Bruderer UK, which has nearly 50 years’ experience creating precision high speed presses, has installed a state-of-the-art machine into the Royal Mint’s Llantrisant facility, giving the world famous institution additional speed, capacity and flexibility.
Capable of up to 825 strokes per minute, the BSTA 1600-117B2 is responsible for creating the hard-cut blanks that form one of the first processes in the manufacture of the new coin.
Explains managing director Adrian Haller: “At an investment of over £1m, this is the largest single order ever placed with Bruderer UK and certainly one of the most prestigious, in recent years.
“Our relationship with the Royal Mint stretches back nearly 40 years, and as part of its latest round of capital investment, we were asked to tender for a new press. After spending time with the production/engineering team, we identified that the Bruderer BSTA 1600-117B2 as the ideal machine to meet their requirements for greater speed and power – taking them from 125 tons up to a special execution of 180 tons press capacity.”
He continues: “With the tender won, we then had to complete a 3-day factory compliance test with the customer production team ensuring the machine met stringent health and safety and engineering guidelines and delivered the promised performance.
“To give an idea of the machine production speed, it can do 14 coins per stoke and 750 strokes per minute, meaning 10,500 coins every 60 seconds. Extrapolating this shows that over 5 million coins are produced every day, based on a standard 8-hour shift.”
Working alongside the Royal Mint, Bruderer took six months to build the machine and just three days to install the new BSTA 1600-117B2.
Adds The Royal Mint’s engineering manager Mervyn Evans: “We are pleased to continue our long-standing relationship with Bruderer and I am delighted with the performance of the machine so far. It is delivering the speed and accuracy we need and is a fundamental part of a production process that will eventually produce over 1.5 billion pound coins.
“The larger than normal tool bed also means that a range of materials for different denomination blanks can be processed on the new machine. This is an ideal solution for our growing international client base.”
Picture Caption: (l-r) Adrian Haller (Bruderer UK), Mervyn Evans and David McCarthy (both Royal Mint)