Iron being tapped out of our
Inductotherm one tonne furnace.
Iron being tapped out of our
Inductotherm one tonne furnace.
Established in 1983, Vanguard Foundry Ltd is a privately owned company specialising in the manufacture of Iron castings for the turbo-charging, diesel engine, agricultural & general engineering sector. Approved to ISO 9001-2000, we produce the entire Ductile Iron range including Simo, Ni-resist & ADI materials.
We are proud of our reputation for high quality service which has been recognised by many leading manufacturers including Cummins Engine Company, Borg Warner Turbo Systems, Honeywell, and Bloksma to name just a few.
The Vanguard team consisting of Brian Higgins, Chris Mintern and Martin Newby beat the Darcast team by a single point after a nail biting final.
Shown above, the team are presented with the trophy by Eddie Lindsay, Branch President. The Bill Rooker trophy is presented to the team winning a general knowledge quiz held at one of the monthly ICME evenings. Vanguard was able to enter three teams, the other two of which finished well down the running order (but not last) and it confirms the outstanding achievement of Brian, Chris and Martin as our other two teams thought the questions were very hard.
Following five years of succession planning the board of directors is now complete. Chris Mintern has taken over from John Willetts as Managing Director, Dave Howell moves to Engineering Director, Pete Smith who has been with Vanguard since October 2009 became Technical and Quality Director in December 2010. And finally completing the board Martin Newby joined the company in May 2011 as Operation Manager, moving to Manufacturing Director in October 2011. All the members of the board have worked in foundries since leaving school and as such offer an unprecedented level of technical and practical experience for the benefit of our customers.
Pictured above from left to right Martin Newby, Chris Mintern, Dave Howell and Pete Smith.
Richard Bingham has now taken over responsibility of sales as Business Development Manager . Richard will be assisted by Jessica Read, who, as a native German now living in the UK will allow us to better communicate with our potential and existing German customers.
Shown above Richard and Jessica (Richard is on the right).
After 10 years at Vanguard, in the position of Managing Director John Willetts finally hung up his cow gown to start a well deserved retirement.
Shown above, John is receiving a carriage clock and various other ‘goodies’ from Chairman Brian Higgins. Brian commented that without John’s commitment over the last ten years Vanguard would not be in its present strong position. We wish John all the best for a long and happy retirement.
The first part of Vanguard’s major investment plan for 2011 is the installation of a new Laempe core machine. The very high production rates and ease of operation will allow the next phase of Vanguard’s investment plan to continue without running into a shortage of cores.
Pictured above Andy Leary proudly shows off the first core produced off the new machine.
Following will be the second and third stages of investment. The first of which will be the significant re-engineering of the HWS moulding line that will give a 30% higher production rate, these modifications will take place during the Easter shutdown. So then having got the cores and the moulds. The final stage will involve the installation of a second 750Kw melting power pack which will double our available melting capacity. The total investment will be approximately £500K and demonstrates Vanguard’s commitment to generate capacity to allow us to respond very quickly to any short lead time requirements our customers may have.
A challenge was laid down by the management to establish the best karting team in the foundry (this being on the strict understanding that the management team, Vanguard ‘A’ won). Seven teams entered the two hour endurance race and it soon became apparent that three teams were in very close contention, these being ‘The knock out lads’, ‘The pudding boys’ and ‘Vanguard A’. The second staff team ‘Norfolk and chance’ steadily dropped down the leader board with ‘Team Viagra’ not giving the upstanding performance initially expected.
Team Norfolk and chance (foreground) watch the action and wonder what on earth they can do to move up the leader board. At the end of the two hour race the top three teams were only separated by two laps with the Pudding boys getting the chequered flag, the Knock out Lads second and Vanguard A, a miserable third.
The winning team, Dan Jones, Barry Brittle, Jason Bedworth, Andy Clayton and mascot Leah Clayton.