Category: Case Study

At European Springs Ireland, our experienced engineers have been given the opportunity to manufacture and produce some exciting projects over the years, and this year has been no different. The spring industry has developed and advanced greatly over time, allowing new technology to create incredible things.

Being one of Europe’s leading spring providers, we pride ourselves on delivering the perfect end project to our customers. As Saturday 17th March marks St Patrick’s Day, our team has created a Shamrock made from wire forms to celebrate the occasion.

Shamrock

History of St Patrick’s Day

For those who are unfamiliar with the history of the celebration, we at European Springs Ireland will inform all about the special Irish day. St Patrick’s Day is a cultural and religious celebration held on the 17th March, (the traditional death date of Saint Patrick born 385AD). It is a Roman Catholic feast day of the patron saint of Ireland.

This day commemorates Saint Patrick and the arrival of Christianity in Ireland, whilst also celebrating the heritage and culture of the Irish. Celebrations involves public parades, festivals, and wearing green attire or shamrocks.

Saint Patrick’s Day is widely celebrated around the world and is celebrated in more countries than any other national festival.

Who was Saint Patrick?

Saint Patrick was a 5th century Roman-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland, and one of Christianity’s most widely known figures. But, did you know he wasn’t actually Irish? His real name given at birth was Maewyn. He was born in Romano Britain into a wealthy family, where his father worked as a deacon and his grandfather worked as a priest in a Christian church.

When he was 16, he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken as a slave to Gaelic Ireland. Here, he spent six years working as a shepherd, and it is stated it was here where he found God.

During his capture, he was able to escape, where he fled to a monastery in Gaul, France, and converted to Christianity. After some time living in France, he returned back to Ireland in 432 as a missionary. Although Christianity was a religion which was already held in the country, Saint Patrick enabled it to be more widespread after confronting the Druids at Tara and abolishing their pagan rites.

Later in life, Patrick became a bishop and after his death in 461, he was named Ireland’s patron saint. He was buried at Downpatrick.

In the early days of Saint Patrick’s Day, celebrations were largely understated. It wasn’t until the Irish emigrated to the United States, where they began creating the bigger celebrations and parades we know today.

In the 18th century, Irish soldiers who fought in the Revolutionary War held the first St Patrick’s Day parades. These celebrations were known as a way for the Irish to connect with their roots after they moved to America.

shamrock 3

Fun Facts About Saint Patrick’s Day

Here, we have listed three fun facts about this Irish tradition that you may not have known:

  • According to legend, Saint Patrick used the shamrock to explain the Trinity.
  • The practice of dyeing the river green began in Chicago in 1962, when the city officials decided to dye a portion of the Chicago River green.
  • Corned beef and cabbage is an Irish American dish but some of the population were unable to afford certain meals. On Saint Patrick’s Day, it was the best meal they could afford. Since then, it became a staple for the holiday.

Process of Custom Made Wireforms

Wireforms are essential component types which are commonly used in headsets, computer brace devices, or for a simple pin. No two examples of wireforms ever look alike, making them fantastic for creating them into forms for almost any design.

Advanced machinery has had a great effect on the production of wire forms, allowing the manufacturing of huge quantities. Our specialist hand cooling treatments and wealth of experience enable us to make custom made wireforms with precision and quality. This is shown in our production of the Shamrock to celebrate the occasion.

At European Springs Ireland, we deliver professional and bespoke service for the design and manufacturing of springs. If you would like to know more information about our products and services, please do not hesitate to get in touch with our expert team.

From everyone here at European Springs Ireland, Happy St Patrick’s Day.

It doesn’t feel like it at all, but two days ago was the day of love – Valentine’s Day. It’s a big day around the world, as it is a day where people around the world celebrate their love to one another or express their love for other things, such as their pet, and their friends.

However, in engineering, things are a little different. At European Springs, as well as expressing our love to our loved ones at home, we also express our love in the workplace. This may seem a bit unusual, but let’s have a look into it.

The Love When Manufacturing Various Products

If there’s one thing that we care about more than anything, it’s how we manufacture our award-winning springs and pressings. Every item that we manufacture is handled with care and precision, just like the processes that occur within European Springs.

In the design stage, each aspect is intricately monitored and rigorously tested to make sure that it is fully functional and can withstand its maximum load. When the springs/pressings are produced, they are done so with the best equipment that is available within the industry.

