Movetech UK are proud to announce they are new and the first formal sponsors of Zac's, a local independent Charity, which aims to offer care and support to young people.

Zac's doesn't just offer care and support to young people it also provides a meeting place free from alcohol and other harmful influences. Whilst providing an attractive and credible venue for young people to meet and enjoyable activities for them, Zac's strive to do much more and to have an impact on behaviour, attitude, aspiration, confidence, self esteem and so on.

Tim Entwistle, Movetech UK Managing Director said: "As a local business we are always looking for ways to help and support local groups and charities and when we heard about Zac's, we didn't think twice about helping. We made a generous donation to help fund the mammoth amount of work that goes into the group, knowing that we would be part of supporting young people made it all the more commendable. Once I got to know more about Zac's Youth Bar I was quite amazed and overwhelmed with the amount of effort the volunteers offer on a daily basis, I decided to make a second charitable donation."

Stuart Barnes, CEO at Zac's Youth Bar was overjoyed with the generosity and added: "Over the last three years the number of young people we work with has doubled at the same time as income has decreased. Even though we are busier and busier we still strive to take an interest in each young person as an individual and have been delighted to see so many developing and achieving. Movetech UK's support therefore, makes a huge difference to us as we continue to support young people and in particular as we look ahead to new opportunities and new challenges in 2015 when we hope to make an even bigger difference to those we work with, particularly around enhancing their employability."

Movetech UK will continue to help and support Zac's for the foreseeable future and we wish them every success.

If you could support Zac’s in anyway please contact Karen Openshaw, Head of Development and Partnerships on karen.openshaw@zacsyouthbar.co.uk or on 07748454329.

• Zac's official website
• Movetech UK's official website

Although Ritherdon have been established since 1895, they are constantly looking at ways to understand the industry and improve on the products that Ritherdon manufacture. 

In conjunction with Manchester University, though a scheme known as Knowledge Transfer Partnership, Ritherdon have a university graduate starting at the end of February 2015.

Naveed will be looking at the Ritherdon range of products by using suitable modelling software and will be examining the behaviour of each and every product, this will include items such as strength and stiffness under the various loading conditions.

Ritherdon will also be having the product range CE marked to the appropriate standard.

Over the last couple of years, Ritherdon have listened to their customers and produced products that are needed within the industry.  For the highways industry there is the Passively Safe Cabinet which shears off upon impact with all electrical cables being isolated.  The second range of products are fire rated products which provide >60 minutes fire protection.

Should you wish to learn more about any of the schemes or products, please click here to visit their website. 

Rapidly growing plastic injection moulding specialists MGS Technical Plastics has promoted Neil Garrity to its board after he played a key role in the company's expansion.

Garrity was appointed in 2010 and was the major driving force behind the company's £2m relocation from Bolton to a 17,000sq ft site in Blackburn. The project included successfully moving 23 machines ranging in clamp force from 22 to 800 tonnes with less than 48 hours of downtime.

Prior to his recruitment by MGS, he spent two decades in the automotive industry, specialising in injection moulding for both internal and external car parts.

On his promotion, Garrity said: "I like a challenge and moving premises whilst keeping production going was probably one of my biggest and most rewarding.

"I'm really pleased to be offered a role as director. I will still be involved in manufacturing on a day-to-day basis but this will open up plenty of new opportunities for me, so there will be more challenges to come!"

MGS director John Sturgess said: "We are thrilled to have Neil join our board. He was instrumental in the success of our company's biggest period of growth and investment.

"2015 has already seen an increase in orders, as well as new products in the pipeline and a number of projects which will come to fruition throughout the year. We are looking to keep our crown as the fastest growing business in this industry, and having Neil on board will help ensure we do."

About MGS Technical Plastics

MGS Technical Plastics is a leading UK manufacturer of plastic injection mouldings, supplying a wide range of customers in a wide range of markets including medical, hygiene, security, safety, and electronics. To visit their website click here.

