UK-based Atomising Systems Limited (ASL) has expanded its workforce to cope with a major influx of orders for metal powder.
Staff numbers at its facility in Darnall, Sheffield, have increased from 35 in September 2014 to over 60 in June to allow ASL’s two 500kW melting furnaces to operate at maximum output to service an order book going forward into 2016.
Four new apprentices have been taken on to work in production, quality control and maintenance.
ASL has also invested in a £100,000 major upgrade of its gas atomiser, while a large new sieving station of similar cost has just been put into production on special steel grades. In addition, a new £25,000 instrument using laser diffraction to measure particle sizes as fine as one micron has been purchased and the QC laboratory is being expanded with the addition of a £30,000 oxygen analysing instrument.
‘After some tough times, it is very gratifying to see our investment in plant and research at last paying dividends,’ said MD Simon Dunkley, who took over management of the company from his father, Dr John Dunkley, in 2010. ‘Our recent investments should further allow us to fulfil the exacting demands of leading metal powder users around the world.’
This story is reprinted from material from ASL, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
