Sixteen skilled people are now dedicated to latch production
UK - Penn Elcom, manufacturer of 19-inch racking and flight case hardware, has expanded the latch producing line its Washington, Tyne & Wear UK base, adding three new jobs, and 10 new machines as part of a £50,000 investment to update and expand its production of latching mechanisms.
Nearly everything needs a latch of some sort, and multiple types and styles of Penn latches are made here - for a range of flightcase and 19-inch racking products used in all sectors of the entertainment, professional AV and IT industries. This includes anything from technical rental company equipment flight cases to installed racking systems housing amplifiers, servers and other devices.
The investment and reorganisation of the latch line took just five months and will boost capacity by 30% to over 2m latching parts per year. It has been overseen by Penn Washington production manager Steve Langdon.
The Latches are made available worldwide via Penn Elcom’s international distribution network which covers all continents and countries.
Sixteen skilled people are now dedicated to the latch production element of Penn’s UK manufacturing operation, producing a variety of latches.
The machinery itself comprises a mix of old and new bifurcated rivet machines which include some that are pedal operated, fully guarded and yield approximately 120 finished parts per hour.
“It has been a fantastic project,” states Steve, “our goal was to create a pleasant, modern working space for employees that we could also showcase to our customers as a well-planned working concept where the passion and dedication that goes into manufacturing Penn products can be experienced first-hand.”
(Jim Evans)

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