A Scottish surface treatment services provider has invested £800,000 in a new plating line for copper, silver and electroless nickel plating.
The line, at East Kilbride based Surface Technology is processing oil and gas components such as ball valves, gates and seats as well as indicator housings for customers including FMC, One Subsea and Weatherford.
Whilst the sharp fall in the oil price from autumn 2014 impacted the oil and gas sector in Scotland dramatically, according to official figures, the Scottish economy grew by 0.2% during the third quarter of last year. The current draft budget for Scotland includes a growth package which will see spending on the economy rise by 64 per cent – up by £270m in 2018-19. Surface Technology’s investment in its East Kilbride site shows the company’s confidence in the future growth prospects for Scottish manufacturing.
Last year, the Surface Technology East Kilbride site was awarded a rating of ‘excellent’ by the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) and will also be investing in new Enterprise Resource Planning(ERP) software to help continue providing customers with industry leading service levels.
Allan Marshall, Operations Director at Surface Technology’s East Kilbride site said: “The engineering and manufacturing sectors in Scotland are robust and this new plating line will help the team continue to provide our customers with the fast turnarounds and high levels of service they expect.
“This site has been operating for more than 30 years and we’re well known for our work in the oil and gas sector but, on the back of this investment, we’re looking to open up the benefits of our plating facility to manufacturers working across the food and drink, precision engineering, automotive and power generation industries - to name just a few.
“With this investment, we are ready to build a successful future in partnership with Scotland’s engineering and manufacturing industry.”
Surface Technology operate four sites across the UK, as well as international operations, offering surface treatment services to manufacturers across a wide range of industries from precision engineering and automotive to power generation, medical equipment and food and drink processing. The business carries out a wide range of industrial coating processes both on and off-site and prides itself on its application engineering expertise and ability to build on more than 40 years industry experience to solve customers’ surface finishing problems.