I was lucky enough to get a guided tour of the Lyalvale Factory near Lichfield earlier this week. No pictures, as my phone was not allowed into the site, but some notes...
Amazing purpose built facility - consisting of two x two floor buildings, the first building houses an enormous 'staging' area for components, each with 'hoppers' that drop down to the assembly plant below. Amazing to see shells, primers, wads, lead all being moved around to keep production running. Production at the moment is mixed between Game and Clay loads. The propellant is stored outside the main building walls, with only a small amount 'fed' into the building at any time to ensure a high degree of health and safety.
The floor below is the assembly room, with a number of high-speed, computerised machines running at varying rates of production. I watched some of the very high tech Italian machines producing 1000's of shells an hour. Each one monitored and managed by a technician who is responsible for the machine and the packing. Attached to this building are facilities for custom production and packaging, as well as a 'gun room' for testing and quality control. Here they have data on every cartridge batch produced in the last ten years, as well as some static guns for firing into a tunnel with chronometers and sensors to check quality. Multiple sets of cartridges are tested every day, along with calibration of the machines performed twice daily.
Next door is a warehouse with a huge stock of shells waiting for dispatch - Lyalvale aim to have shells in the shooters hands within hours of a request from a stockist. The Game season is approaching so it was interesting to see the larger loads and shot sizes ready to go out.
My overall impression was of a huge amount of investment in a safe and efficient factory designed to produce consistent, high-quality products. It was very impressive to see the focus on quality and safety, as well as innovation to improve products.
My thanks to the team at Lyalvale for allowing me a visit.
Amazing purpose built facility - consisting of two x two floor buildings, the first building houses an enormous 'staging' area for components, each with 'hoppers' that drop down to the assembly plant below. Amazing to see shells, primers, wads, lead all being moved around to keep production running. Production at the moment is mixed between Game and Clay loads. The propellant is stored outside the main building walls, with only a small amount 'fed' into the building at any time to ensure a high degree of health and safety.
The floor below is the assembly room, with a number of high-speed, computerised machines running at varying rates of production. I watched some of the very high tech Italian machines producing 1000's of shells an hour. Each one monitored and managed by a technician who is responsible for the machine and the packing. Attached to this building are facilities for custom production and packaging, as well as a 'gun room' for testing and quality control. Here they have data on every cartridge batch produced in the last ten years, as well as some static guns for firing into a tunnel with chronometers and sensors to check quality. Multiple sets of cartridges are tested every day, along with calibration of the machines performed twice daily.
Next door is a warehouse with a huge stock of shells waiting for dispatch - Lyalvale aim to have shells in the shooters hands within hours of a request from a stockist. The Game season is approaching so it was interesting to see the larger loads and shot sizes ready to go out.
My overall impression was of a huge amount of investment in a safe and efficient factory designed to produce consistent, high-quality products. It was very impressive to see the focus on quality and safety, as well as innovation to improve products.
My thanks to the team at Lyalvale for allowing me a visit.
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