Page 125 - Hub Issue 54

Recycling
Jonathan Millington, Marketing Manager for Master Magnets
At the time, there were high levels of investment in the UK coal industry and globally located mineral processing projects. Using his considered knowledge, Geoff and his team of engineers developed a range of magnetic separators specifically for those key industries. For the coal and mining industries, they developed large Electromagnets which would be suspended over conveyors to remove large tramp metal such as pit props and bars. The drive in Mineral Processing was for the recovery of higher purity non-metallic minerals. The Induced Roll Magnetic Separator (IMR) and Disc Separator models were designed to accommodate a wide array of applications in this sector and a laboratory where clients could test materials was also established.
The Master Magnets brand became globally recognisable as export sales increased. In 2003, Master Magnets relocated to Redditch to expand their manufacturing capacity. As Master Magnets continued to evolve and expand, Worley took partial retirement and handed the reigns of the business to Adrian Coleman. Coleman had started his career at Master Magnets in 1984 as an apprentice and witnessed the evolution of the company.
to Bunting Magnetics. He foresaw the investment needed to maintain Master Magnets’ reputation as a global leader and identified Bunting Magnetics as the ideal partner.
“Master Magnets has developed a long-standing strong identity and reputation as a leader in metal separation technology,” said Simon Ayling, Bunting Magnetics Europe’s Managing Director. “The acquisition means that we can invest in their manufacturing facility in Birmingham and in the development of new separation technology. When Geoff Worley founded the company, his aim was to produce well- engineered equipment to solve metal contamination and separation problems. That challenge has been passed onto us and we are excited by the future.”
The Future
We talked with Jonathan Millington, Marketing Manager for Master Magnets about the future of the group “The acquisition by Bunting of Master Magnets has allowed us to
invest heavily in growth and has given the overall group a huge advance in the areas we are extremely strong in such as eddy currents, over-bands, electro-magnets and high intensity mineral separation equipment. This combined strength will allow us to move into many more markets globally and has already seen our best performance to date as a group, greatly surpassing our 2018 targets.
Jonathan gave us a tour of the manufacturing area “With both our production facilities at capacity our order books are full for several months and the investment from Bunting will now allow for expansion onsite here at Redditch to substantially increase our manufacturing capacity to meet future demand. This will begin during 2019 and will see this site grow by around 30%.
“We have a complete testing lab where we can test all kinds of client material that they may send us. We separate their test material into different grades to show the different levels of separation and what can be achieved. These final grades are sent back to the client with a full report and recommendations. This service is free and we welcome test material from potential new clients. We also have a dedicated metal detection ‘clean area’ which is contaminate free and allows us to thoroughly test our metal detectors before dispatch.
Adrian Coleman of Master Magnets with Simon Ayling, Bunting Magnetics Europe’s Managing Director at RWM 2018
“Master Magnets gave me the opportunity to develop my engineering career,” explained Coleman. “In 1988, they supported me through a four year Mechanical Engineering course at Birmingham University. This gave me the necessary engineering skills to join the design office. As the company grew, I took up the position of Production Manager, before becoming Managing Director in 2008.”
In 2017, Worley agreed to sell the Master Magnets business
| p54 |
www.hub-4.com Jan 2019 - Issue 54