B&W Factory Visit20/06/2010
A couple of weeks ago, Paul, Jude, John, Simon and David 
spent the day down at the B&W Factory in Worthing where they had a factory tour which included seeing the new speaker cabinet manufacturing process. Until recently the cabinets for the 800 series were all manufactured in Denmark but after B&W bought the Danish company a couple of years ago, they have now re-located the specialist fabrication equipment here to the UK where they have much better flexibility and control on production. In these difficult economic times it is great news that they are employing many more people at the UK facility in this area of production.
The cabinets for the 800 Diamond series are formed using a ply construction and some very interesting “bending” equipment to get the curvature of the cabinet. Spray painting is done using robotic devices – just like you will have seen on motor car production lines, which is mesmerising to watch.
What amazed us all was the length of time that it takes for the hand polishing and buffing of the new piano black finish, and how many hours of loving work goes into producing this quality product.
One final fact that stuck out was that whilst B&W, along with many other speaker manufacturers, have some products made in China, B&W actually make their speaker drivers here in the UK, then ship them to China to be assembled. This attention to detail helps them ensure and maintain the highest quality across the whole product range.
