PTG Heavy Industries sees business boom

PTG purchased its large machine business in 2008, with this moved justified by continued demand for large specialist machine tools and a recession-driven wave of remanufacture business. It has now expanded and rebranded the operation as PTG Heavy Industries. Industries served by the large capacity machine tool sector, such as mining, large construction equipment, oil and shipping, are using the relative trading lull to reinvest in large scale plant equipment, so that PTG Heavy Industries is providing strong growth prospects and has a healthy order book, it is reported. Incorporated into the business are two well known brands - Binns & Berry and Crawford Swift - each with worldwide recognition and over 100 years of experience designing and manufacturing large capacity CNC lathes, deep hole boring machines and roll grinders. New machine orders have been confirmed for both the Binns & Berry and Crawford Swift brands, while additional business is also being generated by the expanding remanufacturing and large machine tool service side of the business. "Heavy industry has turned a corner; from the dark days of the 80s, when it was a dirty word, to today when government has acknowledged that high value manufacturing is vital to the country in order to rebalance the economy and provide the engine to pull the UK out of recession," commented Dr Tony Bannan, PTG chief operating officer. "PTG Heavy Industries retains a fantastic skills base with years of manufacturing and engineering experience being put to good use and not lost as manufacturing moves offshore. There is no doubt that the relative weakness of the pound is also boosting our cost competitiveness on the international market." Machines manufactured and re-engineered at PTG Heavy Industries include heavy-duty long bed lathes, with a work piece capacity of up to 250 tonnes. There are also a number of ongoing projects for special-purpose machine tools and Crawford Swift's award-wining friction stir welding machine. Carl Griffiths, general manager of the new operation added: "The experience we have in designing and building these machines sets us apart on the world stage, we can build a new machine, upgrade an existing machine or design and build machine tool solutions with the confidence that comes only from technology leadership and experience." The company's works covers an area of 38,000 sq ft of engineering space, with the operation claiming one of Europe's largest slideway planing and grinding machines, capable of machining 14.5 by 3.3 by 2.2 m in a single set-up, with this supported by a single-lift crane capacity of 50 tonnes.