“Midland Lead strives to ensure the production of top quality lead sheet and provide an excellent service to its customers. We are on a mission of continual improvement which has seen the company grow over the last 25 years to the world-class status it holds today. Ensuring that our activities do not adversely affect the environment or the health and safety of our employees is very important to us. Midland Lead has all the qualities to instil consumer confidence in the company and its products.”
Elaine Clamp
operations manager, Midland Lead |
| Hover over the images below to read about the successive steps of our manufacturing process.
Opening in 1983, Midland Lead began manufacturing lead sheet on a modest 6.5 acres site, using one melting kettle, a casting machine and two cutting lines. Now, more than 25 years and over 400,000 tonnes of lead sheet later, the production facility in the Midlands includes a 13 acres site, two kettles and four cutting machines. The keys to our successful manufacturing process are:
Our production process starts with lead scrap - old lead flashing and other reclaimed lead. The scrap is loaded into two kettles (each holding 120 tonnes) and melted down. It is then treated over several refining sessions. Using the ‘Direct Method’ our refined lead is cast into continuous sheet. A water-cooled, rotating drum is immersed into a tray of molten lead, making the lead sheet solidify onto the cold surface of the drum. The lead sheet formed on the drum, is stripped off and wound onto spools, before cut into lead sheet rolls of the customers’ required width and length. One of the advantages of producing directly from molten substance is, that it results into a both cost-effective and energy-efficient process.
Throughout the whole manufacturing process rigorous quality control is in place, all in accordance with a quality plan certified by the British Board of Agrément. For example, before the refined lead is pumped into the Direct Method casting machine, the lead is quality tested in our onsite spectro-lab to ensure the lead is at least 99.95% pure. In addition, each lead roll is automatically check-weighed against the UK standard specification weight when it comes off the cutting line, ready for despatch. Our calibrated scales will only produce the required product despatch labels, when the weight is correct. Finally, once an order is palletised it is subject to a very last check to ensure the order is spot on.
We produce lead sheet in various thicknesses according to the standard EN Codes from 1 at 0.44mm to 8 at 3.55mm (and many extra thicknesses in between these codes) and cut our rolls into the industry standard sizes. What’s more, we also have the onsite facilities to produce lead rolls and other lead products exactly conform customers’ specification. On our four cutting lines, lead rolls of almost all required length and width can be made.
Midland Lead despatch an average of 150 pallets of lead daily via its worldwide network of transport partners, chosen for their expertise in handling lead. Due to our centrally-located site in the Midlands and the efforts of our carriers, our delivery performance in the UK - from order, through production, to delivery - normally takes two to three days. Moreover, our excellent delivery performance is also matched for our worldwide orders.
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