Aycliffe Fabrications Ltd in County Durham
Aycliffe Fabrications Ltd in County Durham was established in 1980 and has spent the best part of forty years honing their craft and becoming renowned for a reliable and quality driven service. Nothing demonstrates that more than discovering that their first ever customer is still a regular today.
Manufacturing everything from the everyday ‘useful’ things to large artistic commissions – Aycliffe Fabrications has started a new chapter in their story by investing in a Swift-Cut Pro 3000 CNC cutting table with the sole intention of making their processes more efficient. When once they were using a handheld plasma torch or employing the costly outsourcing method – the arrival of in-house CNC cutting abilities has sparked a new and more efficient way of working that has exceeded all their expectations.
Whilst it was an easy decision choosing Swift-Cut (lured by the phenomenal price, quality of cut and the attention to detail – such as cable tidies) it was by no means an easy process to purchase the machine. Largely funded using a grant awarded by Sunderland University – the SAM (Sustainable Advanced Manufacturing) project is part funded by ERDF and is a multi-million pound scheme set up to support small and medium sized manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) across the North East LEP region. SAM is a scheme that aims to create jobs and unlock growth by supporting projects that develop their products, processes and technology.
Katie Flanagan, Business Manager for Aycliffe Fabrications presided over the funding application – a lengthy process that ultimately had to demonstrate exactly how the purchase of a CNC plasma cutting table could improve their processes and assist their ambition to become more efficient.
The application was successful and Aycliffe Fabrications was granted a massive 50% contribution towards their machine, a figure that defied all expectations and allowed them to opt for a larger model. The resultant arrival of their Swift-Cut PRO 3000 in April 2019 has opened the doors to a new way of working – one that allows for an immediate turnaround of work and an explorative approach to prototyping.
“A combination of traditional work supported by modern systems enables us to be very proactive to customer queries, adapting to changes with the minimum fuss.”
The half a day’s training was ample to get them started and they’re enjoying the intuitive route their journey with the machine is taking – learning more as they cut and exploring both what the machine can do and what this new way of working means for their business.
A minor leak in the waterbed within the first few days was dealt with promptly and Katie was impressed with the response time and action taken from Swift-Cut, sending an engineer out immediately.
It’s clear when speaking to Katie that their journey with Swift-Cut has only just begun and that the learning curve they are on is set to be a positive and enlightening experience for Aycliffe Fabrications.
