February 2012
14 posts
Information…
In July 2004 the West Horndon plant was officially closed and most of the West Horndon employees were made redundant.
Gary Cook, one of the skilled and experienced machinists took this opportunity to set up and establish the new Special Metals Fabrication Ltd at premises based in Wickford.
The new Special Metals Fabrication was thus born and is now a thriving and successful fabrication company...
Meet our newest recruit!
Charlie Hearn, Apprentice
Charlie is the newest recruit to SMF having joined as part of the Essex Apprenticeship Scheme. He is now working to become a fully skilled machine operator.
Some Information About Team Member: Gary
Gary Cook, MD
Gary founded the company in 2004 having worked for many years machining and fabricating refractory metals.
Having served a full apprenticeship at Vaccumatic in Harwich and subsequently working for a number of engineering companies including the previous Special Metals Fabrication Company which was taken over by H C Starke.
Gary has now 30 years of experience within the engineering...
Some Information About Team Member: Dave
Dave Edmunds, Sheet Metal Fabricator
Dave has many years knowledge and experience within the refractory metalsfabrication market.
He is an apprentice served engineer and there are few people with his level of skill in this field of engineering.
Absa cuts precious metals sector Absa cuts...
Absa Capital downgraded the African precious metals industry to “negative” from “neutral,” and said sector profitability and returns will likely remain at historically low levels partly due to rising capital costs.
“In the context of weak gross demand growth and growth in recycling supply, we expect platinum metal markets to remain in surplus, limiting metal and equity price performance,” analyst...
New Web Domain
We have changed out web domain name from smfuk.co.uk to special-metals.co.uk.
You will still find our blog in the same place along with everything else.
Feel free to contact us for any information on what we do or if you have any questions about pricing.
Metal goes up, Oil comes down
Rising metal prices helped boost the commodity sensitive Canadian dollar Tuesday morning.
The loonie advanced 0.36 of a cent to 100.44 cents US.
Copper prices continued to surge with the March contract up six cents to $3.94 a pound.
Prices for the metal are up about 3.5 per cent this month on signs of improving economic growth in the U.S. and hopes that China will further relax lending...
Metal hip implant patients need life-long checks
The government have advised that patients who have undergone large headmetal-on-metal hip replacements should be monitored yearly for the rest of their life.
The new advice comes as a joint BBC Newsnight and British Medical Journal investigation reports that problems with such devices have been long known, but no action taken to block their use.
All-metal hips have a high failure rate and...
Impala platinum up in price.
Impala Platinum rose as much as 2,14% to an intraday high of R168,98 today, its highest since February 1, after saying it is working with its largest trade union to rehire dismissed employees and start output at its Rustenburg mine after it was closed by an illegal strike.
The strike has cost the market about 3000 ounces of metal a day, equivalent to be about 17% of estimated global supply this...
Gold mine to go ahead
A gold mine in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park is to re-open after the company behind the project lodged a series of bonds with the body.
It means the Cononish gold mine can restart production of the precious metal with the funds available to the park authority to take over the site if it is abandoned or not landscaped and protected in accordance with the requirements laid down when...
3 tags
Careful of Cadmium
Cadmium is a chemical element with the symbol Cd and atomic number 48. This soft, bluish-white metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12, zinc and mercury.
Dr. Robert Wright, the study’s senior author, emphasized that the links to learning disabilities and special education were found at commonplace levels previously thought to be benign.
“One of the important points...
Vintage Molybdenum News
When looking through google recently we came across some classic news articles.
A molybdenum article from The Deseret in 1966 - they were speaking aboutMolybdenum then, just before they had blogs.
Click here to have a little read and also just have a browse at it.
It reads ‘ Two major producers of Molybdenum Wednesday backed off the price boosts, applied to the metal earlier this week, under...
What can SMF do for me?
Below you will see a list of everything that SMF can do for you.
Special Metals currently carry out fabrication towards some of the following products;
Furnace Heaters
Furnace Units
Glass Furnace Electrodes
Susceptors
Crucibles
Screens
Orifice Plates
Tank Linings
Vertical Strippers
Pump Parts
Discs
Tubes
Rivets
Shell & Tube Heater
Evaporation Boat / Trays
Rod Heaters
Special Vessels
Valve...
Plans unveiled for zirconia mine
Alkane Resources has submitted the concept plans for the mine, which will extract about 400,000 tonnes of ore a year.
Managing director Ian Chalmers says the company has also secured a $95 million deal with a European processor to buy the rare metal niobium, which will also be mined at the site.
He says the next phase of the project is ensuring the mine meets the New South Wales Government’s...