Jesse Shirley Have The Balls To Invest In Innovation

Jesse Shirley & Son Ltd from Etruria was founded in 1820 and is now a 6th generation, family owned company. They predominantly mill bone ash for the bone china trade but they also mill ceramic bodies for the manufacture of ceramic granulates for isostatic pressing.

Traditionally bone ash and other ceramic bodies are milled in Ball Mills using flint where the dry material and water is poured into a lined drum (the mill) and rotated with grinding media inside for around 18 hours.

A major cost in the production of bone ash is the milling cost which is predominantly made up of electrical power and grinding media costs. Characteristics to consider include the speed of rotation of the mill, the hardness of the material being ground, the weight of the media being used and the size and therefore packing density of the media being used.

There has been limited research into varying the grinding media and change in packing density but Jesse Shirley felt this was a subject worth investigating further and approached the Business Innovation Centre for support.

Due to the 20% contribution to consultancy costs provided by the Pristine Grant Jesse Shirley was encouraged to use specialists to assist with our project to increase efficiency on the ball mills”

With the help of a Pristine Grant Jesse Shirley was able to employ a Ceramic Technologist to carry out the testing on the bone ash and ceramic bodies in conjunction with a Doctor of Engineering who had a specialist knowledge in ball mills and milling within the ceramic industry.

Six months of experiments and research culminated in positive results for Jesse Shirley. They reduced milling time in some of the mills by over 40% with savings made of approximately £10k per annum and the need for previously anticipated additional investment eradicated.

Extra sales have been achieved on the plant due to increased availability of material and this has lead to two additional operatives being employed on the plant.

I would like to express our thanks to The Board of the Business Innovation Centre for the granting of funding to Jesse Shirley to allow us to undertake this project.” JCM Shirley, Managing Director

For further information on Jesse Shirley, please visit their web site: www.jesseshirley.com