Hand Engineering

During the design and prototyping stages of product development the majority of parts are specified and hand-made in the BLOTT WORKS workshop and studio. Once the final design of the product has been honed down, local specialists are contracted to produce the various component blanks out of the raw material.

These blanks are then finished and assembled back at the workshop, together with those that have been hand-made by us, to produce the final product. The finished item is then checked and rechecked to ensure it works and looks exactly as it should.

Casting

The aluminium casings are cast by the staff at W.B. White's foundry in Brighouse who have been providing invaluable advice since the early prototyping days. Visits to their premises are always enjoyable and the castings always great.

The parts of the pattern that determine the shape are made in-house by us to maintain control over the aesthetics and then handed over to the experts at White's to prepare the moulds and cast the casings.

The concrete base is cast back in the BLOTT WORKS studio where the vinyl moulds are prepared from a wooden pattern, and then filled with the cement and silica mix and allowed to harden for several weeks before finishing.

Cutting Out

All the stainless steel components are laser-cut to shape which is an important part of the process and one that is entrusted to the team down at Cutting Technologies in Barnsley. They were selected because they combine a thorough understanding of the engineering combined with a good feel for the design and aesthetic side of the product.

Once the laser-cut pieces arrive back they get cleaned and polished in the workshop before being returned to Barnsley to have the lettering and graphics laser-etched onto the surface.

A plastic material, TIVAR Eco, is used as the primary bearing surface for components such as the clock chain and is initially cut out by Quadrant Plastics, in Todmorden, who work from the CAD drawings supplied by us.

The cutting out of other smaller parts are passed to the staff up the road at WaterJetUK in Halifax who use our CAD drawings to produce the blanks for us to then process and finish.

Finishing

The rough castings are collected from the foundry,and then milled, drilled, tapped and shaped further back at the workshop before being taken over to Dave at M&G Metal Polishers in Friendly.

Dave has a good understanding of the kind of finish and quality that is required and is quick to turn the rough castings into beautiful shiny casings.

The concrete bases are hand-polished back at the studio using diamond pads and water.

All parts are given a final polish at the workshop once the product is assembled to make sure everything shines just as it should.