able to consistently break monthly production records and have also won various awards including Fenestration Supplied Manufacturer of Year 2022/2023.
As a valued customer of Straaltechniek UK, who have been providing assistance through servicing and supplying spares for their shot blasting process and only being a stones throw away from each other based in the S5 area of Sheffield a relationship between the 2 companies has blossomed. Various discussions between Chris Hogan (Sales Director, Charles H Coward Ltd) and James Lees (UK Sales Manager, Straaltechniek UK) who actually go back 25 years from their early football playing days as young teenagers, one of the projects Chris was looking to start was to upgrade the shot blasting facility and increase capabilities by replacing the existing ‘swing out’ table machine.
After further discussions and various site visits Straaltechniek UK Ltd were able to offer various options including one of which is a speciality of theirs in refurbishing 2nd hand equipment to a new standard, and James informed Chris of a machine available that was perfect for their application. The machine was another ‘swing out’ table machine which is the ideal method for loading and unloading different sized casting, but a larger diameter table to allow larger casting to be blasted automatically, which previous were done manually which can be a long process so this would eliminate that long drawn out method to blast these bigger castings. The machine was viewed pre-refurbishment to showcase the capabilities of the machine and examples of previous refurbishment jobs were displayed to show the level of details that goes into these types of projects. After Chris was happy with what had been shown is on offer a quotation was provided and an order was placed with Straaltechniek UK Ltd to supply a 2nd hand refurbished shot blaster to Charles H Coward Ltd.
After the machine was complete and ready for a despatch a pre-installation site visit was held and during the viewing of the desired location by James, Chris and Matthew Stones (Projects & Service Manager, Straaltechniek UK) it became apparent that the machine wouldn’t fit due to the positioning of the machine elevator and the roof level at that point and so both companies held various discussions to come up with a swift solution in the way of a modification the machines recovery system and after both companies agreed to the suggested solution this implemented and provided successful upon installation.
The machine is now in production and has also had it’s 1st service and is proving to be very beneficial to Charles H Coward Ltd who have also received positive comments from their customer in relation to finish after shot blasting as well as the increased capacity of being able to blast the larger components automatically saving time and providing a better uniformed finish.
Chris Hogan, Sales Director at Charles H Coward Ltd said: “We have worked closely with Straaltechniek now for many years and we cannot thank James and the Straal team enough for their dedication on this project and we very much look forward to continuing our close working relationship”
James Lees, UK Sales Manager at Straaltechniek UK said;
“This has a been a great project to be involved in and was such a pleasure to be dealing with the Hogan family who I go back a long time with so I am very pleased with the final outcome and the ongoing relationship which I believe will go from strength to strength”