When Shaws of Darwen was founded in the closing rears of the 19th century, they had a vision – to make the finest handcrafted fireclay sinks in the whole of England.
Today, some 120 years on, that vision has been more than realised; Shaws now enjoys, not only a national, but a worldwide reputation for the beauty, quality, craftsmanship and sheer practicality of our unique artisan products.
They are immensely proud of our heritage, and the fact that their sinks are still handcrafted at their premises in the same quiet corner of North West England as they were when we first started out on Valentine’s Day 1897. They are also extremely proud that the techniques lovingly used by their time-served craftsmen haven’t changed in all those years.
So much so, every handmade Shaw’s sink carries an impression on its base of the name of the master craftsman who created it. This, along with our Certificate of Authenticity, is your assurance that your investment has been handcrafted for life.
The 21st century brings new challenges to all traditional industries. This comes in the way of waste reduction for environmental reasons. Tony Callas (Technical Manager at Shaw’s) wanted to study and optimise spray equipment settings in order to maximise transfer efficiency, and therefore reduce waste. To do this Tony looked for a company that could study the existing glaze spray process, introduce optimised settings and write and present a training course for his staff.
Tony then contacted Mick Warren from Spraytrain.com. Spraytrain.com is an independent training provider specialising in industrial spray applications. Spraytrain.com have for many years provided training to many industries and spray application types. Following a visit to site various trials were performed to calculate existing spray transfer efficiency. The trials also provided information to optimise spray gun settings. Once the optimised settings were proven Spraytrain.com presented a training course to staff. The training course was part theory (with electronic assessment). And then a practical session to implement the new settings and procedures.
