Lightweight casting company Sarginsons Industries has seen major growth this year in high performance cast aluminium alloys for the automotive and rail industries.
The company has been working in partnership with the Brunel Centre for Advanced Solidification Technology (BCAST) to develop new lightweight aluminium alloys that are as strong as steel and totally recyclable.
Sales are on track to grow year-on-year sales by 30 per cent to £7.5 million by the end of 2017 and profits are up too.
The partnership with BCAST – an academic research centre on the campus of Brunel University London and global leader in metallurgical casting research – is under the Lightweight Energy Absorbing Aluminium Structures for Transport (LEAAST) project.
Sarginsons are also key Industrial Partners at the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Liquid Metal Engineering (LiME) based at Brunel University in collaboration with the University of Oxford, University of Leeds, University of Manchester and Imperial College London. As partners the firm provides leadership and guidance to the leading academic institutes with SMEs’ requirements and strategic direction.
The company has also invested heavily in new equipment and energy efficiency measures and is set to invest £500,000 in further upgrades by 2018.
Anthony Evans, managing director at Sarginsons, said: “We’re extremely pleased to announce strong performance figures for the year to date.
“We’ve seen a huge rise in the demand for aluminium components in the global automotive industry and that is a major factor in our on-going success.
“This year we’ve seen a major spike in new enquiries from tier one suppliers across Europe, which is further evidence the automotive industry in the UK remains buoyant, despite the on-going Brexit uncertainty.
“Manufacturers are now increasingly designing for the use of aluminium, whereas in the past they were looking to replace steel with aluminium to lightweight.
“The growth in battery and hybrid vehicles in the market is central to this, as delivering fully sustainable and high ductility components is critical for providing the automotive industry lightweighting options to counter battery and hybrid vehicle base loads.
“The demand we’re seeing, and trends in the market, is very much pointing towards the use of aluminium continuing to grow and we’re pleased to say is providing companies like Sarginsons with massive opportunities.”
Sarginsons is one of the few European companies to offer low pressure diecasting, sandcasting and gravity diecasting in a single foundry.
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