It’s been nearly a year since the revised BS EN ISO 6789:2017 standard was released. With this in mind, Philip Brodey, Sales Director at Norbar Torque Tools, the first laboratory in the world to be accredited to perform hand torque calibrations to the standard, explores the key changes, and also some of the challenges these have brought.What does the revised standard involve?Previously, the BS EN ISO 6789:2003 divided the requirements into three sections: design conformance testing, qualit...

The second week in July 2018 marked Norbar’s third, full scale Rapid Continuous Improvement (RCI) event, consisting of four teams, each tasked on a different, week long, intensive project. Each team had differing objectives but all had common goals: to help make the factory more productive, easier to work in, and safer.Each team consisted of 9 members, all of differing standings within the business, shop floor to directors, with one team member being a representative from another part of t...

The latest edition of BS7882 was published on the 31st August 2017. Current best practice has been incorporated into this revision which provides a practical solution for the calibration of torque measuring devices including the technical requirements needed for high accuracy classes without making the calibration too time consuming to perform and hence commercially unacceptable. There are minor changes to the calibration procedure compared to the 2008 edition. The minimum certificate content ha...

After completing my degree, I joined the graduate program of Ford of Europe working in the Finance function, however I was fortunate that just about all of my roles there involved working with the product (Cars at that time) and to this day I remain passionate about our products as it is at the very core of what we do. William Brodey our Grandfather, the founder of the business had a philosophy of ‘Doing the right things right’. I am very proud that this sentiment carries on today 75...

On the eve of my retirement I reflect back on 50 years involvement in the Torque Tool industry. It was at the age of five I had my earliest memory of the North Bar Tool Company Ltd (it was to be four years later that we renamed the company Norbar Torque Tools Ltd.), I was visiting my father’s office in North Bar Place wearing my school uniform of shorts and shirt and I ended up scolding the backs of my legs on the radiator, you could say that event was burned into memory.Future visits incl...

Today (8 May 2018) is the 75th anniversary of the incorporation of the North Bar Tool Company, now renamed Norbar Torque Tools Ltd.  The North Bar Tool Company was incorporated on 8 May 1943 by William Brodey (my grandfather, generally known as Bill) and his friend Ernest Thornitt (Ernie).It is hard to imagine, for those of us born decades after the war ended, what life was like in the midst of the second world war.  A glance at Bill’s diary from late 1942 gives some cl...

When you work for a company it is natural that you are enthusiastic about them and their products. That’s how I feel about Norbar they have a fantastic range of tools and equipment. But it is more than that, my father is a retired mechanical engineer.Some 35 years ago I needed a torque wrench for my personal usage mainly, if not exclusively, for use on the various cars I worked on. He told me to buy a Norbar which I did, as a good son should always listen to his dad. The Slimline 2 (SL2) g...

Getting to CologneFor decades now, our exhibition presence at the bi-annual Hardware Fair (Eisenwarenmesse) in Cologne has been our headline act. This is still the case and we had a 66m2 stand as part of the Federation of British Hand Tool Manufacturers (FBHTM). Planning commenced back in October 2017. We submitted a brief to the exhibition stand contractors which the FBHTM had selected, and in parallel gave some serious thought to what our messages, product focuses and objectives for 2018 would...

At CologneSaturday 3rd saw a directors’ meeting take place, whilst the three-man set-up team walked to the exhibition halls to begin the task of setting up the stand. It was a full and long but productive day. We left having set up all display tools, the TWC Auto demo, the meeting rooms, the store room and the reception area. Only the polythene floor covering needed removing, which the contractors did. We depart to check-in at the boat, moored on the Rhine, aptly named Charles Dickens.On S...

During the week of January 29th Norbar held their second Rapid Continuous Improvement (RCI) event.Once again, this involved 4 cross functional teams, each given a set of objectives to resolve and improve key processes across the product range.Team A - Multiplier Set Up ReductionReduce changeover time from last machined part to first part of the next batch.Team B - Electronics Production TruCheck ProcessImprove the TruCheck process from order entry to DespatchTeam C - TW ManufacturingImprove flow...