In December last year, Nicola Card – daughter of the late Trevor Driver, original director at John Binns – retired from the business to run her new venture of Cracoe Café. Nicola has played a pivotal part in the company for the last 25 years, and will be incredibly missed here by all. She had a close relationship with customers – handling any and all queries and enquiries they may have – and turned her hand to any area [...]
Each year, we choose a John Binns employee as the winner of the Ian Smith Award. The award’s recipient is the colleague considered to have most positively contributed to the company, and it is so-named in honour of Ian Smith who passed away in August 2019 – his 40th year with JB Springs. It was a unanimous decision as a company that our Production Supervisor Mark Houldsworth would receive the Ian Smith Award. Mark joined JB Springs back in [...]
Back in September, we volunteered through our position as STEM Ambassadors to take part in the STEM Pen Friends Project. The project’s creation aimed to give children the opportunity to develop their literacy skills as well as gain more of an understanding as to what working in STEM may entail. We were partnered with The Boyle & Petyt school – just down the road in Beamsley – and sent them a PowerPoint presentation all about JB Springs and the [...]
JB Springs was established as a spring manufacturer back in 1895. We’re always keen to dive not only into the history of the company but also the history of the engineering industry as a whole. We appreciate how past events have shaped and evolved the industry as we know it today. The month of June in years gone by saw many major STEM events occur, including: 1st June 1907 Frank Whittle, English aviation engineer and inventor of the jet [...]
Last month, our apprentice Sam Walton received his certificate confirming the successful completion of his Level 3 Advanced Manufacturing Engineering apprenticeship qualification. We’re thrilled to have played our part in this and are proud of his accomplishment. Congratulations Sam! We’ve seen several great success stories in our apprentices over the years at JB Springs, some of which you can read about here.
Each year, the first week of June marks Volunteers’ Week – a celebration and acknowledgement of the work carried out by volunteers. It also aims to raise awareness of the advantages of getting involved with volunteering; while also encouraging those not yet involved to look into the opportunities available in their area. Established in 1984 by Volunteering England, events and celebrations occur across the country, with each year having a different theme. This year’s theme is ‘A time to [...]
Last year we welcomed two new members of staff – Des and Lisa Martin – to our despatch and purchasing team respectively. The couple both served in the RAF and bring a wealth of experience in a range of areas, making them valuable people in the JB Springs team. Des joined the RAF aged 16 and served for 22 years as an aircraft enginee. He worked on a variety of aircraft Chinook helicopters, Tornado, Victor and Typhoon throughout his [...]
Towards the end of last year, our team at JB Springs provided a spring for a vintage 1926 2-ton Caterpillar (CAT) crawler machine; from 1925 to 1928, 8,565 of these were made before being discontinued. Its spec includes a 3-speed gear transmission, 10-inch tracks and a lever that acts as the steering wheel. We recently received some pictures of the fully-renovated crawler – with our spring sitting in pride of place on the starting handle at the front (see [...]
Our director at JB Springs, Alex Driver, volunteers as a STEM Ambassador. This involves sharing his industry knowledge and expertise through hosting talks and activities to spark an interest in STEM in younger generations. A vital part of securing a pipeline of future talent within the industry is nurturing this interest at a young age. At JB Springs, our Springtelligence initiative is just one of the ways we inform and inspire young people who are making key decisions regarding [...]
Our brand-new Springtelligence video looks at the common mistakes made when designing a torsion spring. The four main spring design flaws which we look at and demonstrate in this video are: - Incorrect direction of operation - Inside diameter too small - Body length too large - Overstressing It is also important to consider: - The size of the mandrel over which the spring operates. The inside diameter of a torsion spring reduces during deflection; therefore, if insufficient space [...]
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