Alpha Rail creates intricately cut decorative features in-house following £80,000 plasma cutter investment

With the help of grant funding, Alpha Rail has been given the opportunity to bring more work in-house by buying a high definition plasma cutting machine to make profiled shapes, decorative features and other miscellaneous components for railings and architectural metalwork. This machine will save time at manufacture stage, allowing us to be more cost effective.

The plasma cutting machine helps greatly on projects that require special features such as logos, motifs and shapes, which would’ve otherwise been outsourced. The brand new plasma cutting machine was supplied and installed by City Plasma Services Ltd, who helped set up the equipment and enabled Alpha Rail to get started right away.

Having this in-house facility has unlocked so much potential for the company and is proving to be extremely useful. The shop floor team often find themselves discovering new ways to use the cutter, allowing them to be as efficient as possible. A recent project has required Alpha Rail to manufacture a large quantity of kickplates, which are used to prevent litter from falling under the panel and off the platform, bridge or path. These are cut from a sheet of metal with precision and accuracy, and then engraved with a corresponding number to help identify what panel it matches up with.

Dean Briggs, Technical Director at Alpha Rail commented: “We have been most impressed with City Plasma Services Ltd and their level of service – after visiting numerous machine shows, other suppliers and manufacturers, we decided to go with City Plasma due to their genuine staff and helpful approach. Our requirements were attended to quickly and the level of service was maintained all the way through to installation. They have been very fast to react to any issues such as maintenance and the supply of any consumables. It has been such a worthwhile investment for the company and allows us to be as efficient as possible for our clients moving forward.”

Plasma cut Hares

Plasma cut kickplates