Faversham, Kent, is the unlikely place to find Britain’s remaining large manufacturer of laundry finishing equipment. John Cleaver, managing director of BMM Weston, runs four divisions. These include the design and manufacture of laundry finishing equipment, textile dyeing machines, hospital sterilisers and green sand moulding equipment. In Scotland, BMM Weston’s electronics firm makes pc boards and components, but it is John and his fellow director, Dick Fenner, who decide how to balance the need to produce a wide range of laundry finishing machinery that is both competitively priced and manufactured to a high quality.
With 170 employees on the nine-acre site, engineering design drives the company but the directors are always looking for new opportunities and niche markets. A good indication of the direction the company is taking can be gathered from its investment in the latest technology.
Factory facilities
While nearly all the machine tools are cnc operated, skilled staff manufacture and assemble not only heavy laundry machinery but also a range of hospital sterilisers, computer-controlled dyeing machines, and moulding machines for the foundry industry.
A recent investment has been a computer aided manufacture (CAM) controlled Trumpf and 230 ton Press Brake machines. Another CAM controlled machine gives BMM Weston the facility to manufacture a wider range of pressed sheet-metal components more efficiently and to a high quality.
These, with other investments, in production technology have also included a new powder-coating paint plant to give the products both a quality and durable finish.
To serve the four manufacturing divisions the design studio has ten work stations with two of them dedicated to CAM. These run on Windows NT. Eight further stations are on computer aided design (CAD) running on Unix, work stations are all networked together via a common server which uses unigraphics software with full 3D solid modeller with sheet metal and assembly capabilities (Hi end CAD system). Each member of the staff has specific product knowledge but can often be found working across the entire product portfolio.
Innovation
The flatwork ironer range has grown considerably over the years and the company now offers machines from 500mm to 1300mm roll diameters with standard working widths up to 4000mm. One of the most important design features relates to the accuracy of the chests which is due to the fabrication techniques used to enable the chests to be machined and polished to very precise diameters rather than to a specific material thickness.
The “Tulip” design of the chest eliminates separate gap pieces and ensures a fully-heated contact surface. This means that BMM Weston is able to use one single spring-height (11mm) for all machines and a fixed drive ratio without the need for adjustable “V” belt pulleys eliminating the attendant problems of slippage.
The whole of the transmission system is a high-efficiency, low-loss design enabling savings to be made on wear-and-tear, and reduces electrical costs over the life of the machine.
On the other side of the machine, the smooth-sided galvanized-ducting causes minimal loss of suction efficiency, enabling a single fan to be used as opposed to the extra complication of multiple fans, although for certain applications BMM Weston is able to accommodate a multiple- suction system.
With the flat work ironers, BMM Weston is able to supply a fully integrated feed aid which can be incorporated, as an option, into the ironer. The benefits are a lower apportioned capital cost in comparison with a regular stand-alone feeder. The strong vacuum has proved to be a considerable help to operators, especially processing small pieces, which improves quality from the automatic smoothing/stretching effect of the suction trough and drag plate.
Cotton garments
Other products include the Multimaster range of double buck cabinet presses for high-volume production of cotton, polycotton and synthetic workwear, coats, dresses and shirts, all with low operating costs. The main advantage is the flexibility of the machine with the capability of processing cotton at one end of the machine and polyester cotton garments simultaneously at the other end of the unit. Production with two operators is generally around 100 garments pressed and folded.
Further production is centred around the manufacturing of tunnel finishers ranging from 75 to 800 garments per hour plus a diverse range of rotary presses which still have a strong following for the customer looking for a high-quality finish, primarily for cotton materials.
In addition to BMM Weston’s own manufacturing programme, the company represents Springpress for flatwork ironer springs and the Unipress range of shirt finishers with over 100 installations at present operating in the UK alone. Due to its quality, large production and low investment cost, the new CRD (combination rotary double buck) shirt unit has been an immediate success.
Nearly 50 per cent of the Faversham plant’s production is destined for overseas markets, even with the present high level of sterling. The company is seeing a continued growth and success rate in mainland Europe.
