Case Study: Loadhog
Client Overview
Loadhog is an employee-owned Yorkshire-based manufacturer of returnable and sustainable packaging. Their products help businesses across various industries including retail, automotive, and healthcare. Loadhog aim to help their customers reduce waste, save time and labour, all whilst improving efficiency.
The Challenge
Loadhog approached us with an issue that many development teams face; creating working prototypes within tight timeframes. For their latest project, they needed a bespoke spring solution that could be quickly developed, tested, and refined. They wanted to achieve this whilst ensuring safety, performance, and ultimately, a long-lasting product.
Our Approach
We invited Loadhog’s design engineers to our state-of-the-art facility in Haworth, West Yorkshire. This allowed them to collaborate with our skilled engineering team in person, eliminating the delays caused by back-and-forth communication, and subsequently reducing the development time. During their visit, Loadhog worked with us on:
- Hands-on prototyping with CNC machinery
- Design iterations and testing
- Immediate engineering feedback
- Use of specialist spring design software (developed by the Institute of Spring Technology) to ensure designs stayed within safe stress limits.
Our apprentice, Alfie Moses, worked side-by-side with Loadhog’s development engineer to design and test the functionality of the spring. This hands-on teamwork meant that we had a fully functioning prototype within just a few hours, which would normally take days or even weeks. Our advanced wire-forming machines and software meant that our team were able to create an efficient and accurate solution to Loadhog’s problem.
‘Airedale Springs provided amazing support with the development work on the new product we are currently designing. In addition, they offered to help us with an on-site iterative process which massively reduced our development time and allowed us to specify a finely tuned spring within a few hours. We are delighted with the results and look forward to working with Airedale on future projects.’
Loadhog Engineer
The Outcome
By the end of the project, Loadhog were left with a working spring design, perfectly adapted to their product specifications. They were thoroughly impressed by the speed, support, and quality of service we provided.
Contact Airedale Springs for Custom Spring Solutions
Whether you’re interested in springs for manufacturing or an entirely different industry, we work with a range of sectors that each require diverse requirements and solutions. We work closely with our clients at every stage of the process to tailor our products around their business needs. If you’re looking for a personalised, reputable, and sustainable spring supplier, then get in touch with our team to discuss your project requirements.