Totally Bespoke

One-off piece designed for Alf England

Having used Dura in their main workshop for more than 20 years, Alf England approached Dura with a new challenge; a completely one-off piece of furniture, designed by the technicians to exactly meet their needs.

Alf England already used Dura extensively throughout its main workshop; the four-generation family business first chose Dura in 2002 and had steadily added to its facility, expanding their workshop with Dura furniture throughout.

In 2023, Alf England sought to expand its offer to include specialist services, including customisation, suspension rebuild and tuning and performance enhancement, building a new dedicated workshop.

To get the most from their new facility, Alf England started by asking their trusted technicians a simple question; if they were designing a workbench specifically for suspension servicing, modification and refurbishment, what would they do? After considering and developing several ideas, a rough sketch created.

Their concept was inspired; central to the design was set-back open cabinet with a single vice mounted on a thick, stainless-steel top. Within was a full width, retractable drip tray, topped with a perforated panel to catch any liquids from components. Combined, this enabled technicians to get closer to the job, whilst also keeping all fluids from the floor, increasing safety and cleanliness, both critical factors when working with suspension.

Accompanying this is a shallow sink mounted onto a 1200mm width unit with a shallow drop, ensuring all liquids would drain into a waste-oil catch tank within. A perforated panel was added to the sink, offering a totally flat work surface for technicians.

The entire design was made possible by Dura, manufactured at our facility in Plymouth, UK, home to some of the most advanced manufacturing machinery in Europe. Once fully built, tested and approved to Dura’s uncompromising standards of quality, it was delivered directly to Alf England where two members of the Dura Install Team completed the entire install of Alf England’s second workshop in just one day.

Today, Alf England’s technicians have a world-class environment to complete specialist tasks. This clean space is essential to many of these tasks, which can now be completed with greater ease and efficiency. Features, such as the retractable drip tray, increase the safety, efficiency, and practicality of the space to unparalleled levels.

If you'd like more information on this project, or would like to hear more about our extensive range of workshop furniture, please email info@dura.co.uk or call 01280 706050.

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