Major Investment at Cochran Ltd

Cochran has been manufacturing industrial steam and hot-water boilers at its factory, in Annan, SW Scotland, since 1898. Despite the economic turmoil of recent years the company has seen increased demand for its services and products, both domestically and overseas. Cochran products were exported to over 40 countries in 2014.

Cochran has recently invested £500k in new plant for its Annan manufacturing facility. The installation and commissioning of a state of the art cutting machine, has just been completed and operator training is currently taking place. The accuracy and dexterity of the new machine will allow centralisation of all cutting requirements into one area. The HD plasma cutting head will enable boiler plate of up to 50mm thickness to be cut 4 times faster than previously. It will also cut to tighter tolerances, with an accuracy to within 0.5mm possible on a cutting area of 6m x 16m, thus further increasing the quality and integrity of the finished boiler plant.

The operator has a greater access to the library of standard shapes and coupled with a direct link to the NC programmers, has stream-lined the whole cutting operation. Mike Woodman, operator pictured below, stated that this state of the art system gives excellent results and is user-friendly.

Tom Ritchie, Managing Director, commented,  “The investment in the new cutting machine is a major commitment to enhance the next 20 years of boiler making in Annan, and will help us to further develop the quality and competitiveness required in the global boiler market”

Photo’s above show the operators and cutting machine being put through their paces.