CUSTOMER NEWSLETTER WINTER 2014

PROTOT YPING TOOLING & LVMDESIGN ENGINEERING COMPOSITES

In this edition of our newsletter we are delighted to report back on numerous Quality achievements across our sites, as well as a number of investments we’ve made, or are in the process of making to set new standards in our customer service.

You will also see from this newsletter that ARRK is working more closely with our sister companies around Europe to take advantage of our group capabilities, with the aim of delivering maximum benefits to our customers.

We hope you find this issue of Inside ARRK both interesting and useful. As always we welcome any comments, so please feel free to contact us at info@arrkeurope.com

Welcome to Inside ARRK

A BIT OF QUALITY TIMEARRK Europe Ltd has been focused on providing our customers with increased confidence in our ability to provide quality, value, delivery and the highest level of programme management.

With that very much in mind we have worked for, and achieved, accreditation against the most demanding Quality and Environmental Management Systems.

It gives me great pleasure to announce that we have been successful in achieving quality accreditation against the ISO TS 16949 standard at Petersfield Technical Centre (PTC) and a recommendation verdict at Nuneaton Technical Centre (NTC). PTC also gained ISO 14001 early this year in an extremely difficult conservation area while in October, NTC was audited against the aerospace quality standard AS9100. I am happy to say this has resulted in a recommendation for certification for ‘The manufacture of composite panels, assemblies and metals for the aerospace markets’.

Basildon Technical Centre (BTC) are accredited to ISO 9001 while Gloucester Technical Centre (GTC) are certified to both ISO 9001 and ISO4001 standards.

RAISING STANDARDS

…continued overleaf

2014 has been a remarkable year for UK manufacturing, and in particular with the automotive industry seeing an increase in global export sales. The OEM’s focus on developing new projects has been extremely successful as we see premium brands such as Jaguar Land Rover, BMW, Rolls Royce, McLaren and Aston Martin exceeding all expectations on sales and profits in 2014. We look forward to 2015 providing even higher potential.

A word from our MD…

Left to right: Mike Short (Nuneaton Quality Manager), Paul Patterson (AEL Group Quality Manager), Koji Yamada (Corporate Planning Officer), Royden Morgan, AEL Managing Director and Anthony O’Neill (Nuneaton General Manager) showcase their recent accreditations.

“THE WAY TO GET STARTED IS TO QUIT TALKING AND BEGIN DOING.”

(Walt Disney Company)

Integrated European Engineering Services Following the successful integration of ARRK’s UK businesses into ARRK Europe Limited three years ago, ARRK is now ready to expand the integration process to include its European subsidiaries. This next phase of horizontal integration will bring together ARRK companies that offer common services, under the governance of a single European management team. This will enable access to a broader knowledge and labour pool, meaning customers benefit from the sharing of best industry practices across Europe.

The first business stream selected to start this process is the Design and Development divisions, which will bring together 1,100 engineers and the combined resources of ARRK’s UK, German and Romanian design teams under the banner of ‘ARRK Engineering’. Along with the benefits to successful project delivery that can now be realised by this large, flexible and experienced labour pool, is the enlarged geographic footprint that ARRK can offer its customers across Europe. Through our ten strategically located design offices in the UK and Germany, ARRK Engineering is now able to ‘locally’ serve our customers across a wide range of sectors, including; Automotive, Aerospace, Special and Commercial Vehicles, Transportation and the Medical Industry.

The combined service offering of ARRK Engineering, is already proving beneficial both to ARRK and its customers. Through close collaboration on projects ranging from automotive showcar interiors to aircraft cockpit mock-ups, ARRK Engineering has utilised its combined resources to successfully deliver a number of exciting and varied projects tailored to the needs of each individual client.

For further information about ARRK’s Engineering services please contact btc@arrkeurope.com

Earlier in 2014 we were all excited by the success of the Open Day at NTC where we were able to showcase our skills and expertise. Our visitors were thrilled to see so much of our high quality production parts on the remarkable cars provided by Aston Martin, Noble and BAC available for viewing on the day. The increasing amount

of work being quoted and won at NTC from every business sectors represented; automotive, aerospace, rail, and marine is further evidence of our customers’ delight with NTC.

