News: The Rotherham company helping Brompton reinvent the bicycle

There are key parts of amazing things that are made in Rotherham - Rolls-Royce engines, Stanley knives, McLaren supercars. Here's one more to add to the list - Brompton bikes.

Brompton Bicycle, a British manufacturer of iconic folding bicycles has launched its lightest bike ever, and it has been made possible by CW Fletcher, a precision engineering firm based in Rotherham.

CW Fletcher supplies a diverse range of industries, including aerospace, nuclear and space exploration. Its "Sterling Works" is part of a 9.5-acre combined site located at Wales Bar in Rotherham where high-strength, lightweight assemblies in ordinary and exotic metallic materials are fabricated and high value-added components are machined.

The precision engineers told Brompton that their folding bike could be made in titanium when others said it couldn't.

The product of three years of research and development, Brompton has brought its fold to life in titanium by forging new construction techniques, designing over 150 components and building a dedicated factory in Rotherham in order to create the ultra-light Brompton T Line.

Advertisement
The two companies created Brompton Fletcher seven years ago and have previously created titanium components such as forks and rear ends for the Brompton Superlight.

Now at the facility whole frames are precision-engineered in titanium, then orbital and tig-welded for strength. In Brompton's London home, the T Line is finished with new componentry and tuned for the city, setting a new benchmark for folding bikes in lightness, ride performance and robustness.

Using titanium means that the T Line frame weighs 37% less than the original all-steel equivalent and is just as strong. Weighing 7.45 kg in total, it is comparable to a carbon road bike.

Paul Williams, chief operations officer explained the challenges Brompton overcame to create T Line: "Whilst Titanium ore is a relatively abundant material, turning it into something usable for bike manufacture takes an extraordinary amount of effort. It proves worth it though, as it has the highest strength to density ratio of any metallic element, along with great impact strength and corrosion resistance, making it the perfect material to create the ultimate lightweight folding bike, able to withstand the punishing impacts of the city.

"Working with Titanium takes a high level of knowledge, experience and diligence, so finding the right partner who shared our vision and belief in what could be achieved with Titanium was critical. Our relationship with C W Fletcher, based in Sheffield started over seven years ago and they have a long history in manufacturing going back over 100 years. With them we built Brompton Fletcher, a dedicated company with a purpose-built production facility and skilled team able to work with this demanding material and fabricate these fantastic titanium frames."

Adam Cox, manufacturing engineer at Brompton Fletcher (pictured, left), said: "All the frames we make are handcrafted and handmade. We take titanium tube, titanium plates, and weld them into frames that then get shipped down to London and built into the T Line bike.

"As a metal, titanium can be quite difficult to work with, whether you're machining it, rolling it, bending it, or in our case, welding it."

Matt Kirk, production lead at Brompton Fletcher, added: "It's not like steel so we have to form it and build it in a different way. We have to play with different wall thicknesses and different bend angles, and with the way we bend stuff, springback.

"It makes you proud that you've worked hard to make that weld as good as you possibly can. It's so rewarding."

Brompton website
CW Flecther website

Images: Brompton

Read more...

News: CW Fletcher lands massive £160m Rolls-Royce deal

CW Fletcher, a precision engineering firm based in Rotherham, has signed a record £160m long term contract with Rolls-Royce. A deal which means it can expand its Wales Bar facility.

The business supplies a diverse range of industries, including aerospace, nuclear and space exploration. Its "Sterling Works" is part of a 9.5-acre combined site located at Wales Bar in Rotherham where high-strength, lightweight assemblies in ordinary and exotic metallic materials are fabricated and high value-added components are machined.

The deal, the most valuable secured by the company in its 126-year history, will see them supply aircraft engine fabrications for the next ten years.

Steve Kirk, managing director at CW Fletcher, said: "This is hugely significant for every one of us at CW Fletcher and represents many months of work at both companies. The contract forms a key part of our growth strategy which will also see the start of our new facility in Sheffield to add a further 2,000 square metres of manufacturing space and secure the future of our 200 strong workforce. We are confident that the future is bright for advanced manufacturing here in Sheffield."

Ian Oliver, strategic buyer at Rolls-Royce, added: "Rolls-Royce is pleased to secure this deal with CW Fletcher, which builds on the previous 70 years plus relationship. CW Fletcher is an important supplier to Rolls-Royce and the deal helps secure the long-term relationship between the companies."

Advertisement

CW Fletcher has a strategy for sustained growth based on being one of the first companies selected for the UK's flagship Sharing in Growth competitiveness improvement programme. The company has participated in the bespoke and intense training and business transformation programme which focuses on leadership, culture and operational capability.

Rothbiz reported in 2016 that participation in Sharing in Growth helped CW Fletcher sign a £7m, three year export deal with Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) of Japan for the supply of unison ring components which were ultimately fitted into Rolls-Royce aero engines.

