McConnel Power Arms are precision-engineered at the company's production facility in Ludlow, Shropshire, where the machines are designed, built and tested.
The vast majority of components are created in-house and every single machine is subjected to a rigorous testing programme before being released to customers.
Here's how our dedicated team transform sheets of raw steel into the award-winning Power Arms popular all over the world.
State of the art design
Our award-winning team of design engineers have a wealth of experience in creating the best in vegetation maintenance and cultivation technology. They use the latest high-tech SolidWorks packages to design the machines in virtual reality, before building test machines in the prototype department.
Components
More than 10,000 components-a-week are created from steel plate ranging in thickness from 1.6mm to 65mm. The process consumes up to 65 tonnes of steel.
Rotor Shaft turning and balancing
Rotor shafts are created from the bare tube to the finished article. Before any tube is machined, it is rolled on knife edges and checked with a DTI to ensure the run out is no more than 0.75mm at the centre. Every rotor must pass a balance test, which is run at up to 2,500rpm with two probes at either end measuring and recording vibration. Weights are welded to either side of the rotor to ensure critical balance has been met.
Welding and shot-blasting
Main frames, tanks, arms, rotors and flailheads are jigged and then welded ready for shot-blasting and finishing. Shot-blasting is conducted by propelling abrasive materials at high speed through a jet nozzle using pressurised air onto the service of the component. This leaves a clean and dry profile ready for painting.
Painting
Components undergo a three-phase paint process. A base primer coat is sprayed on first, followed by a finishing coat. The paint is then oven-baked for curing.
Hydraulics
McConnel manufactures all of its own hydraulic assemblies and control blocks. Up to 90 blocks coated with a micron finish can be created per week.
Quality control
McConnel builds its machines to the British benchmark of quality management - the ISO9001 standard. McConnel's quality team check hundreds of components every day to ensure consistent high standards.
Assembly
The final stage of the build is in the assembly section where the components are put together and turned into fully functional Power Arms.
Rig testing
Before being sent out to customers, each machine is put through an exhaustive test to ensure its performance matches the build specification. Any faults can be identified here and resolved before the machine is released.
