Holton Crest Ltd has embarked on an ambitious development programme to drive continuous improvements in extrusion processes and lead the technological revolution to bring next generation CRE applications to market.
By investing in the best technology, talent and engineering skills in partnership with some of the world’s leading producers and institutions, Holton Crest has already seen huge success with many different machine configurations being installed all over the World.
At wire 2018, Holton Crest will be showcasing these different machine configurations, along with the latest technology developments to demonstrate how the continuous rotary extrusion industry has progressed over the last two years.
As specialists in Continuous Rotary Extrusion, Holton Crest currently offer 3 different extruders, HC1100, HC2200 and HC4000. With installations in Europe, North and South America, for both aluminium and copper processing (with some machines capable of transforming both metals), Holton Crest have delivered on major projects where reliability, productivity and efficiency are extremely important.
Managing Director Malcolm Ladd says,
“The fruits of our labours have been realised over the last two years, during which we have supplied multiples of five different configurations of our dual axis ‘next generation’ HC machines, including two large systems, several small ones, and one with particle feed.
The recent configurations include 1 wire in 1 product out, 1 in 2 out, 2 in 1 out, and 2 in 2 out. The 1 in 2 out machine for aluminium in Europe we believe to be the largest single machine CRE contract to date, which really demonstrates our capacity to deliver at the highest level, with many different applications.”
Holton machines have been in existence for over 30 years, with some still going strong today, a testament to the outstanding build quality in itself. But Holton Crest is committed to continual improvement, specifically focused on the CRE process itself. They have designed, built and put into production a new generation of machines with new technology and digital controls that open up a whole new world for process improvements.
As Malcolm continues:
“A lot of our research has been put into the software, user interface and control system, which has enabled us to launch a new software and adaptive control system. We are now working on developing artificial intelligence, which will automatically try alternative settings when running the process in order to learn the optimum settings for a particular material. This makes the process up to 50% more efficient, which could be game-changing for many of our customers.”
But this technology is not just exclusively available on new machines – Holton Crest have also been working on a comprehensive future-proofing and modernisation programme of older machines. For example, by introducing digital controls and modernising certain components on a ten year old line, customers could see significant improvements in their production processes by increasing functionality, productivity, efficiencies, coil quality and running speeds.
Knowledge and experience is the foundation on which everything at Holton Crest is built. As specialists in the Continuous Rotary Extrusion market, they are driving the process forward and leading the market with investments in people, skills, technology and R&D to realise the full potential of the CRE process in modern manufacturing.
