About CR Clarke
CR Clarke & Company was founded by Chris Clarke in 1974. With industrial experience at Rolls Royce along with seven years as an engineering lecturer. Chris was approached to build a simple heating machine to use with plastics in school workshops.
Production started in the outbuildings of the family home, and by 1977 a small range of strip heaters and vacuum forming machines had been developed.
In 1978 the company relocated to Ammanford, South Wales and moved to its current factory in 1982.
Since that time, we have developed our products and manufacturing processes, including investment in the latest IT systems and computer controlled manufacturing processes.
We have also developed a wide network of distributors across the world, who can provide local assistance to customers needing advice regarding our products.
Today, CR Clarke & Company employs a team of 37 skilled and experienced staff, enabling us to develop, manufacture and support all of the equipment that we supply to our customers.
Brief History
Started designing and building products for education in the mid 1970’s.
Product range has been gradually expanded over the years. Our philosophy has been controlled diversification based on the technologies that we specialize in.
From the mid 1980’s, the company has developed larger machines for commercial plastic fabricators, alongside the educational product range.
While the vast majority of our products are from our standard range, we can also provide deviations from standard items and bespoke equipment when needed.
Facilities
Our philosophy has always been to be self-sufficient, to maximise flexibility and control over quality and priorities. To this end, we have a programme of sustainable, continuous investment giving us the following range of processes in-house:
Sheet metal
Most of the cabinets for our machines are made using CNC Sheet metal punching,
folding and welding equipment process.
Machining Machine Shop equipped with CNC turning, sawing and milling. CNC manufacturing allows us to run small batch sizes accurately and efficiently, minimizing leadtimes and maximizing quality.
Welding
Welding Shop with MiG and TiG welding.Skilled and trained staff weld and fabricate mild steel, stainless steel and aluminium.
Laser Cutting
We have a small laser cutting facility, which allows us to produce prototypes quickly and also enables small volume manufacture.
Powder Coating We finish all of our equipment with high-quality powder coat finishes. This ensures that products are well presented and hardwearing.
Assembly Skilled technicians assemble our equipment, and all products are thoroughly tested prior to release for shipping.
Production Control We run a lean manufacturing control system, with Shop Floor Data Capture and real-time order logging. This ensures that all departments are aware of customer priorities.
Delivery All packaging materials are treated to comply with global shipping regulations. We have our own fleet of delivery vehicles, and also deal regularly with both domestic and international shipping companies.
3D Design We have invested in SolidWorks 3D modeling, along with the FlowWorks CFD (computational fluid dynamics) package. This allows us to simulate and optimise new designs quickly and efficiently.
CAM Our CAM systems allow the machine operating codes to be generated automatically, improving Design to Manufacture speed and accuracy.
Firmware We design and develop all of the firmware for our equipment in-house. This allows us to be flexible in tailoring equipment to meet customers needs (both at the beginning of a project, and for any changes that may occur at a later stage)
Customer Profile
Around 50% of our output goes into UK education, primarily to Design and Technology in Secondary Schools. Plastics have been part of the National Curriculum for many years.
Exports account for around 20% of output, with a mixture of commercial and educational customers. Our products reach most parts of the world.
>> Back to top
Clarke Coatings