| General
History
W.H. Davis Ltd. has been manufacturing various transport engineering products for many
years. A management buy-out in 1984 followed from a former family business established in
1910. The original company was developed for decades manufacturing railway wagons. In 1968
W.H. Davis started manufacturing marine containers and subsequently roll trailers and
special industrial trailers up to 200 tonne capacity. Following the management buy-out
W.H. Davis continued to develop its range of marine containers, railway wagons and
industrial trailers. In recent years a range of swap bodies has been developed. Emphasis
has concentrated on supplying our customers with transport equipment that optimises their
operational requirements. Commercial
History Since the buy-out in
1984 W.H. Davis has been profitable every year. Whilst being affected by various trade
recession over the period, by innovation, development, good and prudent management the
company has developed to a £15 million turnover. The majority of profits have been
ploughed back into the company by way of plant and equipment, renovation of buildings and
general facilities thus enabling us to further improve our efficiency.
Production Facilities Based on a 4.25
hectare site at Langwith Junction the site is connected to the rail system and within 6
miles of the M1 motorway in the north midlands. The site has its own rail sidings which
can accommodate approximately 65 bogie wagons. There are storage and handling facilities
for 300 TEU of container or swap bodies. The factory has a workshop area of 7500M2
which has 9 overhead cranes with capacities up to 30 tonne. The main workshop facilities
have a rail connection to the sidings.
Material preparation includes guillotines, saws, profiling, pressing and forming up to
300 tonnes. This enables most steel and stainless steel components to be fully prepared
including if necessary shotblasting and priming prior to sub assembly fabrication. Two
main assembly halls can be prepared for any batch production of the largest rail wagon or
swap body. Automatic or manual shotblast is available for preparation of the finished
fabricated assemblies prior to painting. Another hall is used for fitting marking and
testing of rail wagons which can also be used for maintenance and repair work. There is a
test rig for testing containers and swap bodies to ISO and EN requirements. Our current
work force of approximately 120 embraces a complete range of skills, in a local area with
many engineering companies where expansion to achieve production targets is always
possible.
Design Facilities The
chief design engineer has been with the company for 35 years. Design resources include in
house testing facilities, finite element analysis both linear and none linear for stress,
natural frequencies, fatigue and thermal analysis etc. Design drawings are
produced using 3D modeling [SolidWorks 2008] and 2D [AutoCAD 2005]. The design staff have
qualifications from HNC to M.Sc degree.
Quality Assurance
Our system is
approved to ISO 9001 - 2000. The QA Manager reports directly to the Managing Director. |