Solids handling specialist, Ajax Equipment, has produced a custom built mobile and adjustable screw feeder for confectionery processing machine supplier AMP Rose. The screw feeder will allow the insertion of sherbet powders in confectionery products, as part of a continuous production process.

The Ajax stainless steel feeder includes an extended circular casing and flighted screw, hopper and paddle agitator. The small diameter screw features enhanced screw geometry, to produce a constant and consistent flow from the hopper. By designing the hopper agitator to provide effective sweep over the screw, constant flow is assured.

Using test results with icing sugar and expertise from previous orders Ajax developed the specifications to provide the performance required. “Ajax’s detailed approach to solids handling equipment design ensured the screw feeder produced was highly tailored to the requirements of the process and material.” said Andrew Mann, sales director, AMP Rose.   

The advantages of Ajax’s screw feeder include maintaining the product’s ‘live’ condition through agitation, good stable feed rate capability, a self-adjusting casing position to centre the filling process and a mobile support stand for flexibility in operation of the production line.

For more information on Ajax Equipment screw feeders click here.

From the 500 entries they received, the GREAT Faces of British Business competition have announced the 32 regional finalists from across the UK. The categories are: Best Exporter, Most Innovative Small Business and Best Growth Story.

Bolton Manufacturer, Bindatex, have been nominated under the Best Growth Story category. In the last ten years, Bindatex has grown from a one man band supplying low value bookbinding materials, to winning an order to provide a technical cutting service for use in the world’s largest experimental nuclear fusion reactor currently being built in the South of France. With the advent of technology and e-readers threatening the printing and bookbinding industry, Bindatex started to offer a sub-contracting cutting service to many different industries. The company is now working on a number of aerospace projects including one with a large European helicopter manufacturer and has also begun its journey into providing cutting services for the rapidly growing mass production of lightweight carbon fibre automotive parts industry. Bindatex has just embarked on exporting its services to mainland Europe and it is an exciting time with many future opportunities for the company and all of its employees.

To register your vote visit http://www.greatbusinesscompetition.com/ Voting will close on 23 February and the national winners will be announced on 3 March. 

At ITL, it’s never been their philosophy to simply ‘keep up’ with changing manufacturing technology. And they weren’t voted Kent’s Best Manufacturing Business of the Year 2014 because they have a factory that is just ‘good enough’.

Their customers choose ITL because they need a manufacturing partner that aims to proactively and continuously improve processes to ensure that they get top quality products time and time again.

That’s why ITL have launched a £10,000 investment programme to audit and, where necessary, improve Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) protection within their manufacturing facilities.

These improvements will further increase the reliability and shelf life of both components and finished products that are manufactured at ITL

What is Electrostatic Discharge (ESD)?

Electrostatic Discharge (also known as Triboelectric Discharge if you want to impress your friends) is the sudden transfer of electricity from one object to another.

The smallest amount that can be felt by a human (when you touch something and feel an electric shock) is around 2000 volts, but sensitive electronic components can be damaged by as little as 20 volts of static electricity.

ESD can cause latent problems that may not become apparent until the device is in the field - and when it comes to medical devices failure is not an option. 

Improvements to ESD protection

Starting with one pilot work-cell, ITL have begun upgrading each work area within the manufacturing facility to become a designated controlled Electrostatic Protective Area (EPA).

This will involve:

• A company-wide retraining programme
• Consultation and independent auditing from Teknis, an experienced ESD training provider
• Replacement antistatic jackets for all employees and installing more earthed wrist strap testers throughout the factory
• Continuous review and consequent updates to assembly, testing and packaging procedures to systematically reduce handling of electronic components
• Purchasing a new electrostatic field meter to test levels of ESD
• Use of ESD protective coatings for floors throughout the factory
• Further signage and barriers in EPA’s          
• Additional antistatic packaging for transportation of sensitive components throughout the manufacturing facility

With these protocols in place, ITL will take its ESD measures to the next level of protection- as befits a proactive company working to provide best industry practice to its customers.

RBS and NatWest have responded to the needs of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that supply the UK automotive industry, becoming the first banks to offer a new £25m funding proposition.

