Have you ever wondered how we make Defender® Bird Spikes or where in the UK we are actually based? Read on and all will become clear.
Here at Jones and Son Pest Control Supplies Ltd, we manufacture and distribute all the Defender® Bird Spike range. We have a small warehouse on the edge of Dartmoor National Park in Devon. As you may know, it is a beautiful part of the UK with the dramatic moor, prancing ponies, lots of sheep and of course, sunny sandy beaches. From this rural warehouse, we design, patent, manufacture, package and distribute every order for Defender® Bird Spikes, no matter where in the world they are going.
How is a bird spike created?
Ben is the production engineer and brings Davids’s dreams to life – his dreams of bird spikes of course! David will come up with an idea for a new type of bird spike and take it to Ben to talk through the design and manufacturing possibilities. He translates the collection of drawings and prototypes that David has made into 2D drawings and working 3D models using CAD. This is a Computer Aided Design program where every feature of the new bird spike can be tested before going into production. Not only can it create precision drawings, but features such as how well it stacks, colour combinations or possible defeats. These can all be addressed before moving on to the next stage. As you can imagine, this process can easily take up to 3 months to complete and only when David and Ben are happy, does Ben start the tooling process.
What is injection moulding tooling?
Tooling for injection moulding is literally the name for a mould made out of super strong tooling steel. All plastic objects have a specific tool made for them, from tiny little components like a peg to huge items like wheelie bins and silos. These steel tools are crafted using extremely delicate machinery to ensure they are millimetres correct. Tools are often made to produce a single unit, especially if the object is large, however for our Defender® Bird Spikes which are only 33 cm long, several units can be produced from a single tool. Our Defender® Wide Plastic Spikes for example, come from a 2 impression tool meaning 2 complete bird spikes are created with every mould. Our stainless steel bases come from a 4 impression tool. You’ve guessed it – it makes 4 units every time. As you can imagine, this really speeds up productivity as it can produce up to 1000 units per hour.
How does the machine make a bird spike?
Ben also runs and manages the injection moulding machinery, watching over it to make sure it runs smoothly. As an engineer, he has even designed additional automation to help in the production process. For example, in the warehouse, there is a literal wheely bin full of small UV-stabilised polycarbonate beads. Reminiscent of the movie, Charlie and Chocolate Factory, Ben has added a clear hose into the side of the bin which intermittently sucks up the beads and wizzes them across the ceiling and down into the injection moulding machine.
In the centre of the machine, two halves of the mould or tool are pushed together under an incredible 200 tons of pressure. The melted beads are then forced into the tooling cavity. Then when the two halves separate, two fully formed Defender® Bird Spikes drop out. It’s like magic! The tooling is so precise and detailed, we even have our Defender® brand moulded into all our bases. Ben inspects every batch that comes off the machines by hand to ensure they are perfect. Here at Jones and Son, we are very proud of our stringent quality control.
How are the Defender® ®stainless steel wires produced?
David found an old Heenan Froude wire-forming machine which we have reconditioned. It dates from the second world war when it made components for anti-aircraft machinery and pins for hand grenades. Here at Jones and Son, we affectionately call it Brian. (for reasons unknown!)
Brian leads a much more sedate life nowadays, he just bends 304 or 316-grade wire for our Defender® Stainless Steel Bird Spikes
A huge spool of stainless-steel wire sits at one end of the room which is fed into the machinery. First, it straightens the kinks from the wire and then it’s fed into the bending section. It has to be set up for each type of spike as the Defender® wires are bent to different angles and heights depending on which spike we are producing that day. It can produce a whopping 3000 wires an hour which is collected on a helter-skelter style rail. It can potentially make many more per hour however, at faster speeds we find wires end up shooting all over the warehouse which isn’t ideal!
How do the wires attach to the bird spike bases?
Boxes of wires are sent over to our assembling department. Our lovely assembly ladies insert every wire by hand into our moulded plastic bases. Our assemblers have had a lot of practice and it’s not as easy as they make it look! Then when an order comes in, a member of our warehouse team will collect these and package them up ready for despatch.
The whole process, from inventing, designing, refining, tooling, production, assembly, packaging and despatch, all happens under one roof. From start to finish, we guarantee great quality and service.
If you want to chat to us about how we manufacture Defender® ® Bird Spikes or about ordering or delivery, please do contact us either by phone at 01626 835055 or via email sales@jonesandson.co.uk