Major investment in Britain’s only volume plough maker, Dowdeswell Engineering, has produced a big boost in output and component quality, says the company.

Two months after the pair of CNC machining centres were installed at the firm’s manufacturing base at Rugby, Warwickshire, throughput of large components has increased by 30%, helping cut delivery times for new ploughs.

With a combined value close to £500,000, Dowdeswell’s latest high-tech production equipment is capable of automatically carrying out up to 90 different machining operations on cast and fabricated plough components.

By performing a large number of pre-programmed operations in a single uninterrupted sequence, the new machining centres help ensure that components used for building new ploughs and as replacement parts are turned out with greater precision and consistency.

“As Britain’s sole remaining volume plough maker, Dowdeswell is producing and selling upwards of 250 units a year in Britain and overseas,” says Dowdeswell’s technical manager Jason Stringer. “These two new machining centres will help the company maintain manageable lead times and further enhance our reputation as a high quality manufacturer, ensuring that Dowdeswell maintains its position as the UK’s leading producer of ploughs and cultivations machinery.

“The benefits of this significant investment should become increasingly evident over the coming 12 to 18 months when we plan to launch a number of all-new plough models suitable for tractors in the important 120hp to 200hp class,” says Mr Stringer. “We expect the first of these new ploughs to be in action at Cereals 2010.”