THOMPSON WISHES A HAPPY XMAS AFTER A GREAT 2013

By Thompson Friction Welding
schedule18th Dec 13

               

                   Thompson friction welding has seen a fantastic year, celebrating two milestones for the company in Halesowen, Birmingham. Not only has Thompson celebrated its 50th anniversary of their first ever friction welding machine, but have also celebrated their 20th anniversary of ownership by parent company KUKA. It is a tremendous achievement to reach such a landmark of longevity in business, having provided such robust services and innovation here in the Midlands.

The company celebrated their 50th anniversary with a special party organised by the company in May of this year, with over 500 guests rejoicing in such an achievement. In September, a three-day sales workshop and team building event was held in Bavaria, which brought together colleagues from both Thompson Friction Welding and KUKA Robotics.

Read more at http://thompsonfrictionwelding.madeinthemidlands.com/news/mammoth-friction-welder-from-thompson/740

             

       

The year has also seen many achievements for company, with Caterpillar taking delivery of the world’s largest direct drive friction welding machine, manufactured by Thompson. The machine is to be used at Caterpillar’s US site in South Claifornia, producing a range of hydraulic cylinders, of which has a forging force of 400 tonnes, 100 tonnes more powerful than Thompson's previous biggest model.

Thompson has seen further business from Drilling equipment maker Driconeq, installing a new Thompson machine at its plant in Gauteng, South Africa. The DP Series is equipped with special features including extended tie bars for welding drill pipes over 10m in length and an alignment device to orientate spanner flats on tool joints.

Elsewhere, Thompson has supplied a refurbished direct drive machine to North American reamer manufacturer Yankee Corporation, as well as the hydraulic cylinder manufacturer Sahgev in france, installing the PR Series machine, equipped with a number of special features including a single tool, twin axis flash removal device, two jaw chuck and quick change non-marking tooling.

Read more at http://thompsonfrictionwelding.madeinthemidlands.com/news

           Thompson has also done it’s bit to bridge the skills gap in the Midlands, helping tackle youth unemployment by taking on SEVEN new apprentices in from the Midlands over the year.

“In a tough jobs market, it is very important to offer young people the opportunity to develop skills and knowledge. As a major exporter, Thompson is also committed to encouraging new talent not only to achieve its business goals, but also play a part in helping to sustain Britain’s manufacturing sector,” said Peter Lovegrove, Thompson’s managing director. 

Read more at http://thompsonfrictionwelding.madeinthemidlands.com/news/thompson-aims-to-inspire-tomorrows-engineers/857

On behalf of everyone at Thompson, our very best wishes for a happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year. We look forward to working with you in 2014.

Nick Edge, Sales Director.