Lodent Precision is entering it’s 35th year of trading. After seeing a decline in the mid to late 90’s when manufacturing was at it’s lowest ebb. 2002 saw Lodent diversify from it’s original core product of Plastic mould tool design and manufacture into Press Tool making and Precision Engineering.
Lodent Precision now employs 44 people and are continuing to grow. With a healthy order book and ever growing reputation for quality this year has seen Lodent take its first orders for tooling to be supplied into main land Europe which is proving to be a largely untapped but evolving market for British tool makers.
New orders have given Lodent the confidence to “go again”. After doubling their size in 2009, 2011 has seen Lodent invest in 4 Wire Erosion machines, 2 new and 2 used machines giving them 8 in total. Two CNC EDM’s, a manual EDM and a small hole drilling EDM combine to make an impressive total of 12 machines.
Due to the purchase of the new machines Lodent has moved all of the EDM machines, CAD CAM and Inspection departments into it’s own 630m2 unit. We have all of our clean machining on one site along with the Technical services we offer as a Company. The move has proved to be another positive for us claims Chris Sharratt a Director at Lodent “we must have one of the largest EDM facilities in the UK and the experience to back it up”.
The past seven years has seen Lodent grow, mainly due to the Press Tool side of the business, supplying customers in Automotive, Construction, Domestic Appliance and Power Generation industries. Lodent are now seeing a marked increase in the number of enquiries for Plastic Mould tools. We have maintained a customer base which required high quality multi impression tools both here in the UK and the USA. The past six months has seen a marked increase in enquiries from UK moulders who have by admission have seen a sharp increase in prices from Chinese tool makers. These price increases have made us very competitive. With our knowledge and local support 2012 looks like being another year of growth for Lodent Precision.