Wetherby technical textiles specialist completes £1m plant revamp

Wetherby-headquartered Arville has just completed a £1m upgrade of its fabric coating plant in Bury, following a phased two year project to overhaul the site.

Arville specialises in the design and manufacture of high performance woven and coated textiles for demanding applications within the aerospace, defence, pharmaceutical, automotive, medical and food industries.

The revamped 15,000 sq. ft. factory was acquired by Arville in 2000, when the group purchased P&S Textiles to further strengthen its portfolio of textile production, and create the capability to manufacture technical fabrics from end-to-end.

But layout of the production area has now been completely redesigned.

Arville has invested in new coating machinery including a dedicated area for compound mixing, secure chemical storage areas, ventilation systems, new coating heads, a high-speed vulcanising oven, inspection tables and high definition video cameras for in-line quality control.

Andy Smith, an Arville spokesperson, said: “With a 60 year heritage, Arville has long been passionate about continued innovation in textiles manufacturing and more recently has undertaken an investment programme to maintain our ‘best in class’ status.

“We meticulously planned this extensive refurbishment to ensure we didn’t disrupt production for existing customers, and now, after a two year wait it’s great to have a ‘brand new’ state-of-the-art facility that will stand us in good stead for further growth.”

This news follows an expansion to the factory footprint at Arville’s weaving plant in Wetherby, where the group employs 60 staff. Additional work to install an extra stenter line has increased the firm’s finishing capacity.

Andy continued: “We’re part-way through the development of a new IT system which will create a powerful database for our technical textiles manufacturing. It will store every relevant detail about textile projects we undertake – from yarn specifications, weave constructions, inspection and testing reports and more. We’re also set to install a new laser cutting table at our fabrication unit in the coming months.

“These investments, funded wholly by Arville’s internal resources, show our commitment to keeping the company at the cutting edge of technical textiles production.”

Arville is a privately owned business employing a 100-strong team based across the group’s UK manufacturing sites.