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Keighley Laboratories was set up in 1920 to serve 14 major foundries within the town. Today, the company provides metallurgical and heat treatment services to companies much further afield.
Keighley Laboratories managing director Debbie Mellor, who joined the company in 1986, has seen her fair share of change. “I’ve been here more than half my life”, she smiles, “but I think it’s useful to grow into the company. You understand all aspects of it, though I don’t have in-depth technical training – I’m not a metallurgist. But certainly in terms of the way the company works there’s not a lot that I don’t know about what goes on.”
The company works in sectors including aerospace, nuclear, defence, rail, petrochemical and oil and gas. “I would think we cover most industrial sectors,” says Leonard Stott, customer support manager, technical services. It provides an extensive heat treatment capability to industry, which accounts for about two thirds of its turnover, together with an onsite nationally-accredited metallurgical laboratory service.
Components that are heat treated could be destined for anything from an aircraft to an ocean going liner, and often the end point is confidential. Stott says: “Our furnaces are geared up for carburised case hardening and can carry payloads up to two tonnes. We have a number of furnaces of 0.95metre in diameter, 1.75 metres deep, and we put the components in there at temperatures up to 980°C. By gaseous methods we diffuse carbon into the immediate surface layers – it produces a hard, wear-resistant surface.” Keighley Labs also carries out many associated treatments that include induction hardening and nitro-carburising.
The metallurgical laboratory service includes destructive and non-destructive testing, failure investigation, chemical analysis and mechanical/physical testing. Sometimes the lab is required to determine the material specifications of a metal if they are unknown. For example, materials imported from the Far East can require checking to ensure they comply with national and international standards. Increasingly, the lab is being asked to carry out tests on other materials, including composites, wood and plastics.
If a component has failed, the lab can help determine why, with metallurgists acting as detectives. Sometimes the lab’s findings are used in court if there is a legal challenge related to the failure. Here Keighley Labs can help by providing expert evidence on the causes of a component’s failure. “I would think we work on anything from between 30-50 significant court cases on an annual basis,” says Stott.
Keighley Labs was turning over £3 million prior to the recession and expects to enjoy revenues of £2.5 million this year. Engineering and manufacturing have picked up, says Mellor. “There’s definitely more confidence in the market.” The company made an effort to hang on to its entire staff even when times were tough, she says. “Metallurgists are like gold dust and we have major problems with finding external training provisions for new recruits.”
This year, growth is expected to come in the energy industry, particularly nuclear, with the renewables industry perhaps contributing additional revenue. Mellor says: “One of our strengths is that we have the metallurgy services as well as heat treatment; we’re a one stop shop for heat treatment and testing.”
She concludes: “In general, engineering has become more resilient. But you have to keep evolving just to stand still.”