Commercial Washrooms Project

As is often the case, this customer came to us with a simple aluminium extrusion requirement, and ended up staying with us for another, more creatively challenging, project. A leading name in the commercial washrooms industry, this customer commissioned us to supply them with a one-off, anodised, extruded aluminium profile in six different lengths. We presented them with a few options to the customer, and they chose one that fit well with their project, while also resulting in significant cost savings. The customer returned with another enquiry: this time, for a machined and powder coated aluminium hinge. While we were able to manufacture the hinge in line with the specifications given, our technical team realised that there was a far simpler - and cheaper - solution. We worked with one of our global supply partners to cast the part, saving our customer both money and time - not just now, but in the long run. The detailed version While our extrusion and fabrication capabilities are often what attract new customers to Edmo, we like to think our creative technical solutions help us keep them. This collaboration started simply: the customer needed a bespoke, extruded aluminium profile, anodised and supplied in varying lengths. We presented a few options and, while the customer didn’t choose the cheapest, the solution was a perfect fit and still represented significant cost savings. Following the success of this job, the customer came back to us with another enquiry: they needed a machined and powder coated hinge. The hinge was being made by machining a flat aluminium bar to create the two sides of the hinge. These were then powder coated and joined with a steel pin. Our technical team reviewed this process, and found it to be unnecessarily costly and over engineered. We convinced the customer to have the component parts custom cast by one of our expert suppliers. Once the component parts were cast, they would only need minor machining, powder coating and assembly. The whole process was quicker, cheaper, and far less labour intensive, but presented the same great results as before. The outcome Even taking into account the bespoke tooling costs involved in the first run of this project, the new fabrication solution resulted in immediate savings for the customer. Casting is a highly cost-effective process and, being both quick and very repeatable, was perfect for this job. After only a few production runs, the bespoke die cast tooling paid for itself, leaving our customer to enjoy a simpler solution at a far lower price than before.