Industrial safety specialist Castell has celebrated 90 years of protecting people and assets worldwide.

Photo caption: (l-r) Sheena Shah, Kishore Pisavadia, Chris McDonald, Mike Ganesh, Neil Thakor and Jim Dilks with their long-service awards

When James ‘Harry’ Castell formed the company in 1922, the health and safety industry was in embryonic form; it would be another 52 years before the UK would see the passing of the Health and Safety at Work Act. The electrification of London provided the catalyst for Harry to focus on safety at work. Electrical systems offered workers little protection, leading to many accidents and deaths. Taking the concept of interlocks from the railways, Harry applied the technology to electrical systems and electrical trapped key interlocking was born.

Castell’s headquarters stand on the same north-London site that has served as home for the vast majority of the company’s life. Castell is still protecting people in the workplace, although the company’s reach has increased dramatically. With operations throughout the world – from Shanghai to Chicago and Chennai to Cologne – the business is now truly global. The variety of applications the company tackles has also grown, from electrical switchgear to machine guarding, marine safety, rail, logistics and transport.

This year also sees Castell’s longest-serving employee, Jim Dilks, complete 40 years’ service with the company. Castell held an awards ceremony in October 2012 to celebrate this extremely rare event. During the ceremony, Castell also presented long-service awards to a further five Castell colleagues: Mike Ganesh (35 years), Neil Thakor (30 years), Kishore Pisavadia, Chris McDonald and Sheena Shah (25 years each).

Keith Allingham, operations director, commented: “Trapped key interlocking is so versatile, it lends itself to a wide variety of applications. With the level of safety Castell interlocks provide and the length of service they can endure, we see demand from all four corners of the globe.”

Dr Tim Whelan, Castell’s managing director, spoke of the pride of being part of a company with such a tradition: “Castell has a long history of providing robust systems, and this is something at the forefront of our minds when we think about how we develop the company and satisfy customers’ requirements. We estimate there are over two million Castell locks still in circulation, which is a lot of people being kept safe by our products, and we take that responsibility very seriously. We still regularly receive calls from customers who have had locks installed for over 50 years and are looking to extend and develop their systems. The team we have at Castell is equally dedicated to ensuring that high-performance products are manufactured and distributed worldwide today. It is a testament to our organisation that we have many employees who have been with us for 20, 30 and even 40 years.”

Comments (0) »

Kempston now supplying Castell’s full range of trapped key interlocks

Castell Safety International is pleased to announce a new and exclusive distribution partnership with Kempston Controls, a leading specialist distributor of electrical and electronic components. Kempston has over 70 years’ experience supplying OEMs, panel builders and end users throughout the UK.

Photo caption: (l-r) Symon Winch, Castell’s European sales manager, with Kempston’s sales manager Philip Hayhurst and production manager James Townend

Castell’s full range of trapped key interlocks is now available from Kempston, with a selected range held in stock for immediate order fulfilment. The new partnership makes the dramatically reduced lead times delivered by Castell’s unique end-coding manufacturing process available through a UK distribution channel for the first time.

In order that the partnership offer maximum customer benefit, both companies have been focused on ensuring that the correct training and knowledge transfer has taken place.

Symon Winch, Castell’s European sales manager, commented: “I am pleased to be working with such a professional distributor. The processes Kempston has in place deliver a high level of customer service, which in turn will provide even greater value to customers wanting to buy Castell products.”

Kempston Controls’ sales director Craig Barrowcliffe added: “Both Castell and Kempston have a long history of delivering high-quality products and service. I see this partnership as a great opportunity to provide products that complement our marketplace. I am looking forward to a very successful future.”

Comments (0) »

Company wins Halma Manufacturing Excellence award for 2012

Castell has redesigned its manufacturing process to increase flexibility and reduce delivery times. As a result, the company has received the Manufacturing Excellence award for 2012 from its parent company Halma, beating off competition from 40 other Halma subsidiaries.

Photo caption: Geoff Unwin (left), Halma’s Chairman, presents the Manufacturing Excellence award to Castell’s MD, Tim Whelan.

According to Halma, “Castell has transformed its manufacturing capability through a combination of product design innovation, excellent application of lean manufacturing and an ambition for international expansion. Today it has an incredibly efficient UK manufacturing base and an assembly shop in the Halma China hub, which is now making the majority of company output.”

Traditionally, trapped key interlocking systems could only be produced once the key coding details had been received, leading to long delivery times while the system was confirmed. Three years ago Castell introduced the end-coding system, which meant that products could be built and then coded at the end of the manufacturing process. This dramatically reduced the time in which products could be delivered.

“End-coding had a significant impact on our ability to deliver standard products quickly and enabled us to make a step change in how we delivered our products,” explained Keith Allingham, Castell’s operations director.

All Castell products with ‘FS’-style locks are now end coded, which has given the company the opportunity to rethink its whole manufacturing process. The result has been a complete redesign of the manufacturing floor, so that manufacturing flows from end to end, assembly cells flow seamlessly into in-line test facilities where products are fully tested and coded, and products are then passed to in-line packing and despatch. The results have been dramatic: orders that would have taken weeks to build and ship can now be despatched in days, improving levels of service and customer response time.

David Hughes, sales director, commented: “Customers have told us that their lead times have been significantly reduced. In some cases this has gone from between eight and ten weeks to between eight and ten days or less for full switchgear systems. This has meant that we have had to respond. The work that has gone in to implementing the new manufacturing system really enables us to harness the benefits of end-coding. Being competitive in the marketplace means that having a high quality product is no longer enough – delivery is also key. Since we have gone live with the manufacturing redesign, our delivery performance has improved significantly. This will benefit our customers in a big way.”

Comments (0) »