Bunting has acquired Gloucestershire-based Pilamec.
Bunting is a manufacturer of magnet and magnetic products serving a wide range of industrial sectors. The Bunting European engineering and manufacturing facilities are in Berkhamsted and Redditch, both in the United Kingdom.
Since becoming a limited company in 1976, Pilamec has developed a reputation as a supplier of materials and size reduction services to amongst other things the chemical, metal, and ceramic industries. At their Gloucestershire operation, Pilamec processes a wide range of materials including, but not exclusively, a large variety of ferro alloys, silicon metal, graphite, boron, ferro phosphorus and more. They also supply a wide range of traded metal powders in both small and large quantities.
Pilamec provides batch dry milling, screening, and blending of organic and inorganic minerals for companies in the mining, refractory, foundry, recycling, and ceramic industries. The materials handled range from metals, slags to non-toxic chemicals, with investigation and test of any product, of any type, needing size reduction.
The processing operation includes different types of milling, crushing, blending, screening, and bagging. Projects have included producing silicon metal powder with a low particle size distribution, milling ferro alloys to tightly controlled particle sizing and densities, and processing, to granular/powder form, inorganic materials used in the construction industry.
Within their in-house laboratory testing facility, a laser particle size analyzer enables accurate particle size analysis, with distribution graph information for both internal analysis and for sharing with customers. Additionally, Pilamec's technical capabilities extend to test sieving by manual means and powder density. This service assists in the accurate presentation of finished product results to customers.
Pilamec works closely with customers on development projects, using a ball mill to size reduce small quantities (20kg) of product. Such controlled tests provide key information for the further development of a bulk processing application.
For the ceramics sector, Pilamec regrinds waste generated during the ceramic manufacturing process to produce customer-specific sized material for reintroduction into new customer blends thus reducing the amount of waste going to landfills.
"Pilamec is a successful and well-respected company with great potential for growth," said Simon Ayling, Bunting's European managing director. "Through our Berkhamsted operation we already supply magnet materials and the Pilamec acquisition expands our range of materials, processing capabilities and markets."
