Bespoke engineering solutions keep pace with fast-moving food industry

Any food production company is only as good as the equipment it uses. This is where Frazer-Nash Manufacturing comes in with its globally trusted precision engineering services and solutions designed to allow any business to meet the most demanding industry challenges.

Based on the 20:20 Vision business park in Petersfield, Hampshire, Frazer-Nash provides design, manufacturing, and precision engineering services to a wide variety of industries, with particular focus on food manufacture – which accounts for around 80% of their business – and low volume manufacture for science and aerospace industries.

From their Hampshire engineering facility and headquarters in the UK, they serve major clients around the world and have earned their reputation for technical innovation and high quality. They are especially well-regarded in the pet food and confectionary industries that require extrusion and handling of foodstuffs of varying consistencies.

Frazer-Nash specialises in providing the ultimate bespoke solution for companies who find that standard “off the shelf” products aren’t quite right for their needs. From the largest turn-key handling and process systems, to small special-purpose machines, Frazer-Nash aims to deliver a solution to suit any business’s needs.

“We do have a basic range of products, and pressure extruders are at the centre of what we do,” says engineering director Matthew Cottam. “But there are a lot of associated products that are part of the extrusion process, including cooling, cutting and drying equipment.”
Frazer-Nash can use its expertise and product range to create the perfect solution for any food manufacturer. They are constantly innovating to meet customers’ needs, as with their recent development of a 100% fruit extrusion system for healthier snack products.

They have a bespoke design service as well as adapting existing products and technology. However, the product comes about, Frazer-Nash prides itself on quality assurance and maintaining a 100% inspection rate on its manufactured items, fully certified to the ISO 9001:2015 and AS9100 Rev D quality assurance standard. Certificates of conformance and full traceability are provided on their work.
“People come to us because they want something that’s different,” says Matthew. “The company’s aim is to design and manufacture equipment that is exactly suited to the client.”

Their reach is global, as well; in fact, the majority of their work is for the international market, with the US having their single biggest customer base. They also do work for companies in territories such as China, Russia and Brazil.
As you might expect from a company with a £6 million turnover that works in so many global markets, conforming to the very latest specifications and regulations is something Frazer-Nash has nailed down. Their food industry solutions are designed and constructed to conform to the latest international food safety specifications with open access structures, sloping surfaces, and crevice-free design. They pay close attention to ensure that the correct grade of stainless steel or other FDA approved material is used. All their machinery is supplied fully guarded and CE-marked for use in the European Union.

It’s interesting that a company at the cutting edge of food machinery design and supply began life as a manufacturer of the earliest form of the motor car.
In 1910, English mechanical engineer and designer Archibald Frazer-Nash jointly developed a lightweight automobile, the GN Cycle Car. After more than a decade of success with the GN, in 1922 he set up the Frazer-Nash sports car company to develop a successor. Various Frazer-Nash models were introduced over the next three decades, becoming a classic sports car marque still admired today.
By 1929, Archibald Frazer-Nash had turned his personal attentions to other areas of engineering and inventing, setting up a new company focused on solutions for the growing aerospace industry. During World War II, the Frazer-Nash company achieved particular success with its innovative servo-motor-powered gun turrets, used on bombers such as the Avro Lancaster and Vickers Wellington.

In the post-war decades, the Frazer-Nash business expanded into a wide range of engineering sectors. In 1990, this Frazer-Nash group was rationalised into a number of smaller specialist companies. Frazer-Nash Manufacturing is one of these businesses, formed from a significant portion of the manufacturing and design departments of the former group.
Since 1990, Frazer-Nash Manufacturing has continued the long history of engineering excellence associated with the Frazer-Nash name, moving to their current site in Petersfield, in 2011.

As an example of the way Frazer-Nash works, a major provider of pre-prepared sandwiches approached the company wanting to automate part of their process. Particularly, this was how to target different condiments – mayonnaise, mustards, relishes and chutneys – to individual sandwiches. With differing consistencies of products, the main concern was that particles could block the extrusion equipment and bring the production line to a halt.

Frazer-Nash’s design and engineering departments set to work to come up with a customisable nozzle solution, in food-safe grade stainless steel, which could cope with the different condiments. Utilising 3D-printing in metal and precision finishing, they came up with a final assembly that exceeded all the customer’s expectations.

Although Frazer-Nash Manufacturing is now a world away from the motor car company that was set up more than a century ago and which formed its roots, the two diverse operations do share certain principles: innovation, precision and finding solutions through the very highest quality engineering.

www.frazernash.com