The Pentagon Plastics Group (incorporating Phoenix Engineering and Pentagon Plastics Ltd) have made a major investment in ALT 500 Laser Welder technology.
In November 2017 Phoenix Engineering welcomed a high-end new addition to their extensive plant machinery. The complete package purchased from TLM Laser came in at £130,000 which is a massive statement of intent from the company and was a collaborative self-funded investment between the Group companies, with the lion’s share of the investment being fronted by Phoenix Engineering.
The complete purchased package includes (but is not limited to) ALT 500, AL300, tilt-able turntable, magnetic clamping, integrated extraction and laser wire feed system.
Internal and sub-contract work
The new machine was commissioned at the Phoenix factory, which is located in Horsham West Sussex, on 17th November 2017 and is a very welcome addition to their plant and service level. The group business will have three fully trained operatives available for laser welding projects ensuring that the required skill set is available on a daily basis to accommodate the throughput of internal and sub-contract support work.
Laser welding has been a major sub-contracting expense for the Group companies for many years and through investment into the right machinery, the benefits will be far in excess of the initial costs. It will bring reduced lead times for tooling work, improved control of work-flow, negate the need for this process to be sub-contracted out to other businesses and in turn allow us to introduce this as a new business service going forward.
Continued growth
Phoenix Engineering has been on quite a journey since their acquisition by Pentagon in 2016 and it is very positive that the long-standing business (first founded in 1955 as Punctual Precision) is in such a strong position to be able to support this exciting investment.
Paul Edwards, MD of Pentagon Plastics Group says, “This is a major step forward for Phoenix and is a testament to the hard work of all our staff that tirelessly work reviewing and improving the service we offer our customers. By increasing turnover and improving process efficiency we have been able to generate profit for re-investment into developing our services for the future. This can only be good news for our customers and will help us to support local businesses.”
John Horspool, Tooling Manager says, “For Phoenix, the majority of our tooling is for the Caps and Closure sector, ranging from 4 to 64 impressions. Expediting servicing and repairs are key to keeping the tool downtime to a minimum. Many of the elements require Laser welding to re-instate shutoffs etc., therefore the weld needs to be very exact and repeatable, driving the business need for a high spec machine, with a rotary axis, self-feed wire and programmable movement in all axes.”
For all enquiries, please call 01403 269005.