BTC has been actively pursuing more integrated engineering projects, and in June we successfully secured a large project for Aston Martin involving BTC, GTC, NTC and our German colleagues at P&Z. This will become a significant activity in 2015 as we seek more and more opportunities to further develop the integration with our ARRK Group colleagues at SPG, P&Z, LCO, and Shapers.

GTC has had an exceptional year having seen the benefits of serving its customers with the highest level of service, quality and speed. GTC has worked successfully on some very large projects in 2014, mirroring the changing confidence in UK and European manufacturing. With the additional capacity added in 2014, we stand able to continue the essential high speed response required in the world of prototyping and CNC machining.

From left to right: Susan Leake, Paul Patterson and Jonathan Brundell from ARRK’s Quality Team.

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Royden Morgan, Managing Director

Phil Griffiths, BTC General Manager

OPEN DAY SUCCESS PAVES THE WAY TO PARIS

Such has been the interest in Composites following the success of ARRK’s Composite Centre open day earlier this year that ARRK has decided to take its message to Paris next year, by exhibiting at JEC Europe.

The open day allowed the team at Nuneaton to showcase the significant investment that is going on in the composite facility to satisfy the growing demand from clients in the Automotive, Railway, Marine and Aerospace sectors. The event, which brought together customers, suppliers, press, industry associations and government bodies, displayed the impressive refurbished factory and ARRK’s investment in resin infusion and new high tech technology solutions to accelerate composite tooling production.

We would again like to thank our event sponsors, SHD, as well as Noble Automotive, Briggs Automotive Company and Aston Martin for the loan of their vehicles to demonstrate the numerous carbon components that we provide for them. Our thanks also to Lawrence Davies from UK Trade & Investment for his comments on UK industry, and to the SMMT for their participation throughout the two days.

Moving forward, the Nuneaton site has targeted specific industry accreditations and acted to expand on its ambition to branch out into other industry sectors by securing a presence at the renowned industry composite event in Paris. Given the combined Composite offering from ARRK, throughout Europe, from tool design and manufacture, through to low volume production, the show is seen as ideal in helping us spread our message across Europe. In conjunction with our sister ARRK companies, P&Z Engineering in Germany and Shapers, in France, we will exhibit in the Services areas of Pavilion 7.2, stand H68. With a range of exhibits on display and ARRK Composite specialists on hand, we hope to meet many new and existing, clients and industry partners alike between 10th – 12th March 2015.

Setting new precendents in PrototypingAs the use and popularity of prototyping services and technologies continues its monumental rise, ARRK’s 3D Printing, Prototyping and Additive Manufacturing capabilities continue to grow in kind.

ARRK’s prototyping division is pleased to report a bumper year to date, helping to support clients across a wide range of industry sectors to bring their products to market. To continue delivering the first class service our customers have come to expect from us, we’ve invested in new technologies, materials and additional capacity to ensure we remain at the top of our game.

We’ve introduced a number of new SLA and SLS materials to give clients even more choice. These include our SLA Accura Si25 and Xtreme resins. The Accura Si25, is white in appearance, and offers ABS type characteristics, while the Xtreme is grey looking and offers improved strength.

To maintain our short lead times, we’ve also invested further in SLA technology with the installation of three SLA 7000 machines in Gloucester, as well as the latest IPro 8000 at our sister site in France. The combined affect is that our customers now have access to 22 SLA machines across Europe along with a choice of nine different resins.

Sintering into the futureWe’ve also added to our fleet of Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) machines and materials. Not only have we upgraded some of our machines to IPro 60’s, which offer even better builds and turnaround times, we’ve also launched a new sintered elastomer material, unique to ARRK. We are very proud of this new material named SLS ELS, which allows for the creation of prototypes that need to be partly flexibility whilst still requiring key strength.

“ELS is generating a lot of interest and is opening up many new development opportunities for our clients”, commented Craig Vickers, ARRK’s European RP Operations Director.

