The Factory That Makes Tube Roundels

Based on the Isle of Wight, A.J. have developed, manufactured and installed thousands of signs for TfL including most recently the roundels for the new Elizabeth Line.

They invited me to see how their vitreous enamel and screen printing process happen which enables them to make signs and roundels for the Tube, and the Paris Metro as well.

A.J Wells website : https://www.ajwells.com/our-story/

This is about the 10th time now that I’ve never been to the Ala white about the 10th time that I’ve never caught a train or this Ferry or got a lift to take me down the pier but this time to take me to a very specific place on the

Island that I’ve wanted to visit for a long time to AJ wells in Newport on the a of white the company that manufacture the enamel signs and the roundles for tfl that are used on the tube along with a whole host of other signage this is brilliant and this will culminate in a

Tour of me seeing the design process of signage and roundles I get to screen print for myself a sign that will be used on the DLR and there’s also this a room that’s like their Museum of roundles and signage that they’ve made over the years but we’ll see that later

But creating roundles and signage isn’t their primary business AJ worlds and sunlimited is England’s oldest wood burning stove manufacturer but as part of their engineering and Factory setup it means that they have the UK’s largest Victorious enameling plant which is dead handy for when it comes to making Metro

System signing so we’re going to go for a wander around the factory have a look at the process see how it happens I’ve also asked Mark enden he that knows everything about tube Maps cuz he’s a fellow tube nerd to uh come with me just cuz it’s an exciting place to

Be hi so I’m Cedric Wells um from AJ Wells and Sons and we are a manufacturing an engineering business we make various different products from wood burning stoves to outdoor kitchens and of course a lot of the signage for London Underground Paris Metro and other transport networks what happened is back

In the’ 70s my grandfather and my father and an uncle they set up a small business mending tractors mending cars bringing in whatever work they could there came along this idea of why don’t we make a small wood burning stove it then exploded from there they they took

I think a couple to a a local agricultural show and they got orders for 20 30 40 and it just snowballed and then slightly by chance we picked up the opportunity to make some signs for London Underground I can see some uh signage for Elizabeth line are there still are

There still things being something still being manufactured absolutely so we continuously make Elizabeth line signs as tfl takes over and uh uh runs the business uh that they operate um it’s a case that this area here specializes in the manufacturer bespoke items including the Elizabeth line and overground come

On in stop start and structural well what are you doing so what you’re looking at here is a Casey’s doing a qu Royal poster frame post he’s welding the bases um and they’ll be shipped out in around about a week’s time Greg I can see a rle shape down here what what’s

That doing so that’s the reverse of the rle that goes up on the wall it just basically is the back cover which gets screwed onto the back of the round uh we countless sunk screws on it and just stops the panels falling out how how’s that manufactured that is done on a

Laser machine which then comes down to us uh to clean it all up and put the counter syn holes in so that’s 3 mil aluminium lots of the underground stuff is made out of aluminium and lots of it is vit star because obviously the enamel

Has to fit on the vit stove now one of the processes on those wood burning stoves was enameling and we used to Vitus enamel the or enamel use it enamel surface because it’s so durable because it’s heat resistant and we used that process for many many years on the wood

Burning stoves the enals that we used to spray the panels are made up from different types of frit now frits basically Crush glass so these flakes are mixed them with oxides and various other uh pigments to give a desired shade of color but also added strength um and adhesion and eventually we

Thought um we really need to get our own enameling plant so we bought a furnace and um there the equipment that we needed to enamel the enamel consists of a mixture of the the frit that we’ve just seen but we we add pigments that give us the desired Shades and colors

That we’re after and also various oxides will give us um additional properties such as strength and thean so vitrus enamel is glass that is fused to Steel at over 800° C now the steel that we use for enamel it has to be low carbon steel because of because it’s it’s eventually

Going to go into a furnace at a very high temperature so um once it’s been washed we then Mill our own enamels which again is broken glass mixed with various oxides suspension agents such as clay and quartz it’s all relatively natural um and it’s water-based as well

We then spray that liquid we we Mill it up grind all the glass up um we spray it as a liquid onto the panel we then dry the panel so it’s a powder sitting on the surface of um the steel and then once the water is evaporated it then

Goes into the furnace um at about 800° C I for around about 8 n minutes and it comes out having with that that that heat will have fused the glass to the steel and that’s what gives you that lovely kind of glossy durable weatherproof finish how warm did you say

It’s uh 810 de I can feel yeah on the Winter’s day you don’t get chilly in here no you know what the guys love it in the winter in the Summer where the usual summer maybe not today it’s uh it’s red I can feel that on the back of

My neck and we’re quite yeah wow factory tour complete we head for the design offices but Mark spots around all along the way look at this this is brilliant they have reproduced this perfectly from Edward Johnson’s own proportions you can see there that the Gap over the r is

Different to the Gap over the O so that is just done with absolute perfection I’ve never seen one done that well before that’s beautiful I’m the um I’m the artworker and I do uh I basically design tfl signs uh take artwork that’s been sent to us and process it uh for output and

