TPT September 2015

Industry News

Weldability- Sif celebrates 90 years in business WELDABILITY-SIF, a UK-based producer of a range of welding products, has this year celebrated its 90 th anniversary. For almost a century it has innovated in the development of welding products, and has supported the industry with technical assistance and consistent product quality. Sifbronzing, named after the supplier of top-quality welding rods, wires, fluxes and equipment that first developed and promoted the technique, is an almost universally recognised way of describing the low temperature bronze welding of sheet steel, cast iron and other metals. In 1914 a young man called Louis Tibbenham took on part of a factory in Stowmarket which had gone bankrupt, and set up his own company, the Suffolk Iron Foundry, to make castings such as flywheels and ploughshares. Just as the business got going, the Great War started, the bank-rate went up and business ground to a halt. It looked as though the company was doomed. However, Louis struggled on, picking up small contracts and learning, in many cases by bitter experience, about business. At one stage, having built up a good trade in ploughshares, he signed a contract that, he discovered later, forced him to stop making them. So he turned to making mangles: before the age of the tumble-drier, an essential part of every household’s washing equipment. By the end of the Great War the company was doing well. It had grown too big for its premises and so another site – some six acres of bog and rubbish tip by the River Gipping in Stowmarket – was bought for £500. The railway company provided a siding close by and work began on the site. The whole site was planned by Louis, who also designed the buildings, resulting in his winning first prize in a competition run by the Foundry Trade Journal. The new factory coincided with a major contract that took up nearly all the foundry’s capacity and then, in the form of having too many eggs in one basket, disaster struck and the contract was cancelled. Louis had to find something to fill the void and so he decided to turn to specialist castings. Prime among these was the lawn mower, soon to become recognised as the ‘Suffolk’ range. In 2007 the company was merged with Weldability and today it trades as Weldability-Sif and continues to grow and support its customers worldwide. During 2015 the company will launch three new product ranges and a purpose-designed welding process centre.

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Weldability-Sif – UK Fax: +44 1462 482202

www.t-drill.fi, www.t-drill.com

Email: sales@weldability-sif.com Website: www.weldability-sif.com

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S eptember 2015