Coleg Gwent – Machinery for the next generation

Coleg Gwent is Wales’ largest further education and one of the best-performing colleges, delivering a wide range of part-time and full-time academic and vocational courses to over 16,000 students annually. The college boasts five campuses offering state-of-the-art facilities, including purpose-built construction workshops, recording studios, hair and beauty salons, performance halls and an animal and equine centre.

We spoke to Mat Clatworthy, the Fabrication & Welding Technician, about the various pieces of machinery and service they’ve been supplied by us over the years, including their Steelworker, Treadle Guillotine, Box & Pan Folder, Radial Arm Drill, Sheet Rolls, Pillar Drill, Circular Saw and most recently a new Sterling Swift 210 Bandsaw into their Newport Campus.

“I would recommend the company itself and the machinery yes, no problem.”

How did you hear about Selmach and why did you choose them?

I first heard about Selmach when I was in Hereford College doing Blacksmithing, they had a Guillotine bought from your company when I was there as a student, however the college has used Selmach previously, so was recommend by some of the other members of staff who work here.

What was the reason(s) that the business considered this machinery in the first place?

The Bandsaw was bought so that we could cut up the welds, so when they finish a weld test, we need to cut it up to destructive test it, so we cut off coupons of the weld so that they can destroy them and see if the weld is sound.

What machinery have you purchased from Selmach Machinery to solve that?

We purchased the Sterling Swift 210 Bandsaw.

How has the machinery helped the business?

It’s been a very good piece of equipment, as you’ve seen yourself this morning, the amount of iron filings in their from use, it’s very well used. It’s expanding our ability, because we’ve bought a brand new steelworker a couple of years back, and that’s expanded our ability to cut up sheets of 10mm, because our guillotine is quite old. Prior to that we were using a straight line cutter to cut up everything or a plasma cutter, so it’s making it a lot easier for us to cut up steel into useable pieces.

How was the experience with Selmach while you were being quoted / advised and delivered?

My experience dealing with the office base of Selmach has been outstanding to be fair, I’ll pick up the phone and someone will respond to me straight away, or someone will call back very, very shortly. And quotes, where we deal with quoting for our capital bids, it’s a sort of overnight thing, so to have a quote in our back pocket it helps us to get the items that we need, but everytime I’ve asked for a quote in short notice, I’ve been given it within a day, it’s very quick and efficient.

What about aftercare and service?

The aftercare the company provides is brilliant, I’ve had a slight problem with the treadle guillotine which the company is sorting out as we speak, and I’ve got a service contract where the company sends out the service engineer every year to look at and keep the machines in good order, so it’s outstanding from my point of view.

Any future machinery considerations?

Oof, how bigs the company chequebook that’s the thing! Yeah we want at the moment, we would like one of your horizontal bending presses, but again that’s whether we’ll have it approved on capital bids is another thing, but that’s what I’d like to buy next from you.