Customers who are sub-contracting the manufacture of their engineered components to Engineering Technologies and Manufacturing in Northampton can rest assured that they are benefiting from some of the highest quality, state-of-the-art machinery available.
This family company was originally formed in Lancashire 1989, relocating to Northampton in 2015. Directors James and Elaine Stewart built the business making high-end components for several different sectors including automotive, medical, and auto-sport. The company eventually gave rise to Longthorne Gunmakers, a business that specialises in producing, entirely in house, high-quality, precision-made bespoke shotguns for customers across the world.
Their investment over the years has been in the very best manufacturing equipment and CAD/CAM software money can buy, which has resulted in a Northampton factory that can, and does, turn its hand to anything from a simple flat component to a complex 3D shape.
Marketing Director Elaine said: “It is ordinarily only companies that are making their own products that invest in such high-quality equipment, and so general sub-contractors don’t often offer the range of technology and state-of-the-art machines we can.
“Our investment has been linked to the production of firearms, which requires the finest machines available to maintain exacting tolerances repeatedly and create complex shapes. But due to the long process and different stages of creating firearms, we find we easily have the capacity to offer our services to those looking to subcontract work, meaning they benefit from the investments we have made.”
CNC Services available include five-axis machining, vertical and horizontal milling, turning, surface grinding, cylindrical grinding, Swiss turning, spark erosion, wire erosion laser ablation, vibratory finishing, marking and engraving.
With two Studer grinders, and a four-axis Blohm surface grinder, the company are specialist at grinding operations such as thread, out-of-round, creep feed, gear, spline and cam grinding, and the company find that these services, in particular, are much sought-after because many sub-contractors simply don’t have this type of equipment available.
The company is accustomed to making highly complex components from scratch and being responsible for managing all processes from start to finish.
Elaine added: “We are happy to discuss regular contract work or one-offs and work with regular customers while at the same time welcome new ones. It doesn’t matter to us what quantities our customers require, we have a well-equipped factory and capacity on our machines, and we’re here to pass on that technology and expertise to customers from the wider business community. We would certainly prefer to fulfil an order for a UK manufacturer rather than see component production outsourced abroad.
“In addition, we can offer a highly skilled team that can work with customers to produce the parts they need. Our team is experienced in precision engineering to the highest level and ready to offer that expertise to customers.”
Given the way lockdown has affected the manufacturing sector and taken its toll, Engineering Technologies and Manufacturing are keen to see UK production begin to step up again as the situation eases and more companies start to get back to normal. The company are enthusiastic advocates of British-made products and believe there is plenty of potential for replacing imported parts with manufactured parts made within the UK.
Given the current situation, it is difficult for any company to predict where it will be in a few months, let alone a few years, but the team is confident and optimistic that a bright future lies ahead.
“We have suffered from the knock-on effects of lockdown, like so many others,” said Elaine. “It has been a difficult time for everyone, and we are as keen as anyone to get back to normal. It’s essential for the economy that things start to pick up again soon, but we are optimistic and believe we’re on the way to normal working very soon.
“We are happy to use our expertise to work with companies wanting to outsource the manufacture of their critical components from overseas to the UK or simply model or create new components for new projects. We have a design capability and manufacturing capacity, backed up by a wealth of expertise, to help them through what have been challenging times.”
Engineering Technologies and Manufacturing is located at Longthorne House, 1 Millbrook Close, Northampton NN5 5JF, call 01772 811140 or visit www.etmeng.co.uk for more details.