For example, in April last year, our European Springs site in London acquired a revolutionary machine known as the Bruderer BSTA 500-110B, and the results were sensational. The machine itself can produce more than 1000 stampings per minute, which is equivalent to roughly 17 stampings a second! After three months, it was revealed that the Bruderer investment resulted in the growth of European Springs by 10% and created 35 new jobs.

Across London, Cornwall, and Leeds, sales increased by £16m and the workforce increased by 170, which is amazing as a result of one investment deal. Therefore, it is safe to say that the springs that we manufacture daily are of the highest quality, which is excellent for the business, but more so for our clients, as they will be receiving the highest-quality products every single time.

European Springs Pressings Bruderer

The Results of our Love in Manufacturing

The love and consideration that we put into our products, as well as our services, has gone a long way when it comes to our clients. A fantastic example of this was when we worked with Fabric Architecture to help design, manufacture, and install canopies that were located over the retractable seating voids in West Ham’s stadium, the London Stadium.

This project was particularly special to us because we went out of our way to make every aspect of this project personal and extra special. European Springs’ part was to engineer compression springs that would be used within the canopy mechanisms. However, every spring that we created was then coated with the West Ham colours – a beautiful shade of claret.

Michael Gibbs, Managing Director of European Springs & Pressings, even said “…our Production Manager’s love of West Ham, and subsequent suggestion that the springs were powder coated in the club’s famous claret colour, has added a personal touch that has truly made the teams feel part of sporting history”.

Retractable Canopy at West Ham Stadium

From that, it is safe to say that we care so much for our customers, and we put our all into making them happy, as well as the European Springs team. As specialist spring manufacturers, we always ensure that every product that we produce is of the highest quality, and is handled with the utmost care and consideration.

If you want to know more about what we can provide for you, then please don’t hesitate to contact us today on 048 9083 8605 and we will be more than happy to help with any enquiries you may have.

[button url=”/contact-us/” class=”scbutton”]Enquire Now[/button]

Well, what a year it has been!

We are incredibly proud of the team here at European Springs and all that we’ve achieved throughout the previous year. To celebrate these magnificent achievements, and to highlight some of our team’s proudest moments, we have compiled a list of some of our favourite projects and discuss some of the challenges we’ve undertaken throughout 2016; a year which has seen European Springs take to the high-street and become a part of football history.

Olympic Work at West Ham

London Stadium

With the football season kicking off in August, West Ham wanted to celebrate their move to their new home, the London Stadium. The East London football team were originally based at the Boleyn Ground, or Upton Park, from 1904 until the 2015-16 season, at which point they were to relocate to the London Stadium.

However, before they could play their first game against Bournemouth on August 19th, a few finishing touches were needed to be put in place. One such change was to design, engineer, and install canopies over the retractable seating voids inside the stadium. In this project, we worked alongside Fabric Architecture to manufacture a spring solution, and the results were phenomenal!

Springing into Action for Tate Modern

At European Springs, we manufacture and provide the highest quality springs, with everything from compression and tension springs to bespoke wire forms and pressings. One of the most prolific and most involved projects that we were proud to be a part of was when James and Taylor Ltd in London contacted us to produce a spring mechanism for the new Tate Modern gallery.

Our London site in Beckenham pulled out all the stops and was proud to be part of such an amazing engineering project. But you may be wondering how European Springs ties into the project at hand?

Tate Modern Art Gallery

Well, the terracotta and metal façade engineering firm previously approached us to design, develop, and sample a design for the scaffolding fixing clips. However, the scaffolding was, in fact, set to come down sooner than previously anticipated. With this, we had to finish the spring mechanism in just over a week.

We were extremely proud when we managed to complete the task within the allotted time and to the highest quality possible. The hurdles that we had to overcome, other than the incredibly short time constraint, was the nature of the incredibly complex tasks from start to finish, involving unwavering precision and accuracy on every single part of the project that we manufactured.

However, in the end, everyone that worked on the Tate Modern project deserved a huge amount of praise for the work that they have achieved. It was so fantastic, that the Tate even produced a stop-motion film of the Tate Modern being built from the ground up!

Spotlight on: Liberty of London

If there are two things you can say about European Springs, it’s that we manufacture a wide array of springs, forms, and pressings and that they are produced to the highest quality.

As a result, Liberty London – a retail store in London – approached us to produce and deliver 80 springs for their window displays. And we didn’t disappoint!

