All steel tube manufacturers have many considerations to make. It all begins with attention to detail.

Detail in this realm means balancing multiple contrasting variables including: the initial design requirements; the specification of the material; the quality of the machine; the cost of manufacture; and the required quality of the final product are the main areas.

To wander through any contemporary landscape is to enter a forest of metal tubes. Many are invisible, or are caught as a glimpse of an eye. Some are overt, such as in architectural statements. Most are carrying out vital functions: keeping industry flowing, keeping planes in the air, or transforming bodies during life-saving surgery. In a celebration of all things tubular, here is a list of the five ways that tube manufacture influences and enhances our world.

If there is one thing that we all want to be sure about when heading into a hospital environment, it is that we are stepping into a world of precision equipment. A review of medical literature shows that even routine procedures are fraught with difficulty. For instance, a typical lumbar puncture has five primary areas of risk, and that is before the quality of the tube begins to even enter the equation. As doctors explain: “what we need to achieve is difficult enough without equipment also being a factor”.

The most inspirational individuals working in British industry in 2018, according to The Manufacturer Top 100 have been revealed. The list was announced at the exclusive event in Liverpool’s Exhibition Centre, and it is our great pleasure to announce that our Director, Andrea Rodney was featured for the second time.

When directly translated, an apprentice means ‘one who is learning’. It is a state of being that Einstein argues should be a perpetual condition of life. The moment we stop doing it, Einstein says - rather dramatically - we start dying. Well, our industry hasn’t died but the lack of apprenticeships and quality training over the last few decades has certainly created the disease now commonly referred to as the “skills gap”.

Recent figures have shown that aircraft production within the United Kingdom is set to supersede previous records; a clear indication that the industry remains quite strong. As a testament to this observation, statistics illustrate that the total number of aircraft produced by July 2018 is no fewer than 809 units. Experts believe that the revenue generated from such figures could equate to as much as £15 billion – not a bad little earner. To put these observations into perspective, the aggregate number of air vehicles delivered during the 2017/18 fiscal year was nearly 1,500 units. If present statistics continue, 2018/19 may very well rise above and beyond previous figures.

The latest release of the 'Industrial Trends Survey' by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) gives an insight into how the UK manufacturing sector is holding up in light of internal and external factors by analysing the data supplied by 379 UK manufacturers.

It is often the “tool room” that gets over looked within a machine shop. It’s that little area where the magic happens, and everything gets fixed or fettled, but often it’s run by amazing engineers who can just work around any issues the machines have and so it’s where the oldest machines tend to reside.

Finally, after almost 5 years of job losses and heartbreak in the oil and gas sector, things finally seem to be on the way up again. New studies show that, despite over 400,000 job losses in recent years, a dramatic rise in growth opportunities is expected by most of the oil and gas companies operating in the UK and offshore.

A few months ago, we had one of those e-mails. The ones we often tend to bypass to get to the e-mails from customers or contacts but this one peaked my interest.