Factory steelwork for Thetford, made in Norwich
Structural steel fabrication for Thetford's food and manufacturing sites. Plant platforms, mezzanine floors, machine bases and pipe supports built to your engineer's drawings, made as modules that pass through your doors and go in during a planned shutdown.
Thetford, about 30 miles down the A11 from Norwich.
Steel that fits round production
Inside a working factory, the steel is the easy part. Fitting it round the line, the pipework and the shift pattern takes the planning.
Swift Fabrication Services Ltd is a Norwich welding and fabrication company, a direct run down the A11 from Thetford's industrial areas on Fison Way, Brunel Way and the Thetford Enterprise Park. For the town's food producers, manufacturers and logistics operators we make the steel that goes inside the building as well as the building frame itself.
Loadings and calculations come from a structural engineer, yours or one you appoint, and we make what is drawn. We do not design or certify structures. Our input is practical: surveying round existing plant, breaking a platform into bolted modules, finding ways to avoid welding inside your building, and installing with our own team while the line is stopped.
Steel fabrication in Thetford
Platforms, mezzanines, supports
Mild steel and stainless steel
About 30 miles on the A11
Inside the factory
Most structural enquiries from a manufacturing town are for steel inside an existing building. Here is what that usually covers, and what we make for the outside too.
Access platforms round mixers, tanks, fillers and packing lines, walkways over conveyors, step-overs and maintenance gantries, with handrails, kick plates and chequer plate or open grating decks. Mild steel painted or galvanised, or stainless steel where washdown demands it.
Mezzanine floors to gain space over a production or warehouse area: columns on baseplates, primary beams, secondary steel, stairs, handrail and a pallet gate opening where you need one. Column positions are set out to miss your aisles, racking and drains, then agreed with your engineer.
Fabricated bases and plinth frames for new machines, pipe and cable tray supports, service bridges between buildings, trimmers for roof plant and new door openings. For units going up along the A11 corridor we also make portal frames, purlins and cladding rails.
We start with a visit to Thetford, because factory steel has to be measured against what is there: the plant, the pipe runs, the floor falls and the door it must come through. With your engineer's drawing and our survey we put together a free estimate, and the price is agreed before material is ordered.
The steel is made in our Norwich workshop as bolted modules and trial assembled, so the fit is proven before your line stops. Paint, galvanising or powder coating can be arranged, and stainless is cleaned and dressed. It then comes down the A11 and is installed in your shutdown window, at night or over a weekend if that is when the area is free.
Tell us early about hygiene rules, hot work permits, inductions and working hours. They shape how the steel is made as well as how it is fitted.
Work back from the stop
A shutdown has a fixed length and a lot of trades in it. Steel that turns up late, or does not fit, costs you production. Give us the dates at enquiry stage. We plan the survey, drawing approval, fabrication and any coating backwards from there, and say plainly if the time is too short.
For the estimate we need the engineer's drawings or layout, the site address, the finish or grade of stainless, and the loads the steel must carry, which your engineer confirms. If your site standards ask for a welding code or coded welders, mention it and we will confirm what we can supply.
Request a factory steel quoteSave a second visit
A layout drawing of the area, even a marked-up plan. The weights and footprints of any machines the steel will carry. Details of the floor construction if you have them, since an engineer will ask. Your site rules for contractors, the route from the yard to the work area, and the smallest door on that route.
As well as Thetford we take structural steel to Brandon, Croxton, Mundford and Watton, to Attleborough and Snetterton further up the A11, and over the county line into Suffolk. Longer trips are planned, so ask and we will say how soon we can visit.
Check the fabrication quote checklistFactory questions
Night work, food site rules, stainless steel, loadings and what we need to quote.
Browse the full FAQsYes, by arrangement. Nights, weekends and holiday shutdowns are normal for factory steel, and we plan labour and lifting kit around the window you give us. Settle it at quote stage so the cost is clear, and so the modules are sized for the time and access available.
Yes. We follow your site's hygiene rules, inductions and permit to work system, including hot work permits. Making the steel as bolted modules keeps welding and grinding inside your building to a minimum, and stainless steel can be used where your standards need it.
No, that figure has to come from a structural engineer, who will also check the slab it stands on. We do not design or certify structures. Give us the engineer's drawing and we will build the floor to it, and suggest details that make it quicker to install.
Read how our process worksAlways. The estimate is free, and the price is agreed before we order steel. If the scope changes after the survey, you hear what it does to the cost before we carry on.
Yes. Your platform or mezzanine in Thetford is installed by our own team, which keeps survey, fabrication and fitting with one firm. Lifting is planned for the headroom and floor you have, often with a telehandler or smaller plant, and RAMS reach you ahead of the work for approval.
Steel erection in ThetfordThe platform size and height, what it gives access to, the loads from your engineer, the finish or stainless grade, the site address and your shutdown dates. A survey fills in the rest. The checklist sets it all out.
Use the quote checklistLinked services
Swift Fabrication Services
Tell us what the steel has to do, where in Thetford it is going and when your line stops. We will survey, give a free estimate and agree the price first.
