Engineering Steel Supply for the UK Defence Sector

From bespoke technical requirements to dedicated consignment and technical development, Hillfoot provide major OEMs and 1st tier subcontractors with solutions to cope with the increasing demands of the defence sector.

Hillfoot’s long-established relationships with customers in the defence industry has enabled us to understand the complexity of the sector’s requirements and processes. Using this extensive knowledge, we supply materials for a variety of applications for the defence industry - including land defence, sea defence and munitions.

To help our customers meet their clients’ requirements, we offer a range of solutions:

Bespoke technical requirements

Manufacturers in the defence sector often have very specific non-standard requirements for their engineering bar, which our technical team find solutions for.

From additional heat treatment to rigorous testing, we ensure our customers are supplied with high-quality materials that meet standards over and above those for standard commercial grade materials.

Dedicated and consignment stock

One of the biggest challenges facing OEMs and subcontractors in the defence industry is the lengthy lead time for mills to produce engineering steels that meet their specific standards. To overcome this problem, we can tailor dedicated or consignment stock contracts to ensure availability of key materials.

By having a ring-fenced stock of the steels that meet the customer’s bespoke technical requirements on hand ready for quick delivery, we help them to keep production lines running and deal with urgent breakdowns and repairs.

Technical development

Hillfoot’s in-house technical team regularly use their material development expertise to help customers improve efficiency and reduce costs in their manufacturing operations.

Technical development of products to increase the performance of a material for specific applications have delivered multiple benefits for defence manufacturers, including cutting waste, increasing tooling life and improving the performance of the manufactured product.  

Paperwork and traceability

In line with defence industry standards, we offer our clients clear, concise and complete documentation for all materials supplied. Not only is the information held on file for several years, it also allows full traceability back to original manufacturing batches. 

Get in touch with our commercial team for more information about how our effective solutions can benefit your project.