The Derbyshire manufacturing firm putting the nuts and bolts into the world’s most extreme environments
West Special Fasteners began in 1999 when its current CEO, James Hawkins, decided with a group of colleagues to leave their jobs in the Sheffield stainless steel industry and set up on their own.
In his early 20s at the time, it was a confident step and one that’s paid off. Starting out with a few pieces of equipment, they began the business which today employs 71 people, makes around 850,000 products a year, and is the proud holder of a King’s Award for Enterprise for Innovation.
West Special Fasteners specialises in making nuts and bolts but not just any nuts and bolts.
The Dronfield-based company makes high integrity fasteners and precision components designed to withstand the pressures of the world’s most challenging environments within the offshore energy, subsea, nuclear and defence industries.
Designed to perform reliably where there is a risk of corrosion due to acidity, salt water or extreme temperatures, these nuts and bolts are holding together structures as varied as the Triton Submarine in the Mariana Trench; the Helix Bridge in Singapore and the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth.
They are used in oil platforms in the North Sea, naval vessels, cutting-edge Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) projects in Australia, offshore wind farms and pumping stations in the Gulf of Mexico, with expansion due soon into aerospace projects.
West Special Fasteners has received a King’s Award for its work developing a forging and heat treatment process enabling the manufacture of fasteners from advanced corrosion-resistant alloy metals including super duplex and high nickel materials.
The benefits of hot forging are clear: it is more energy efficient and enables manufacturers to cut down on waste by up to 40 per cent.
In widespread use for stainless steel products, West Special Fasteners has developed a process with exotic alloys which have traditionally been difficult to forge.
Not just that, their process improves the structural integrity of the forged items too.
After undergoing rigorous independent technical validation supported by qualification to internationally recognised standards, the King’s Award represents
Royal recognition of constant innovative practices at West Special Fasteners. As James explained, innovation for the company is not a nice-to-have it’s an essential part of the business.
He said: “We’ve had to keep innovating over the years in order to stay afloat in what is a constantly evolving
market. To get this award for innovation from the King is a real honour and one we are all very proud of.
“It has been achieved by making lots of incremental changes since 2009. We’ve improved tooling; we’ve improved process speed and as the metals we work with develop, we develop a method for forging the next one and the next. We’re constantly evolving so we can keep our business running and keep employing people here in Derbyshire.”