Liberty London Retail

Initially, you would have assumed that the springs were to be used as components for machines, but they were actually for the displays themselves; the typical compression springs that we manufacture were used to hold the various display items in place. This project showed the public that European Springs are capable of produced any size of spring, from millimetres in length to the two-metre-high items that formed the Liberty London window displays.

This brilliant collaboration showed off the versatility and creativity of our team, and we couldn’t be happier to have been part of such an amazing exhibition. We are proud to say that, along with the various industries that we work with day in day out, the retail industry is now an industry in which we can work to achieve great things.

Even without the fantastic projects that we’ve been honoured to have been involved in, 2016 has seen European Springs invest in some new and exciting technology that enables up to produce springs and pressings at a much faster rate and to a higher order of accuracy. Not only that, our London site has even gained the ISO 14001 Certification, and we are extremely proud of everyone that has been involved throughout such a fruitful year.

At European Springs, we constantly strive to achieve the best results for us and for our clients. If you want to know more about the projects that we have worked on this year, then why not contact us on 0044 7889171165 and one of our friendly members of staff will be more than happy to help.

As a company with almost 70 years of expertise, European Springs & Pressings regularly undertake a wide variety of complex projects. Our technological knowledge and skill is clearly showcased through every final product, ensuring high-quality and innovation.

With over a hundred years of history, West Ham United Football Club is deeply entrenched in English football history. For the first time in over a century, the club has moved to a new home – the London Stadium. In close teamwork and collaboration with Fabric Architecture, we manufactured bespoke springs for a renovation that corresponds with the stadium’s next step in sports.

 

Improved Bespoke Spring Manufacture

As market leaders in spring manufacture, we continuously strive for optimised procedures and technology to produce a streamlined, high-quality spring. For West Ham’s new stadium, we utilised a new Fortuna coiling machine with this process in mind; we delivered tailored springs, designed specifically for dissipating loads from the stadium’s canopies.

Fabric Architecture, award winning experts in tensile fabric structure, had specific engineering requirements due to the undertaken stadium project. They were required to design, engineer, and install large-scale fabric canopies that would be placed over the existing retractable seating voids inside the stadium.

Through the new Fortuna machine, we were able to strengthen our design of wire coiling from 0.3mm to 26mm. New opportunities for more exciting projects have subsequently opened, including new markets across multi-industries. Managing Director of European Springs & Pressings, Michael Gibbs, reinforces a vital factor in the industry and for our business: engineering solutions.

For us at European Springs & Pressings, ensuring that we keep investing “skills training and machinery is part of an ongoing growth strategy for the organisation that has seen us grow from an £800k operation to £7.5m turnover over the last 15 years.”

 

A Close and Proactive Relationship with Fabric Architecture

Collaboration in engineering is vital; managing the quality of every project ensures that every step of the design and the manufacturing processes are streamlined and produce the highest possible quality. With technical proficiency from several industries, the end result has an increased intricacy and detail that guarantees a safe and superior product.

Our relationship with Fabric Architecture, according to Director of Design and Engineering Nigel Browne, was “ fast, efficient, and very knowledgeable in assisting us to design a system that helped dissipate the loads from the canopies.”

Quality and safety are always top priorities at European Springs & Pressings, and our streamlined wire coiling signifies that, at all times, the 60,000 capacity stadium can guarantee the safety of everyone. As our Production Managers love West Ham, Michael Gibbs added, the “subsequent suggestion that the springs were powder coated in the club’s famous claret colour, has added a personal touch that has truly made the team feel part of sporting history.”

Additionally, here at European Springs & Pressings we are proud to now forever watch over the West Ham United Football Club and their fans with our high-quality springs. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us on 048 9083 8605 to enquire about our springs and pressing services.

Alternatively, you can find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ to see our news and updates.

[button url=”/contact-us/” class=”scbutton”]Enquire Now[/button]

Here at European Springs Ireland we pride ourselves in providing high quality products for all of our customers, which is why we ensure that the designs of our springs allow them to be created from many different materials. One example is the project we recently completed with Liberty in London, which allowed us to take on a more creative task – our success with unique projects such as these didn’t stop here, however.

Our location in Beckenham was contacted by James and Taylor Ltd in London (experts in terracotta cladding and façade engineering) to produce a spring mechanism for the new Tate Modern, a gorgeous, world-renowned art gallery – and we couldn’t have been more excited about this!

The Project Itself

The Tate Modern opened its doors on the 17th June 2016, complete with an anti-climb zone to which we contributed our reliable springs. More specifically, the project entailed the manufacturing of retaining clips for holding face plates onto corbels on the building. This anti-climb area covers approximately the first 15 metres up around the base of the Tate Modern, and James and Taylor were in charge of completing this project.