The firm's links to Rolls-Royce stretch back to the manufacture of components in the iconic Merlin engine, developed for the Spitfire and Lancaster aircraft.

Set up by industry in 2012, Sharing in Growth is endorsed by Airbus, BAE Systems, Boeing, Bombardier, GE, GKN, Leonardo, Lockheed Martin, MBDA, Rolls-Royce, Safran and Thales because it is helping the UK advanced manufacturing supply chain to become more competitive and win a larger share of global aerospace contracts, typically by addressing a 20% cost gap and targeting 50% productivity improvement.

Andy Page, CEO of Sharing in Growth, said: "We are thrilled with CW Fletcher's well-deserved success. It is testament to the effectiveness of Sharing in Growth and we'd encourage other ambitious companies to follow CW Fletcher onto our programme. As an industry-led programme our aim is to deliver sustainable business growth in the advanced manufacturing sector based on investing in people and processes to drive up productivity and competitiveness."

CW Fletcher are experts in providing machined fabrications, in a range of materials, up to two metres in diameter. Their modern facility contains 5 axis milling, CNC turning, heat-treatment, pressing, sheet-metal work, non-destructive testing and a range of welding techniques.

CW Fletcher moved to its current site in 1999 but due to a recession in the airline business in the early 2000s, two additional buildings were never erected. Plans have been amended to allow for the third planned building to be removed and replaced by a lower rise second building.

Richard J Phillips, business development manager at CW Fletcher, said: "We have been gradually building our reputation across these market sectors to the point where our customers are now saying that we are the go-to company for machined fabrications in the UK. This makes us proud and is praise that we do not take lightly. These are exciting times for CW Fletcher."

CW Fletcher website

Images: CW Fletcher

Read more...

News: CW Fletcher lands £7m export deal

CW Fletcher, a precision engineering firm based in Rotherham, has signed a £7m, three year export deal with Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) of Japan.

The business supplies a diverse range of industries, including aerospace, nuclear and space exploration. Its "Sterling Works" is part of a 9.5-acre combined site located at Wales Bar in Rotherham where high-strength, lightweight assemblies in ordinary and exotic metallic materials are fabricated and high value-added components are machined.

Under the new agreement, CW Fletcher will supply unison ring components which will ultimately be fitted into Rolls-Royce aero engines.

Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd (KHI) is a Japanese public multinational corporation with interests in environmental control and energy plant engineering, machinery and robotics, ship building and marine engineering, power plant engineering and steel structures, rolling stock, aerospace, and famously, motorcycles.

KHI's relationship with Rolls-Royce dates back to 1959 when the two companies formed a technical alliance for the overhaul of the Orpheus jet engine. Since then the partnership has expanded to encompass a wide range of areas including defense aircraft engines and commercial aircraft. KHI supplies the intermediate pressure compressor (IPC) module for both the Trent 1000 and Trent XWB engines and has signed up as a partner for the Trent 7000 engine.

As one of the eight main modules that constitute the engine, the IPC module has a diameter of about 1.5 metres, a length of about 1.5 metres and is comprised of approximately 4,000 components.

Advertisement

The new contract is part of CW Fletcher's ambitious strategy to increase its turnover from £20m to £32m by 2020 and underscores the company's success since joining Sharing in Growth (SIG), the government-backed competitiveness improvement programme.

Established in August 2013, the SiG programme helps aerospace supply chain companies to improve their productivity and competitiveness so they are better placed to win a share of continued growth in the global aerospace market. Each company participates in an intense four year training and development programme which attracts £1.2 million from the Regional Growth Fund (RGF) for each company.

Speaking at the recent Farnborough International Airshow where he signed the agreement with Mr Akio Onsuka of KHI, CW Fletcher managing director Steve Kirk (pictured) said: "This is a very important contract for us. It demonstrates the quality of our work and the skills of our workforce and it will safeguard Sheffield jobs. We are delighted that the Sharing in Growth programme has helped us win export business for Britain."

Andy Page, CEO of Sharing in Growth, added: "CW Fletcher joined the SiG programme to win business through increased productivity and competitiveness. Their achievement is outstanding and shows the effectiveness of the programme which so far helped UK aerospace companies secure more than £1 billion in orders to date – 20% of which is for direct export. Ultimately the SiG programme's goal is to secure 10,000 UK jobs by 2022."

Components for Rolls-Royce engines are already being manufactured in Rotherham. The leading firm officially opened the most advanced turbine blade casting facility in the world on the Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP) in 2014. When fully operational in 2017, the 150,000 sq ft facility will employ 150 people and have the capacity to manufacture more than 100,000 single crystal turbine blades a year.

CW Fletcher website
Sharing in Growth website

Images: Sharing in Growth

Read more...