William Crosland
of Bank Foundry, Bredbury, near Stockport, Cheshire. Telephone: Woodley 2621-2. Cables: "Guillotine, 'Phone, Woodley". Telephone: London, Clerkenwell 1665. (1947)
1872 The company was founded by William Crosland, with a view to building packaging machinery. Crosland’s innovative approach was instrumental in the design and development of the Hand-Fed-Platen.
1897 Private company.
1902 The first Hand-Fed-Platen with a cutting size of 15” x 24” was introduced. Specifically designed for Die Cutting, these machines had a mechanical clutch and a leather brake. Over the years Croslands were constantly improving their design and introduced many sizes of machine as the demand for bigger boxes came.
1922 Listed Exhibitor - British Industries Fair. Manufacturers of Cutting Machinery of every description, and all Machines for Cardboard and Fancy Box Makers, Paper Makers, Printers, Stationers, and Bookbinders. (Stand No. L.50) [1]
1947 Listed Exhibitor - British Industries Fair. Manufacturers of Cutting Machines for paper and cardboard. Cardboard Boxmaking Machines, "Advance" Self-Clamp Guillotines, Cutting Creasing and Embossing Machines. One-piece Formes for Cartons, Showcards, Jig-Saws, Dies for cutting gaskets. Packings, etc. (Olympia, Ground Floor, Stand No. B.1481) [2]
1952 The first electro-magnet clutch and brake was introduced.
1961 Printers' engineers and iron founders, manufacturing printers' cutting machines, advance guillotine "Crosland" one-piece forms (i.e. die cutters), "Crosland" blanking and piecing tools. 300 employees. [3]
1963 The first Automatic Die Cutter the Crosland APD was developed.
1964 Patent - Improvements in or relating to the stacking of sheet material. [4]
1966 Patent - Improvements in or relating to jig saws. [5]
1972 Due to the poor economic climate, William Crosland was forced to sell the core business to the Simon Group, becoming Simon Crosland who carried on manufacturing the Hand-Fed and Automatic Platens.
1968 At the beginning of the year, Avocet Engineering reached an agreement with Simon Crosland for the purchase of the hand fed platen business, becoming Avocet Crosland. The other machinery building activities of William Crosland Limited, not owned by Simon, were also purchased. Therefore Avocet Crosland owned all the relevant trademarks, the registered name and constituent parts of the original company.
2001 In August, Vee Kay Industries and Avocet Crosland merged to become Crosland VK Ltd the largest independent manufacturer and supplier of Die Cutting Machinery In the United Kingdom.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ 1922 British Industries Fair p20
- ↑ 1947 British Industries Fair p74
- ↑ 1961 Dun and Bradstreet KBE
- ↑ [1] Wikipatents
- ↑ [2] Wikipatents
- [3] CroslandVK Website