Croft Case Study Project: Al Salam Palace, Kuwait Requirements: 1) Lever on Decorative Back Plate

2) Art Deco Lever on Back Plate Client: Turentek Architectural Ironmongery

Background

Kuwait’s once abandoned Al-Salam Palace is being restored to its former glory and Croft are proud to be one of the companies involved. Undergoing mass restoration, the palace will reopen as a grand state-of-the-art museum to represent Kuwait’s national history. Visitors will walk in the footsteps of previous heads of state and explore the palace history, told through its 15 rulers.

The iconic palace, spanning two stories and 32,000 square metres, is being redeveloped to include museum halls, a visitor centre, cafes, gift shops and lobbies for guests.

The design will retain the palace’s original character while incorporating contemporary additions and meeting the highest international construction standards.

Specified by our Architectural Ironmonger client and having just two original 1960’s photographs of the ironmongery required to design from, Croft have successfully manufactured a glorious arrangement of hardware for Kuwait’s Al Salam Palace renovation.

The project objective To recreate and manufacture two very different types of Palace lever handles. We were provided with a hand-drawn technical dimensions image and two 1960’s photographs, showing an ornate Lever Handle, which was to be recreated. We also had an original Al Salam Palace Art Deco style Lever and backplate provided and were commissioned to recreate and manufacture the backplate, assembling with our own project ready 7001 Lever.

Heading up and overseeing the project from the Croft side, was Sales Manager Matt McGowan. Matt comments “Croft have worked on many large scale and high profile projects, so when we were approached with this opportunity way back in November 2016, although not necessarily as straight forward as some, we were extremely keen to take on the challenge. The end result has been achieved through a mix of traditional cast methods with modern CNC machinery and CAM software to achieve two very different types of skilfully produced items”

Original palace Art Deco sample provided along with two photos and a hand drawing.

Once initial approval was gained, our in-house projects team which includes our Production Manager, Product Designer, CAD Designer, Quality Manager, Head Engineer and CNC Supervisor, set to work laying out the project schedule. “We are fully versed in bespoke projects and our in-house projects team meet daily for progress talks and to ensure everything is on schedule. This way we are in the best position to identify and address any issues well ahead of time” Nick Clifford, Production Director

The Croft Design team created CAD designs for both levers, providing technical drawings

and 3D prints for client approval.

A series of technical drawings, CAD 3D renders and 3D printed samples were created and sent to the client.

Feasibility and Development Stages During these stages, the Croft team made a number of design and manufacturing recommendations to ensure the hardware was fit for purpose, sufficient and workable. This ensured the highest level of product quality, not just aesthetically to meet the brief but for strength and durability on the door. Our Product Designer and Production Engineer worked to understand the full production process involved. Then analysed machine and material capabilities and identified potential obstacles or time constraints which could impact on any part of the manufacturing, assembly or finishing stages of the project. This often resulted in further discussions within the projects team and sample testing with work section supervisors.

Manufacturing Stage Master patterns were then made at this stage for both the Decorative Lever and Art Deco backplates. These were then used to produce the raw castings, which were then subsequently handcrafted in our factory by our skilled team. Programmed in CAD and using the latest CAM software, the Decorative backplate was manufactured using state of the art CNC machinery in our new 3000sq ft machine shop. The addition of our nightshift three years ago, ensures we have the capabilities to manufacturer not just the quality hardware you’d expect from Croft, but also the high quantities required for many of our bespoke projects.

Latest state of the art CNC machinery. Watch the video.

These beautiful backplates, created from flat bar, pictured.

Hand finishing, polishing and assembly.

Our manufacturing processes include modern methods

and state of the art machinery, however Croft

understand that our skilled and experienced factory

workforce remain the vital ingredient for our projects.

Our carefully planned schedule allowed for additional

time and resource for the polishing and finishes stages,

ensuring that the intricate pattern on the Decorative

backplate would receive additional care and attention

during.

Each item was hand finished, polished, cleaned,

assembled and then quality checked, before leaving the

factory.

We have a long manufacturing history behind us and an

exciting future ahead.

Art Deco backplate with our own 7001 Lever and the decorative backplate and lever handle.

Our skilled craftsmen during the hand polishing and assembly stages.

We were pleased to deliver 100% of the order on schedule and we cannot wait to see the product in place at the Palace.

Client Testimonial “My brief was simple… or so it seemed, to specify and supply replacement handles as a full hardware package in polished unlacquered brass. The problem was we only had photographic evidence to work on and as the brassware had to be the best the UK could offer, I therefore chose Croft. Having worked extensively with Croft for over 20 years, I met with them to discuss the brief. Working with old images and to my delight a smoke charred original handle that had been found in the basement, we developed a plan. 1) To replicate as best as we could the original handles which had been made for the palace 2) To re-make the circa 1960’s “art deco” style handles. We couldn’t just make to the old pattern, we were to allow for modern locks and access control. I began by drawing the original handle, using the lock faceplate on an old photograph as the only “scale”.. Croft produced a superb auto-cad representation from my drawing, which we sent to the Architects for approval. We then met to discuss a physical 3D Print for me to take to Kuwait for the Emirs representatives to review. The subsequent meeting on site met with gasps of approval as we showed them what was to be produced. I worked closely with the Croft team, making several visits to see the handles in production, discussing any tweaks to the design and to decide upon finishes. The result is stunning to say the least! The Project hardware value was worth in excess of £150,000. Turentek supplied all the Museum spaces. The 30 sets of special “Al Salam Handles” that rose from the ashes of the palace from the grainy old photograph to stunning pieces of Architectural hardware are testimony to the staff of Croft. A big thank you to all the staff at Croft and the in particular the projects team; for making this one of the most interesting projects in my 35 years in Architectural Ironmongery.” Neil Aspinshaw Dip GAI. Director