Clark Engineering is proudly celebrating 100 years of business. A journey that has taken the company from humble beginnings in 1924, when William Clark set up his blacksmith farriers’ business, to today’s innovative product design and manufacturing company that leads the world in many of its industries. Still under the management and ownership of the Clark family and now in its fourth generation, the company continues to operate from their original site in southwest Scotland with 45 people in their engineering, sales and administration team.
Over the past one hundred years, Clark Engineering has gone through many changes and business directions. In the early days, evolving from a blacksmith farrier to a manufacturer of forestry cultivation ploughs, the majority of Scotland’s commercial forest plantations that were created in the last 75 years were established on ground that was cultivated by Clark forestry ploughs. By the late 1970s, when the forest plough market all but disappeared, the company was forced to find a new direction and products that would secure the future. It was during this time that Douglas Clark, grandson of William Clark, made the decision to diversify into the manufacture and sale of timber harvesting equipment, producing an early range of Clark timber grapples and grabs. This was followed by the design and manufacture of forest machine caterpillar tracks, forest machine refuelling systems and embarking upon the distribution of forestry equipment, including Indexator hydraulic rotators and Cranab cranes from Sweden, relationships that still continue more than forty years on.
The Powerhand division, specialising in the design and manufacture of excavator attachments, was born from the Clark Engineering business of producing timber handling grabs and grapples. The first Powerhand products manufactured were small four tine scrap grapples for mobile shredders, followed by a range of specialist grapples for the rail industry. It was in the early 2000s that production began on much larger four tine scrap grapples for engine removal and vehicle recycling, which led to the Powerhand VRS vehicle recycling system being introduced to the car recycling market in 2011.
Murray Clark, Managing Director and fourth generation Clark, commented:
“Today, Powerhand VRS machines are working in over 25 countries worldwide, and we estimate that over half of all ELVs processed in the UK are processed using a Powerhand VRS. As the popularity of VRS grows, it has become the most advanced and profitable way to process end of life vehicles.”
As the company enters a new centenary, the innovative culture that helped build the company over the past one hundred years is more prevalent than ever. Emerging from the success of Powerhand® VRS® is the new Powerhand VEXR machine (Value Extraction Recycling) which is a new concept in recycling machines that will greatly advance the technique of product disassembly prior to shredding. VEXR has the ability to process a wide variety of products, from white goods to electronic goods (WEEE), heavy undersea cables to bed mattresses and with a flexible modular system, it provides endless possibilities. Consisting of the patented VEXR excavator table system with tool mounting points and hydraulics, VEXR can be fitted with a wide selection of VEXR tools, including shears and push-pull clamps, stripping forks and push-pull cable strippers. VEXR offers the ultimate machine to compliment the Powerhand VRS as Powerhand continues to develop VEXR tools to disassemble further ELV components from vehicle dashboards to electric vehicle motors.
After 100 years of business, Douglas Clark, Chairman and Product Design Director, is confident that the future for Clark Engineering and Powerhand has never looked more exciting. He explains:
“As we enter our 100th year, our company is without a doubt at its most inventive and with ongoing investments in our people and advancements in manufacturing and design, our future direction will enable us to continue pushing boundaries, fuelled by our culture of innovation and invention. Our future looks very exciting!”
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