 

Where Did We Come In?

We were previously approached by James and Taylor in 2013, when we designed, developed and sampled a design for the fixing clips. Due to the fact that the scaffolding in the building was set to come down sooner than expected, the client came back to us this year saying that we only had ten days to finish the spring mechanism.

As Stuart McSheehy, Managing Director of European Springs, said, ‘this really was a race against the clock as the scaffolding on the Tate Modern was being removed and James and Taylor’s anti-climb installation had to be implemented within days.’ And this is exactly what we did.

It wasn’t a straightforward task, though. We had to modify the design slightly from the original sample and, once that was done, we got the news that our material suppliers didn’t have the necessary resources ready to deal with a project like this – but they worked overtime and managed to provide everything we needed! Then, we laser-cut the blanks for the spring clips and tested them, and the final product was a two-part mechanism with a top and bottom spring.

Because this was so urgent, John Champion, Design Director at James and Taylor, came personally on Saturday morning to collect the 650 springs for the project. He was really happy with our work which, in turn, made us happy as well!

In his own words, ‘Stuart and his team could not have been more dedicated to delivering our brief. We appreciated it was a really tight turnaround but they were fearless and achieved the near impossible – securing high numbers of an exceptional quality of products and in a matter of days too.’

 

We love it when our clients are satisfied with our work, as we take great pride in manufacturing the best possible springs and wire forms out there. Assignments like this only add to our knowledge and experience, and allow us to learn more each day, so we relish the opportunity to be involved in these one-of-a-kind projects!

European Springs Ireland understands the need to have the highest quality springs and wire forms at all times, no matter the requirements of your project. For this reason, we strive to provide all of our customers with quality services and products they can trust and benefit from. These products can be used in a large range of situations, as they’re incredibly versatile, and are created from many different materials as well.

We work together with clients from different sectors and industries, such as the automobile and engineering – one of our most recent projects, however, involved our English office and the luxury retailer Liberty in London, a project unlike any other. This was a fantastic endeavour that baptised us into the world of retail, an experience we thoroughly enjoyed and can’t wait to do again.

Our location in Redruth partnered with Liberty to create a stunning window display and bespoke frames used in their shop. For this, European Springs made sure to provide high quality, specially made springs and wire forms that could meet the client’s needs – in this case, 80 springs were used to put on an amazing window display!

Compression Springs

While compression springs are typically used in mechanical engineering projects that require parts in movement – and which can benefit from the springs’ ability to be compressed and expanded without becoming damaged – Liberty’s request was the complete opposite. The unique shape of these types of springs makes them versatile and capable of being used a thousand different ways, which was why we chose them.

The client needed springs that could be functional and decorative at the same time, and couldn’t be happier about the final product – which, in turn, makes us happy as well! Our reliable, two-metre springs were used to display the client’s products, such as shoes, sunglasses and luxury purses, and provided the chic and modern look Liberty is known for. Doing the brand justice was one of our main goals, and we felt the springs really emphasised Liberty’s luxury and style to perfection.

Wire Forms

At European Springs we’re also known for our superior wire forms. To meet the client’s requirements, we created several frames that formed the chandeliers in their haberdashery section and ensured they could be functional and stylish at the same time, just as with the springs. The high end store was capable of showcasing their yarn and strings in the light fixtures, a contemporary design that perfectly matched the retailer’s design.

While springs, wire forms and retail might not seem compatible at first glance, turns out they’re a match made in heaven! Our partnership with Liberty has clearly proven that springs can be used for pretty much anything you wish, and that our focus on quality is the key to do it. By adding the perfect finish to our products, we make sure they look good while being practical and useful at the same time.

At European Springs Ireland we’re proud that our office in Redruth was chosen to be part of this creative project. We believe that new ventures are not just exciting but also allow us to deepen our knowledge: we can use our experience to help our clients achieve the results they’re looking for, and in return we also grow and learn from them!

If you’d like to learn more about our products and services, or would like to engage us for your own exciting project, don’t hesitate to contact us today on 0044 7889171165 and discuss your needs with us.

HOW CAN WE HELP YOU?

    Fields marked with an *are required

    This form collects your name, email, company name, phone number and your enquiry so that one of our team can communicate with you and provide assistance. Please check our Privacy Policy to see what we'll do with your information.