Vacuum equipment manufacturer BOC Edwards has opened a new European pump remanufacturing facility at Crawley, West Sussex, to offer better service to customers
Part of a company-wide commitment to environmentally-friendly processes, the £1.2million facility includes decontamination facilities, two flow lines, a cleanroom, and an award winning wastewater recycling plant.
Remanufacturing involves decontamination, dismantling, cleaning, checking, replacing worn parts, reassembling and finally testing before the pump is returned to the customer or held in stock as a service replacement.
The process, which is becoming more commonplace in industry, is renowned for its positive environmental ramifications such as energy saving and preservation of landfill space.
Following proven best practice procedures developed by the company's other remanufacturing facilities in the USA, Asia and Japan, Crawley is now the European centre of excellence for all semiconductor and scientific pumps.
All industrial vacuum pumps are remanufactured at its facility in Bolton, Lancashire. Although vacuum pumps will typically run for three to five years without a factory service, some processes involving corrosive gases or large amounts of dust require more frequent maintenance such as that undertaken at the new Crawley facility.
The two UK sites, Crawley and Bolton, support BOC Edwards's European servicing business, which includes service centres in Paris and Munich and satellite facilities at Milan and Avezzano in Italy, and Crolles near Grenoble in France, as well as Qiryat Gat in Israel.
In addition to remanufacturing pumps for customers directly, these sites also support BOC Edwards's on-site servicing teams based in semiconductor fabrication plants across Europe.
Andy Peake, European remanufacturing manager comments: "We have some very ambitious targets.
"The new facility at Crawley employs 120 people and operates seven days a week enabling us to provide our customers with a better service and add value to the business."
