A UK provider of engineering solutions is celebrating a major birthday in style after announcing a £1m boost in sales and creating 11 new jobs.

Deritend Group, which looks after the repair and replacement of electric motors, pumps, gearboxes, electronic controls and induction equipment, is 121 years-old in 2019 and has marked the anniversary with a string of new contracts. Today, the company employs 110 people across four locations in the Black Country, Luton and Middlesbrough and, thanks to the clutch of recent wins, is on course to post £11m annual sales.
A fully equipped fabrication operation in Middlesbrough and a skilled team of engineers located strategically across the UK supports customers ranging from Severn Trent/Thames Water and JCB, to British Steel and Mondelez International, which owns Cadbury. Over £750,000 has been invested in new equipment, recruitment and upskilling its workforce over the past 12 months, with plans in place to relocate its Wolverhampton site to West Bromwich by the start of 2021.
For further information www.deritend.co.uk

The Materials Testing Team at the Bristol-based National Composites Centre (NCC) has recently completed a year-long trial of the Compcut 200 composite plate saw with positive results in terms of overall performance, usability, adaptability and technical precision.

Sharp & Tappin’s Compcut 200 is the latest and smallest model in the Compcut range of composite plate saws. The machine is proving popular with test centres and R&D teams, who recognise and value its compactness, technical performance and affordability.
The NCC was already making use of a large, bespoke Sharp & Tappin plate saw and had approached the company to explore options for a smaller, more flexible unit that could meet an increasing internal demand for speedy small sample cutting across a range of material types, while fulfilling a comprehensive set of technical and operational criteria.
Small batch sample cutting at NCC had previously involved manual cutting with inherent accuracy issues, and a time-consuming administration process to arrange the operation.
The results of installing the Compcut 200 have proved positive, with the machine meeting and exceeding the Testing Team’s expectations, citing success factors such as ease of use, a fully enclosed housing, speedy operational processing, and high precision and cut quality. NCC’s team is now able to react more swiftly to meet R&D and urgent testing requirements, and can increasingly offer quick turnaround sample cutting services to other teams within the organisation.
Ben Sharp, Sharp & Tappin managing director, says: “By the nature of their work, the team at the NCC had a very precise and specific set of criteria for establishing a more effective sample cutting operation, and the success of the Compcut 200 more than justifies our faith in this most effective compact composite plate saw.”
For further information www.sharpandtappin.com

LK Metrology, a British manufacturer and exporter of CMMs, has appointed Steve Shickell as sales and marketing director.

With nearly 30 years’ experience, Shickell started his career in the manufacturing industry, first with British Aerospace as a tool-room machinist, then at BAE Systems, Chester, as a metrology engineer, and afterwards at Airbus UK, Broughton, where he was tool-room team leader. Since then, Shickell has worked for many metrology equipment suppliers, delivering inspection solutions designed to increase productivity through quality control.
For further information www.lkmetrology.com

Sheffield Forgemasters has welcomed its latest intake of 15 apprentices, who are training for important positions across the business.

The latest recruitment of apprentices provides jobs across the company in roles ranging from machinists to associate project managers, as the company futureproofs the business with a younger workforce and new skills sets. This years’ intake will provide fully paid, four-year apprenticeships to the applicants, who were recruited from across South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire.
For further information www.sheffieldforgemasters.com

Composites and advanced materials company Bindatex has doubled its capacity by investing in a new slitting line.

The latest line will increase the company’s capacity to 30 tonnes per year, and create five new jobs in the process. Bindatex’s new line can cut UD, prepreg and composite materials to widths of just 3.175 mm. The Manchester-based business says it is the only firm of its type in the UK that can undertake slitting to widths as narrow as 1 mm. Narrow widths are said to pose a challenge for many composite cutting companies. Bindatex customers include thermoplastic and thermoset manufacturers
around the globe.
Managing director Chris Lever says: “We can meet orders of all sizes as our nimble operations can quickly change to address the varying needs of customers. Our close working relationship with clients builds trust and understanding of their business requirements, which we constantly strive to support.”
For further information https://bindatex.com/