Latest News
Below you will find all the latest developments at Plowman Brothers with the latest at the top.
Please select any heading to read the article.
First outing for the latest four deck Plowman livestock container coupled to a Scania V8.
Plowman Brothers Modern Metal range is a collection of professionally designed contemporary products for the Garden; Home; Public & Commercial Spaces, combining modern up-to-date style with a high quality finish. Our Modern Metal products are hard wearing, durable, low maintenance and complimentary to any space.
We offer a selection of welded, bolted and flat pack metal planters for purchase. Their robustness makes them ideal for all year round planting and ‘active' gardens. Our planters come in a choice of Galvanised/Stainless Steel and Aluminum, they are suitable for both indoor and outdoor use and modern or more traditional surroundings.
Plowman Lawn Edging is made from Galvanised Steel and comes in a range of lengths and thicknesses, making it suitable for both domestic and commercial use. Lawn edging looks smart and makes caring for the boundaries of your lawn simple. It is ideal for running electrical wires, maintaining neat edges and reducing corner erosion due to heavy pedestrian use.
Raised beds by Modern Metals have galvanised steel corners with wooden panels and can be built to any size (depending on wood length). Supplied as a ready to assemble kit, with either treated wood planks supplied or not; the kits are simple to put together and will remain hardy and rust free for many years. Raised beds are ideal for isolating parts of the garden for vegetable plots where crop rotation is required; they are also a good solution for avid gardeners who struggle with mobility; due to easier accessibility.
In addition to planters and lawn edging, Plowman Brothers offer innovative, unique modern take on trellises, tree stakes and mesh climber frames.
Our wire rope trellises are made from Stainless Steel and are modern, minimalistic and hard wearing. Their design is very contemporary and practical and can be moved/extended and re-used easily. The kits come complete with everything required for installation, including brackets, wires and bolts.
Like all our Modern Metals products both our Galvanised Tree Stakes and Aluminum Mesh Climber Frames are distinctive, robust and long-lasting. They are attractive, can be reused and moved easily. They won't rust and can withstand the harshest of weather conditions.
For more information about all of our Modern Metals products please take a look at modernmetals.co.uk.
Plowman Brothers Water Jet Profiler has a wide range of attributes that will benefit you, these include; highly accurate cutting head with tolerances on parts down to 0.25mm; no secondary processes such as drilling and turning; the ability to produce intricate designs and profile virtually any material up to 200mm thick; and has already proved its worth within various demanding industries.
Water Jet profiling technology is already used in industries such as aerospace, automotive, architectural and military due to its diversity and precision. A typical case study of a part processed on Plowman Brothers' Water Jet would be a 1.4m diameter, 50mm thick, mild steel plate for use in a steam engine. The plate has hundreds of holes profiled in it of varying diameters. This would not have been possible with our Plasma or any Laser profiling machine. Our CNC Water Jet was able to cut efficiently and with no secondary process; resulting in lower costs but with a premium quality finished part. This is just one example of the wide variety of uses for Water Jet Profiling.
For more information about our water jet please click here
Plowman Brothers have released a modernised range of single, two and three deck containers for rigid wagons, draw bar and articulated trailers, at the forefront of this range is the 3Deck type which features an array of advancements unique to Plowman Brothers putting it in a class of its own compared to other containers on the market.
The new containers are fabricated using a strong; welded aluminium; monocoque structure; this style of construction has been taken from Plowmans highly successful and applauded range of Semi-Trailers. It is strong yet light weight and offers a modern look that is easy to clean and maintain.
A new rear H-Frame gate for use in their 3Deck containers and trailers has been developed. It is, Matt Plowman MD believes, "stronger, lighter, more versatile and simpler to use than any existing solutions in this area." The gate opens and closes as you would expect a standard H-Frame to, complete with the lower and mid deck sheep gates, and shuts using a slam lock. Opening the mid deck sheep gate on its own allows the full width top deck ramp to be lowered whilst enabling the maximum number of pens to be left loaded.
Another useful innovation in the 3Deck type is the fly to roof/ramp. It includes new pivot and locking mechanisms that mean all operations using the fly to roof can be performed from the rear of the container - without the need to enter it. The fly to roof pivot pins retract from automatically when the it is lifted to the underside of the top deck ramp and engage into automatically when it is lowered away from the top deck ramp. For added security when using the top deck ramp or transporting cattle the ramp and fly to roof/ramp can be manually locked together, this lock is also operated from the rear of the container.
The Plowman Brothers design team have replaced many traditionally steel components with stainless steel to add to the strength of their containers, reduce the maintenance required and increase their practical life span. In addition any mild steel components are galvanised and insulated from the aluminium structure. The aluminium used in the containers is always of the highest strength grade possible for the application, giving a high level of durability without adding undue weight.
The new European Type Approval for Goods Vehicles will become mandatory in 2012. It will enable vehicles from member states to be tested to a common standard and once approved in one state be exported to other member states without the need for re-testing.
Gaining Type Approval means that Plowman Brothers products will have to undergo and pass rigorous tests and inspections at the Governments VCA's testing centre in the midlands. In addition to this they will have to consent to ongoing monitoring of their in-house quality and testing systems.
Plowman Brothers already check the quality and function of all trailers they fabricate and have, over a generation, tested; improved; and retested every component they use from bought in lights to on site fabricated side guards. Because of this Plowman Brothers welcomes the opportunity to have the strength and quality of the trailers they fabricate confirmed to the highest European standards as soon as possible. Matt Plowman MD said "Why should our customers have to wait two years to have the best assurance on our trailers when they can have it today."
York-based engineered metalwork specialists, Plowman Brothers, have completed a major investment in product development with the launch of a re-locatable tensile fabric building which is ideal for companies seeking tentative growth in a post-recession climate.
Already well established as manufacturers and engineers of metal fabricated products such as livestock containers, Plowman's diversification into temporary building solutions is a response to demand from companies that need extra business space at short notice without taking a financial risk through high capital expenditure. The result of their three-year CAD and physical development programme is a fully galvanized facility that provides flexible business space. The company has incorporated a combination of standard features which no rival product offers, including a high quality, clearspan structure, regardless of its size. Managing director, Matt Plowman, explained:
"With the fluid environment in many of today's industries and the unpredictability of the economic recovery, temporary building solutions are a superb option for companies seeking low-risk expansion. Our buildings pass all relevant regulations and they are suitable for a multitude of commercial and industrial uses, from storage and warehousing to manufacturing facilities and distribution bases."
"Given the sporadic nature of the recovery in many sectors, re-locatable tensile fabric buildings allow companies to react quickly to an unexpected surge in business without a long-term financial commitment, should that surge prove to be an isolated case rather than the start of a pattern."
"We have also taken care to improve on the specification available elsewhere in the market by providing the option of longer life, heavy duty materials for a more permanent, long term re-locatable building. We are delighted with the results and I think that re-locatable tensile fabric buildings will become a major factor in Plowman's own expansion in the coming years."



