Why we’re focused on being fighting FIT this summer

 

It’s January, Christmas is over, and we’re day one into the third UK lockdown, but as bleak as the outlook may be right now, we’re determined to stay positive.

 

We’ve felt the impact of COVID-19, but we’ve been fortunate enough to be able to continue doing what we do; we’ve just had to tweak our operations to make sure they comply with the latest guidance.

 

Focusing on COVID-proofing our operations

 

In the meantime, we’re continuing to focus on providing our customers with the industry-leading services we’re renowned for.

 

This includes our 48-hour collection service and being highly responsive to customer requirements, as well as pre-empting and proactively tackling new pandemic-related bottlenecks and issues to minimise disruption for our customers. (For more on how we’ve adapted to COVID-19, read below, ‘How it’s been ‘business as usual’ when things have been far from usual’.

 

And focusing on the FIT Show

 

But that’s the here and now, which we’ve so far been able to adapt our processes to overcome the multiple challenges that have come our way. We’ve also been looking ahead to a few months’ time to a key event in our calendar – the FIT Show 2021, which is one of the biggest events in the window, door, conservatory and glazing world.

 

Unfortunately, last year’s event was one of the many casualties of COVID-19, but we’re hopeful that this year’s exhibition, which is scheduled to take place from May 25 to 27, will go ahead as planned.

 

Preparing to showcase our thermally broken extrusion process

 

If it does, we’ll be there on Stand C1, showcasing the very best of Alutrade for the second time. By that, we mean our ability to process thermally broken extrusion, which we’ve been doing for the last 10 years, using a process that’s unrivalled within our industry.

 

Our pioneering technique, which took us six years to develop and perfect, enables us to effectively separate the thermal barrier from extrusions to produce a 95 to 97% clean aluminium product.

 

Without giving too much of our industry-leading methods away, our thermally broken extrusion process involves fracturing both the extrusion and thermal strip away from one another. And this has been overlaid with a mechanical solution that we’ve also developed to sort through the differing metal compositions. It’s so effective that it enables us to sort up to 6 tonnes per hour.

 

UK closed loop aluminium recycling

 

Our thermally broken extrusion capabilities are particularly significant for the fenestration industry because it means aluminium can be kept in the UK. Material is supplied to UK remelts which, in turn, means UK extruders can be produced and supplied. All in all, this forms a robust UK closed loop aluminium recycling programme.

 

For more information about our leading thermally broken extrusion process or to find out more about our work with the fenestration sector, contact us on info@alutrade.co.uk or 0121 552 0330.

How it’s been ‘business as usual’ when things have been far from usual

 

Life has been extremely different for companies sector-wide and worldwide in recent months. Some operations have ground to a halt, some have been scaled right back and others have been totally reinvented – and it’s all happened literally overnight.

 

As we’re writing this post, the pandemic continues to challenge companies, as the UK’s second lockdown reaches the second week milestone, with two weeks, and potentially more, to go.

 

To say we’ve not been impacted by the pandemic isn’t true. But the degree to which we have been impacted is far less than many other organisations we’ve read and heard about and talked too since the start of Covid-19.

 

We’ve stuck to our ‘business as usual’ philosophy, despite the fact life has been far from being ‘business as usual’

 

• All of our collections and our aluminium processing has continued as normal and so has  demand from the smelters throughout the UK and Europe for our materials
• As a result, we’ve not yet had to furlough any staff and have been able to continue with our 48-hour collection service

 

We’ve made sure the wellbeing and health and safety of our entire workforce has been, and continues to be, our No.1 priority

 

• We’ve asked staff, who are able to do so, to work from home
• A new rotation system has been implemented for breaks and lunch-times to help minimise contact for our on-site workers
• We’ve increased how often high traffic areas, such as the kitchen and toilets, are cleaned
• The Personal Protective Equipment, which the operators and pickers on our production lines have always used, now incorporates clear face visors for increased protection
• All of our walkways and operational lines have been marked out with two metre spacing indicators. This includes staggering the use of our clocking-in system, which was an area staff used to naturally congregate around pre-pandemic

 

We’ve been highly responsive to our customers’ requirements

 

• We’ve always provided a flexible service, but we’ve stepped this up a notch in recent months for certain construction and medical sector customers, who’ve needed us to be even more responsive to prevent production delays
• Our 30+ years’ experience has also enabled us to pre-empt any new pandemic-related bottlenecks and issues and proactively tackle them, minimising any unwanted additional hassle for our customers

 

We’ve pulled together to adapt and respond to the new ‘normal’

 

• All of our staff have pulled together to look out for one another and make sure we continue to operate safely and efficiently during these new times
• We’ve worked hard to make our entire site Covid-safe for our whole workforce and to continue to provide customers with the services they need, even if they need to be adjusted  a little here and there

 

We’re in it for the long haul

 

• We aren’t just saying it, we really are. You could say we’ve been fortunate that we’ve still been able to operate all the way through, but we couldn’t have done it without making our operations Covid-ready the way we have
• Most of what we’ve done will continue for the foreseeable, which is more than feasible for us to continue with
• We’re set up to be as flexible as possible and will continue to do all we can to make sure everybody, our staff and interactions with customers are as safe as possible

 

Covid-19 has tested our mettle, but it’s also enabled us to really draw upon some of our core strengths, such as our flexibility and adaptability, to make sure we maintain high levels of safety and our industry-leading aluminium recycling services.

 

To find out more about our industry-leading ways of working, contact us today on info@alutrade.co.uk or 0121 552 0330.

 

Alutrade a delighted to announce that they have been awarded the ISO 45001 Occupational Health and Safety Standard.

 

According to the International Labour Organization, more than 7,600 people die from work-related accidents or diseases every single day. That’s why an ISO committee of occupational health & safety experts set to work to develop an International Standard with the potential to save almost three million lives each year.

 

ISO 45001 is an International Standard that specifies requirements for an occupational health and safety (OH&S) management system, with guidance for its use, to enable Alutrade to proactively improve its OH&S performance in preventing injury and ill-health.

 

Alutrade have joined the Council for Aluminium in Building and with the association have initiated a closed loop recycling initiative which intends to recycle architectural aluminium profiles back into extrusion billets within the UK. The scheme intends to draw attention to this emerging capability which ensures aluminium’s almost 100% recycleability in the construction industry.

 

More information on the scheme is available on the Council for Aluminium in Building website.