WILTON CARPETS SPEEDS AHEAD WITH NEW AXMINSTER LOOM
A FIRST FOR F. BALL WITH ‘WOMEN IN FLOORING COURSE’
F. Ball and Co. Ltd., manufacturer of floor preparation products, recently held its first training course specifically designed for women working in the flooring industry.
The two-day course, which was conducted at F. Ball’s dedicated training centre, aimed to equip women working in a wide range of roles in the flooring industry with a deeper understanding of flooring systems and how they work.
One attendee, Katie Cohen, Sales Director at wholesaler Lewis Abbott Ltd, commented: “I thought the course was brilliant. It was good to see the products being used as they would be in different types of installations.
Wilton Carpets has announced the commissioning of a state-of-the-art Van De Wiele Axminster carpet loom, the first of its kind in the UK, at a cost of some £1.5million.
Increasing capacity by five-times over the traditional Axminster looms it replaced, the high-speed Van De Wiele produces miles of premium woven Axminster carpet per week, helping Wilton Carpets to meet the growing demand for its stock and bespoke qualities.
Fed by Smart Creel technology, the Axminster loom can seamlessly switch between colours and designs, allowing uninterrupted production of woven carpets for the hospitality industry. This innovation sees robots fill each yarn feeder tube and determine the exact length required for any given carpet design, splicing automatically as one pattern switches to another. With minimal downtime, the machine dramatically improves manufacturing flexibility.
James Sprint, CEO of Wilton Carpets Commercial, said: “The investment in this new loom enhances the growing stature of one of the UK’s foremost commercial carpet manufacturers and has been commissioned to ensure that Wilton Carpets can continue to service its growing customer base with the efficiency and quality for which the company is known.
“The first of its kind in the UK and bristling with the latest in production technology, the loom is already
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“Working in a sales role, it’s important that I have excellent first- hand knowledge of all the different products on the market, and it’s equally important that I can use that knowledge in context.
“I really enjoyed being able to get hands-on and screed a floor with guidance from the experts, especially since I was surrounded by other women who weren’t experienced floor fitters!”
The ‘Women in Flooring Course’ included a tour of the F. Ball manufacturing facility, presentations on flooring products, problem diagnosis and flooring systems, and practical experience with F. Ball’s training officer using the latest F. Ball products.
The participants were drawn from some of the biggest names in the flooring sector, and represented a wide range of roles, including sales, purchasing, and human resources. The course also drew international interest, with some participants coming from as far as Romania and Ghana. It is the first course of its kind conducted at the F. Ball facility and is hoped to be the first of many.
F. Ball’s dedicated training centre opened in 2010, and has since provided free training courses to hundreds of flooring contractors. All courses are presented by experts from within the company’s technical department and cover subfloor preparation and adhesive selection, as well as installation advice on F. Ball’s extensive product range.
www.f-ball.co.uk
having a hugely positive impact on manufacturing operations, boosting capacity while giving unparalleled quality and efficiency.”
This comes as only good news for the manufacturer’s client base which reaches hospitality, leisure, public and commercial locations of all sizes right across the globe.
Over the course of the next 12 months, the Van De Wiele Axminster loom will use enough yarn to wrap around the equator six times. Wilton Carpets has plans to introduce another two of these highly-efficient Belgian-made machines at its Wiltshire production site.
www.wiltoncarpets.com
www.tomorrowscontractfloors.com
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