As part of a group of global manufacturing companies, Horsemat now has production facilities available in several locations around the World. Production of sheet and roll product is in India, China, Indonesia, Korea, South Africa, the Middle East and Europe, while conversion facilities are now based at 3 locations in the UK.
At our Bulmer, Suffolk premises we convert and fabricate using a variety of different methods – the most used process is our computerised cutting facility enabling us to produce bespoke mats for horse exercisers for instance, while our hydraulic presses can produce dovetailed mats for stables, gym floors, walkways etc.
This machinery can cut mats designed to your exact stable sizes – dovetailing is used to lock the mats together, and straight edges are cut to ensure correct fitting to your walls – the mats are supplied with a lay-out plan and are numbered in sequence to ensure easy-fitting.
We can also cut plain sheets which can then be edge bonded with an aerosol contact adhesive that we also supply. This produces a floor system without seams (or with a central seam to allow mats to be lifted) – by sealing mats in this fashion seepage under the mats is dramatically reduced.
We also have water-jet cutting facilities for thicker mats (up to 100mm thickness) while our oscillating knife machinery cuts foam materials accurately up to 30mm thick (used for dovetailing EVA mats for instance).
Items such as horsewalker paddle mats, partition rubbers, anti-casting strips and ramp mats can be cut to shape and we can also offer in-house lamination for items such as soundproof panelling, corner protection etc.
From our moulding department we can offer products as diverse as rubber bits, rubber reins, neoprene boots (for horses and also dogs!), kneepads, protective sleeves and many bespoke moulded products such as moulded rubber truck/car boot liners.
Tolerances
Production tolerances on calandered or moulded sheets comply with rubber industry norms:
As an example, moulded stable mats which are generally 6ft x4ft (1828.8mm x 1219.2mm) x 12 to 18mm thick will comply to BS3754 M3 tolerances of ±0.8% on length and width (ie 1828.8 ±14.72mm x 1219.2 ±9.76mm). The thickness is controlled by a similar specification with an allowance for flash difference (ie 17mmm ± 1.5mm).
Our cutting tolerances, especially with water-jet technology, will produce parts that are within very tight tolerances, however it must be remembered that rubber is a flexible material and that tolerances are therefore much wider than generally accepted because of this.