A world leader in the manufacture and provision of soil reinforcement and ground stabilisation solutions for the construction industry chose local engineering ingenuity from InfoServe365 to radically improve processes at its Blackburn plant.
InfoServe365 is renowned for supplying leading edge technologies for analysing performance data both here in the UK and overseas, but the company’s highlyqualified engineers only had a short journey to make when Tensar International Ltd needed to improve its geogrid manufacturing processes.
The company’s main facility in the UK at Shadsworth Industrial Estate is just three miles from InfoServe365’s headquarters at Capricorn Park, but the major factor for dealing with its Blackburn neighbour was their reputation for delivering projects by deadline, on budget and of high quality.
An accurate data collection system was crucial for Tensar so that it could improve the performance of a single axis stretching production process on an MD machine with a retro-fitted fibre-optic networked drive system and steam heated rolls for conditioning materials.
This was a potentially tricky installation because of the different levels of technologies involved in the operation, combined with the requirement for downtime to be kept to a minimum. However, InfoServe365 was easily integrated with the equipment by its engineers with very little on-site IT input, giving Tensar all the intelligence and toolsets they needed through a web browser.
The success of this installation meant Tensar had no hesitation in returning to InfoServe365, this time as part of a full line control system upgrade on its Biaxialstretching machine for making biaxial and triAx geogrids, products which were used to shore up Workington’s Northside Bridge after it collapsed during the floods in Cumbria in November 2009.
InfoServe365’s management tools have now given Tensar complete visibility of its manufacturing processes and easy access to data for analysing and improving processes, resulting in tighter control of product quality and consistency, as well as significant improvement in overall equipment effectiveness.
Tensar’s Process Engineering Manager, Andrew Curson, said: “InfoServe365 offered a very affordable solution which met our budget. They have helped us get a better view of the complex variables that affect our product and given us a clearer understanding of the processes and how they can work better. Optima’s engineers have very good core skills and offered excellent support integrating Infoserve365 with our equipment.”
InfoServe365 is a UK leader in managed data collection and analysis and is the sister company of Optima Control Solutions Ltd (OCS), which has developed an unrivalled reputation for designing, building and commissioning high-quality drive control systems.
Established in 1995 by OCS, the brainchild of Michael Hill and fellow managing director Dr Adrian West, the company has grown steadily and now provides a blue chip service to an impressive client base both here in the UK and overseas, including customers in Europe, China and South Africa.