Capacity

Intake Engineering started life in Wingham near Canterbury in 1889, when a group of local farmers founded a farm machinery repair business that they called Wingham Engineering. The company moved to its present site in 1914, spending £1750 to erect a new 10,000 sq. ft. workshop and engine shed to service the growing railway traffic generated by the Kent coalfields. Heavy precision engineering has been carried out on the site continuously from the start of the First World War to the present day, and the original tracks remain in the workshop floor. However evidence of any of Wingham's three railway stations is now hard to find, and the business has had to re-invent itself as a precision machine shop, specialising in particularly large and/or complex items, serving a wide variety of industries throughout the South East.

In addition to straight forward fabrication and machining Intake has developed, with a number of key clients, a design, manufacture, installation and commissioning service for a variety of specialist items of plant and equipment, such as powder mixers, food processing mixers, presses and paper forming rolls. The company's success in such "value adding" engineering has only been possible because of the staff - averaging 25 years in the industry, they are highly skilled and take an inordinate pride in the quality of "their" products.

The building benefits from the size needed for its original purpose, with the main shop 35 metres long, 15 metres wide, 10 metres to the crane rail and 15 metres to the eaves. It is serviced by two modern Abus 5 tonne overhead cranes, capable of working in tandem. The 20 metres by 10 metres side machining shop is equipped with a similar 2 tonne crane. Items larger than 10 tonne can be catered for using mobile cranes.

The equipment is up to date, in the main 3 axis indexed, and very flexible, allowing completion in house of all the machining required by customers. In outline the machinery roll is as follows:-

• 2 Webster Bennett Vertical Borers, 1.6 metre tables, rise up to 2.4 metre.
• 2 Horizontal Borers, up to 1.6 metre rise and 1.6 metre traverse, tables fully indexable, rotation of 360 degrees.
• 9 Milling Machines ranging from a 37 hp Kendal down to a 1hp Tom Senior.
• 1 Stirk Planer, capacity up to 2 metre thick by 1.5 metre wide and 4 metre long.
• 6 Centre Lathes (one CNC) from 800mm turn by 4 metre long down to a small Boxford.
• 2 Turret Lathes, 3 Capstan Lathes and 2 production CNC Lathes.
• 1 Landis threading machine up to 50mm capacity
• Additionally, a 40mm slotter, MIG and TIG welding bay, paint booth and other sundry items.

In brief...

Horizontal boring	To a 1.8 sq metre face
Vertical boring	Up to 1.5 metres diameter
Turning	To 1 metre diameter and up to 4 metres in length
Thread Cutting	Volume Production
Milling	Up to 2.5 metres by 1 metre by 1 metre high
Planing	To 3.6 metres by 1.5 metres
Welding and Fabrication	MIG, TIG and ARC to all steels and aluminium
Folding and Pressing	Up to 15mm thick
Wet Paint Spray	To Customer's Specificaton

Intake welcomes engineering problems and provides solutions which are cost-effective and service-led.