Everything uh we’ve I’ve got examples here of cross Rail and uh Northern line extension and it’s it’s my job to basically make sure the standards are followed and we obviously go through strict appro approval processes with tfl and once approved everything gets output in here and goes to the screen room for

Print set so this is a firal image set so it actually burns the image onto the film the film is lined with silver so it’s it conducts the Heat and gives you really high quality print um and there’s no chemicals there’s no print inks or anything so it’s very sustainable as

Well in that respect oh this is for Monument not Bank no this is a yeah it’s part of the bank contract and why are there some bits missing there that’s for screen printing there is going to be black black El’s caught in Orange what’s going on here that was a that was a

That’s not a thing that was the thing when the overground was first launched and it was just a test print it’s it’s a test print of make it orange to see how it would come out you made the district line orange if it requires Graphics we then

Use a similar process of screen printing ceramic glass inks onto the surface and then again that is fired fuses to the metal and you get that’s why you get the vibrancy of of an anel that is never going to fade it’s very easy to clean um

Very easy to maintain time to try my hand at a bit of screen printing on a real sign that will be used in an actual station well I’m just over printing these panels what what we do is first coat goes down but where the where the

Line bands go around the edges we get a color diation so what we do is over print them to bring the color so it’s even color all the way around so I’m just going to put this waterl and City Line Band put the ink in there what we do is flood

It and then give it a couple of TOS on the print again it’s it’s very very because it’s very durable and very weatherproof it’s used on a lot of buildings and Architects love the fact that it’s it’s so vibrant it’s got a finish it’s got a depth of color it’s

Got a A texture to it the other materials can’t really match so we’re definitely seeing a Revival in enamel and with Ian you’re going to get me to screen print an actual Live sign which will be used at bank station for where what this is I can see DLR here DLR main

Bar okay so you’ve dropped some little there some pick ailly blue in pick ailly blue yeah and what with this I do what I want you just to give it two like two pass one two over where it says DLR so like one bit harder wow oh no yes try it

It should be enough there we go should come out and we lift it up look at that but that’s just one that’s just one little bit on a sign which you’ll we’ll finish off build up you do it bit by bit by bit so that DLR logo is mine that’s

Yours yeah so wherever that in the future when I walk past that I’ll be like that one it’s not just underground there’s a little uh the Paris Metro too look at [Laughter] that can I have this no my friend Tim lives in Paris would love this on his

Bedroom wall no okay okay I it I should ask though all right we have just found that here on the aisle of white they’re making reproduction original ECT gar lettering right here in 2023 isn’t that Fantastic look how beautiful that is would you like me to take a picture of

You holding of your Instagram is that is that just don’t take a picture of me stealing it stealing it yeah yeah I do also ask Cedric does he have much inal signage at home it’s really interesting my wife doesn’t allow it unfortunately

But I um I mean it is funny I I would go up to London and I’ll go up with my wife and the kids and I’ll say like we did that we did that and they’re like Dad Dad shut up but it’s but I do absolutely

Love it I love it as a finish I I started in the business when I was 16 um as a screen printer which you’ve tried your hand out today day um I started there and and I instantly fell in love with it I then fell in love with the the

Whole particularly the style of the underground and the font and and the and the the graphics that are used throughout the throughout the tube and I went on to study graphic design actually I left the business for a bit and then came back um but it’s um but yeah so

It’s it’s in my blood it’s in my family’s blood um you know we’re we’re third generation family company now and then this is what I came for there’s a section uh here I would call it a platform area they call it a tunnel area uh we’ll let David uh lead the way and

Explain what they’ve uh set up in here we created this because we wanted to display our Wares to people uh other people may suggest that they do London Underground signs but we certainly do don’t you think so it’s amazing really over the years many people have been down here London

Underground employees uh tier one building contractors and it’s absolute Necessities show our Wares from the line diagrams to the Randal to the illuminated signs Elizabeth line signs Elizabeth line wayf finding signs even some Heritage signs they’re all in here this is the family of signs that is tfl

Uh we even do vinyl so uh we do the poppy appeal vinyls in November this is one that was left over from Paddington it’s a case we did the majority of stations for the Elizabeth line both um the way finding signs the randles but also those totems that you see

Throughout uh the Elizabeth line the majority of which were made by ourselves this is huge this is so this is a a track plate so you would sort of see this on the other side of the track so here on the floor we have our M the Gap

And across the other side of the track you have the track plate um you have the track side randles both the current and also the originals um illuminated faes um wave finding signs but and and lots more and Mark quite likes it too we are in an underground tunnel on the aisle of

White they’ve created this to show these beautiful things that they make here and it’s just so unexpected I live here you live on the island I had no idea you didn’t know this was here no and so now I can come here in homage to these beautiful signs created by this

Incredible company baked locally and exported to London I feel like I’ve home from home so my thanks to Cedric and David and everyone here at AJ worlds for showing us around thank you I’m in the slightly echoey tunnel platform room I don’t want to leave but they are going

To make us go so me and Mark are being escorted out the building making sure we haven’t taken any souvenirs as we leave thanks for watching Press subscribe see you soon