Arville, a leading technical textiles specialist, has just completed a £1 million upgrade of its fabric coating plant in Bury, Lancashire, following a phased two-year project to overhaul the site.

The 15,000 sq. ft. factory was acquired by Arville in 2000, when the group purchased P&S Textiles to further strengthen its portfolio of textile production, and create the capability to manufacture technical fabrics from end-to-end.

But layout of the production area has now been completely redesigned in line with lean manufacturing principles, to create a more efficient workflow process from start to finish, the company reports.

Versatile plant

Arville has invested in new coating machinery including a dedicated area for compound mixing, secure chemical storage areas, ventilation systems, new coating heads, a high-speed vulcanising oven, inspection tables and high definition video cameras for in-line quality control.

The overall result is a more versatile plant capable of both coating and combining a wide range of bespoke, high performance and high specification technical textiles, for various markets.

Innovation and investment

“With a 60-year heritage, Arville has long been passionate about continued innovation in textiles manufacturing and more recently has undertaken an investment programme to maintain our ‘best in class’ status,” commented Arville spokesperson Andy Smith.

“We meticulously planned this extensive refurbishment to ensure we didn’t disrupt production for existing customers, and now, after a two year wait it’s great to have a ‘brand new’ state-of-the-art facility that will stand us in good stead for further growth.”

Arville specialises in the design and manufacture of high performance woven and coated textiles for demanding applications within the aerospace, defence, pharmaceutical, automotive, medical and food industries.

Factory expansion

This news follows an expansion to the factory footprint at Arville’s weaving plant in Wetherby, West Yorkshire where the group employs 60 staff. Additional work to install an extra stenter line has increased the firm’s finishing capacity. According to the company, further investment is also in the pipeline.

“We’re part-way through the development of a new IT system which will create a powerful database for our technical textiles manufacturing. It will store every relevant detail about textile projects we undertake – from yarn specifications, weave constructions, inspection and testing reports and more. We’re also set to install a new laser cutting table at our fabrication unit in the coming months,” said Andy Smith.

“These investments, funded wholly by Arville’s internal resources, show our commitment to keeping the company at the cutting edge of technical textiles production.”

www.arville.com