Our History
Furnaces and foundry equipment since 1913
1910s
Established in 1913 by Isiah Hall, the Company is still owned and run by the Hall family. At first, Monometer produced castings for the printing industry in our foundry in Whitehouse Street, Birmingham. Soon, a small range of furnaces was developed to re-melt the type which was used for printing in those days.
1920s
After the 1st World War, the site in Birmingham was sold and the Head Office of the business moved to the Strand in London. Casting production ceased and the furnace range soon developed into a full range of crucible melting furnaces for aluminium and other light alloys with Pot furnaces for lead production.
1930s
The Company saw the advantages of the new Rotary Furnaces being produced in Germany, and introduced early rotaries for non-ferrous melting into the U.K. and continued to develop the existing range of melting furnaces.
1940s
During World War II the Company produced many furnaces to assist the war effort and during this period, moved headquarters from London to Southend-on-Sea, where it is still based today.
1950s
The original Coal fired rotary furnaces were converted to Oil Firing, and developed with Hot Air Recuperation to achieve temperatures 1450 - 1500 deg C for Iron foundry production. Designs and manufacture were rapidly changing from the Furnace construction which incorporated many cast components into mild steel plate fabrication. During this period, Monometer worked closely with Ford Motor Company at Dagenham to develop a new range of "U" shaped Hot Metal Cupola Fore-hearth Receivers.
1960s
Combustion equipment developed to incorporate the Monometer oil atomisation system for Rotary Furnaces. A new standard packaged 500-kg iron and 1,000-kg iron Rotary Furnace was developed. Hydraulic Tilting sloping hearth Reverberatory furnaces were introduced for the bulk melting of Aluminium.
1970s
The strengths and advantages of Monometer furnace equipment were widely recognised and larger and larger capacity furnaces were produced up to 70-Tonnes Iron Rotaries, and 25-Tonnes Aluminium Reverberatory Furnaces. The Company diversified into heat treatment furnaces when it acquired the Hedin range of chamber, horizontal and forced air circulating, mesh belt and lift-off furnaces.
1980s
Innovations continue with the introduction of Oxyfuel Burner Systems, enabling much faster melting to be achieved and easier control of exhaust fume for Environmental considerations. Micro-Processor controls, and new insulation materials providing more efficient use of heat input and allowing lower furnace casing temperature. Electronics inverter, soft/start and variable speed of rotation were introduced into the Rotary Furnace drive systems. The Company diversified into Infra Red equipment when it acquired Industrial Infra Red Ltd from the Peart Group in Manchester.
1990s
World-wide interest in Monometer Furnace technology has resulted in new Licensee manufacturers in U.S.A. Spain, and Australia, and a joint venture Company Monometer Furnaces (pvt) Ltd in India. With a long history in the development of metal melting and heat treatment furnaces Monometer is well prepared to move into the 21st century.
2000s
After the turn of the millennium, Monometer focused on the reclamation of lead from scrap batteries, and copper and tin production from scrap metals and powders. Monometer also focused on close metallurgical control of the melt and, the developments made in the fluxes used in the processes.
Developments have been made with Plasma Nitriding, in partnership with Ionitech Ltd. in Bulgaria, and Electric Heat Treatment box furnaces with and without atmosphere in partnership with Uterna in Lithuania.
Substantial installations were completed for overseas customers in Malaysia, China, and Australia, as well as copper production in the UK. We have been pleased to welcome Dr Christopher Hall (PhD University of Sheffield, Fellow of the Institute of Cast Metals Engineers) onto the Company Board as the fourth generation family member since our foundation in 1913. He became director with specific responsibilities for combustion and heat transfer.
Monometer built on their strengths as a furnace design and
manufacturing company providing the worldwide foundry sector with competitive heat treatment and melting furnaces to the highest standards of performance and reliability.
2010s
Still continuing to stay at the forefront of furnace design and manufacture across the globe Monometer installed a 6 tonne copper rotary furnace for Spain, a heat treatment furnace for a packaging company in the UK.
Further afield, Monometer supplied Tin recovery furnaces in China and Malaysia and a 40 tonne copper furnace in India, as well as working with a copper recovery plant in Russia with a filter system and oxygen burner.
Back in the UK, Monometer supplied several small heat treatment furnaces to a Ministry of Defence Training establishment.
In 2013, Monometer proudly celebrated 100 years of designing and manufacturing furnaces!
2020s
Busy with projects overseas as well as at home during the past year of lockdowns and travel restrictions, rising to the apparent challenges of onsite inspections and commissioning abroad with limited physical onsite presence.
​
As surely for many people during periods of lockdown, video conferencing and cloud platforms have offered convenience and aided communications, but these have formed only a part of Monometer's solution to the requirements of engineering projects, particularly on site commissioning.
​
Through Monometer's development in the application of PLC to accommodate pre shipment testing and further provisions for remote service access following installation, including remote programming, a substantial part of commissioning has been achieved successfully by remote access and monitoring. This has been particularly successful where clients provide a LAN, allowing many areas of the furnace installation, including combustion, exhaust waste gas environmental control, and furnace rotation cycles to be monitored, adjusted and serviced remotely from any global location.