For a versatile and skilled company such as Dale, working with difficult materials is an everyday occurrence!
Stainless Steel, Mild Steel, Aluminium, Brass and Copper present very little problems to this company and they prove this on a daily basis.
They are Based in Houghton-le-Spring near Durham where they have been manufacturing for approximately five years. The present Company was bought from its original founder in 2001 as the result of a management buy-out and has never looked back.
Geoff Gibson, managing director, says, “I bought the company and renamed it to its present title in 2001 and then, in 2007 we moved to the present site which has opened a lot of doors due to the extra space we now have.
Initially we had the one 2,500 sqft nursery unit but after controlled expansion, we tripled our space to 7,500 sqft2 and then nearly doubled it in our present building of 14,000ft2. The company prefers to work as an extension of its client’s own business. If a problem arises, Dale’s engineers will go to site, diagnose the problem, and design a solution on the company’s AutoCAD system, they then manufacture the end result from the drawings created.
To enable this to be done as simply and as efficiently as possible, the company has invested over the years in CNC punching and press brake machinery. Fabrication is achieved through skilled sheet-metalworkers, who use a variety of welding processes, including MIG and TIG.
Their work is Bespoke to say the least; One recent contract was for a large skid, 10m by 3.15m weighing approximately 7 tonnes, which their customer used as a base to build a self contained pneumatic system, which they can then ship to different destinations all over the world.
An interesting job which has just been completed was a double spiral staircase, which rose as a single stair for six steps then split into two separate spiral staircases. This was constructed with a mild steel central spine, stainless steel and solid walnut treads and mild steel powder-coated balustrade with solid walnut handrails.
Geoff added, “We had to trial erect this in our manufacturing facility and then split the stair into three parts to get it through the customers front door, we then had to
re-erect it all and complete the installation in the customers hallway”!!
The balustrade had to be handmade on site due to the complexity of the design, but the finished article was worth the wait as we have a very happy customer. It was a challenging job throughout that took three months from original drawing to completion.
Finally, Dale manufactured a large water tank for an existing customer who’s business is electro-plating. The tank measured 6m in height and 3.5m in diameter. Another challenging job, but one which they managed to ship in one piece. Geoff “We couldn’t have done this in our old premises, due to the size constraints and lack of crane-age, and to cap it all, on the day we shipped it for installation, we had 6 inches of snow fall making the install difficult to say the least!”
Looking forward, Dale is hoping to concentrate on working more within the food and architectural sectors, where the focus is on high quality stainless steel products, as this is where ‘Geoff’ sees their future. They are already currently working for many of the local companies within the food sector, but are looking to expand upon this and plan to make their name doing so.
For further information please telephone 0191 584 5845 or visit www.dale-fabrications.co.uk