For further information on our prototyping services, please visit our microsite prototyping.arrkeurope.com

Xtreme

New SLS ELS

Pressing ahead at our Petersfield Tooling & Moulding CentreAs has been the story across most of ARRK’s operations this year our Tooling & Moulding division has also been enjoying significant growth. With a flourishing order book, we are delighted to announce that we’ve not only invested in new machines but also recruited a number of new tooling programme managers and tooling engineers at the Petersfield Technical Centre (PTC) to support our continued growth.

Our in-house tooling operation will be boosted by the addition of a new Kiheung U1000 CNC machine, while our moulding operation will see the installation a new 1000T Krauss Maffei injection moulding machine.

This continued programme of investment in our tooling and moulding capability is further demonstration of our commitment to delivering a ‘best in class’ service for our customers.

Basildon Technical Centre (Specialism: Design Engineering Services)

ARRK Europe LtdBasildon Technical Centre, Endeavour Drive, Basildon, Essex, SS14 3WF, UK

Tel: +44 (0)1268 245000 Email: btc@arrkeurope.com

Nuneaton Technical Centre (Specialism: Composites, Jigs & Fixtures)

ARRK Europe LtdNuneaton Technical Centre, Caldwell Road, Nuneaton, Warwickshire, CV11 4NG, UK

Tel: +44 (0)2476 580700 Email: ntc@arrkeurope.com

Gloucester Technical Centre (Specialism: Prototyping)

ARRK Europe LtdGloucester Technical Centre, Olympus Park, Quedgeley, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL2 4NF, UK

Tel: +44 (0)1452 727700 Email: projects@arrkeurope.com

Petersfield Technical Centre (Specialism: Tooling & Low Volume Manufacturing)

ARRK Europe LtdPetersfield Technical Centre, Langrish, Petersfield, Hampshire, GU32 1RL, UK

Tel: +44 (0)844 346 0310 Email: ptc@arrkeurope.com

ARRK Europe Ltd – Teesside (Specialism: Prototyping)

Durham Tees Valley Business Centre, Primrose Hill Industrial Estate, Orde Wingate Way, Stockton-On-Tees, TS19 0GA, UK

Tel: +44 (0)1642 769930 Email: projects@arrkeurope.com

ARRK Europe Ltd – Barcelona (Specialism: Prototyping)

C/Murcia, No. 58B, Pol. Ind. Can Calderon, 08830 Sant Boi de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain.

Tel: +34 936 616001 Email: bcn@arrkeurope.com

www.arrkeurope.com

Joining the ARRK teamShane Kirrane Key Account Manager (Sales)

Mike Short Quality (Composite)

Susan Leake QHSE Manager

Alan Smithers Special Projects Manager

Lee Lightly Tooling Project Engineer

Alan Price Chinese Project Engineer

Paul White Programme Manager

Cyril Lyons Production Manager – Paint

As we continue to develop closer ties with many of our UK automotive OEM’s, we are pleased to confirm that we have secured an in-house primary paint capability for injection moulded components along with a heat stake service for clients, especially those involved in automotive aftermarket.

ARRK also secures primary paint capability

Coming up…ARRK will be attending a number of events in the near future, so why not pop along and see us? We will be at:

Elmia Subcontractor, Jonkoping, Sweden. 11th-14th November 2014. Stand 03:70 in Hall B.Main contact: Erik Bjälkvall www.elmia.se/en/subcontractor/

SMMT Annual Dinner Gala, Grosvenor House, London. 25th November 2014ARRK Contact: James Walker

JEC Europe 2015, Composite Show, Paris. 10-12th March 2015, France. Stand H68 in Pavilion 7.2ARRK Contact: George Ballard www.jeccomposites.com

Cyril Lyons Shane Kirrane

PROTOT YPING TOOLING & LVMDESIGN ENGINEERING COMPOSITES

ARRK Europe Limited, is a limited company registered in England and Wales with registered number 3418673. Its registered office is Caldwell Road, Nuneaton, Warwickshire, CV11 4NG, United Kingdom