Almost within sight of Westward Ho! and situated in the ancient port and market town of Barnstaple on North Devon’s western seaboard can be found the principal timber component workshops of Pluss, a firm well known throughout the UK for its network of industrial workshops and its significant disabled workforce.
Pluss offers employment and employment support to people with learning and physical disabilities, mental health issues and long term health conditions, supporting thousands of people every year.
All Pluss’ woodworking activities are concentrated in Barnstaple and so it was that local manager John Squires contacted Daltons Wadkin with a view to identifying a crosscutting system to improve efficiency and performance within its mill.
Subsequently John and, importantly, members of his workforce visited the Daltons Wadkin showroom in Nottingham to see the Salvador Superpush 200 system. The machine was demonstrated by the technical sales staff, leaving the Pluss team in no doubt as to the impact such a machine would have in its organisation.
Resulting from this visit and the discussions with Daltons Wadkin sales director, Andy Walsh, an order was placed for the Superpush machine which is now installed at Barnstaple and in operation some 30 hours per week.
During a recent visit to the Pluss workshops by Alex and Francis Dalton the enthusiasm of both John and his workforce was obvious to see.
The Salvador system has made a major impact and according to John Squires has reduced wastage from an average of 27% to less than 5%.
This significant saving, together with the speed of operation, represents a real success story. John Squires says: “The machine does everything that Daltons Wadkin said it would do and more. It has revolutionised our workshop and really impacted on the performance and accuracy of production.”
A wide range of beds, largely of timber construction, is supplied to a variety of markets but include top of the range luxury models.
The Salvador Superpush system is a fully programmable automatic crosscutting machine with defecting and optimising incorporating pusher speeds of up to 60m/min and variable cutting speeds ranging from 0.2 to 2 seconds. The machine was delivered to Barnstaple, installed and commissioned by Daltons Wadkin engineers.
Andy Walsh enthuses: “It is always pleasing to provide a solution for customers, especially so in the case of Pluss where the machine performance actually exceeded the customer’s highest expectations.”
To view the Salvador in operation at Pluss visit the Daltons Wadkin YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/daltonswadkin
