CASE STUDY
Dangerously Safe!
Whether you need to fire a car 100ft at a caravan or have your lifting gear inspected by LEEA qualified engineers, Bickers of Coddenham are the people with the knowhow . Located in the heart of Suffolk, Bickers have been trading for almost a century and built an impressive reputation for engineering excellence.
Having started as a garage in the 1930’s and undergone several incarnations and additions which have included motorcycle shops and tyre importers the business took an unusual direction in the 1970’s whilst Dave Bickers, World motocross champion, was at the helm. As a motocross rider and innovative engineer Dave was asked to either ride or prepare bikes and cars for film stunt work. Having been involved in a jump over some barbed wire in “Escape from Athena” he was asked to do some stunts for a small spy based film with someone called James Bond. Bickers Action was born and now with
Dave’s son Paul as Managing Director the company is still involved with the Bond productions but also involved in all aspects of filming from vehicles and action sequences for Film and TV. Although the names are big the work always has a common theme, to make dangerous things,
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look dangerous, safely. Engineering expertise is pushed to the limits when production companies want to go faster, higher, bigger and more spectacular than the last time. Bickers are no strangers to records, holding several Guinness world records including the first loop the loop with a car, which was designed and built in Suffolk and the first barrel roll with a speed boat for Bond. This engineering expertise took on another
facet with the formation of Bickers Lifting. This was born out of the necessity to inspect the lifting and rigging equipment used in the stunt work, even if that included the counter intuitive practise of “dropping the load” usually cars, on their roof’s! With specialist test and measuring equipment available, such as 25t tensile test rig with data capture facilities and calibrated loadcells for
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accurate measuring of loads, the stunt engineers can work safely knowing exactly what stresses and strains they are putting on their lifting equipment. The lifting engineers can verify the rigging by a variety of methods including proof load testing, NDT and testing to destruction in certain cases. As proud, development members of LEEA
(Lifting Equipment Engineers Association) Bickers Lifting have undergone sustainable growth by offering this engineering pedigree to customers outside of the entertainment industry. Stocking products from the world’s leading chain and component manufacturers and having the expertise to inspect all types of lifting Equipment, to LOLER regulations, has enabled Bickers Lifting to attract key customers. Market Leaders, Webb Truck Equipment
use Bickers to supply lifting equipment for both OEM builds and re-furbishment work. The range of equipment, from many different manufacturers is central to this relationship because Webb’s products are usually bespoke to each customer with a huge variation of applications. It is not difficult to see the similarities between the two businesses, both being long established, family run, engineering firms with a reputation for excellent engineered solutions. Both are proud to still be flying the flag for innovative British Manufacturing.
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