The launch of the tooling finance proposition, the first of its kind, comes in response to an urgent request for funding assistance by the UK Automotive Council, a body which represents the industry. The Council claims the UK risks losing valuable orders and opportunities for job creation if the need for funding is not met.

Tooling is the process of equipping a factory with machinery and tools for a particular manufacturing process. The cost of tooling can range from £30,000 to over £1m for an 18 to 36 month period. Suppliers to the vehicle industry, often SMEs, have difficulty funding this through existing finance solutions, a gap the innovative new proposition aims to fill.

Richard Hill, Head of Automotive, Commercial & Private Banking said:

“When a supplier receives the good news that they have won a contract, invariably they are given a requirement to fund making the tooling. This can be restrictive as sometimes they don’t have the working capital to fund it as well as other requirements.

“Automotives are one of the UK’s biggest export industries and therefore this sector is extremely important to the UK economy. The launch of specific Tooling Finance funding from RBS is a great example of what can result from the unique partnership between industry, RBS and the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills. In this instance the bank has come up with a solution to help the UK's pressurised supply chain and, in turn, the UK economy.”

Around 82,000 people work in the 2,350 UK companies which regard themselves as automotive suppliers, making it an important industry for the UK economy, especially when it come to exports. It is also a growing industry, with UK vehicle production expected to increase from 1.5m to 2.2m units by 2016.

The proposition is being launched this week to national and trade press and key industry stakeholders.

Ashford, Kent, 30th June 2014- Ashford based Integrated Technologies Ltd (ITL) is thrilled to announce that we have won two Kent Excellence in Business Awards (KEiBA).

ITL is a product development, product design and manufacturing company who predominantly develop and manufacture products used to treat, diagnose and test patients.

Since 1977 ITL have worked with hundreds of clients ranging from start-ups to established blue-chip companies in areas including; Cancer diagnostics and treatment, gas delivery systems for premature babies, electro-mechanical prosthetic limbs, DNA sequencing, food safety testing and many more.

The first nomination of the night was for Manufacturing Business of the Year- a brand new award category introduced for the first time in 2014.

The judges commended ITL’s investment in continuous improvement and quality management and were astounded by the range of life-saving medical, analytical and diagnostic devices that we manufacture.

The second nomination was for Best Science and Technology Business.

The judges from The University of Kent and Cripps Law were keen to highlight not only ITL’s excellence in Science and Technology but also the friendly, family feel of ‘a gem of a company’.

According to Pete Kenyon, Partner at Cripps Law:

“Together with the University of Kent I was delighted to award Integrated Technologies Ltd the KEiBA this year for best Science and/or Technology business. For me this is what the KEiBA’s are all about, finding businesses in Kent who merit the coveted description “excellent”.

Pete Added:

“Integrated Technologies Ltd shone throughout the judging process. The quality of their processes and the sophistication of their equipment is first class and the enthusiasm and passion of their management and staff, from the time I entered the building to the acceptance of the award, was exemplary. They are a credit to Kent business and a lesson to us all in how to succeed. I have no doubt they have a very important role to play in the future of the technology sector in Kent”

This is the first year that Integrated Technologies have entered the KEiBA awards and they were the only company to win two awards on the night.

Tom Cole, CEO at ITL said:

“This year has been extremely successful for ITL and we have a unique set of skills in R&D and Manufacturing that makes us a World Class Company. We have a long standing association with International Business but to win two KEIBA awards for both Manufacturing and Science/Technology is icing on the cake.

“This announcement comes at the same time as winning a significant R&D project for a new Medical Device in the treatment of prostate cancer.

Best of all, winning contracts and KEIBA awards helps secure the long term future of our business and staff.”

ITL would like to congratulate all of the other finalists and winners who together with the rest of Kent’s organisations are helping to make Kent an excellent place to do business. 

A bookbinding supplier is moving into other sectors after gaining a £1m deal with an aircraft manufacturer.

Chris, a committed member of the Bolton Manufacturers Group and founder of Bindatex, began working with the Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) in 2010, when the business was turning over less than £60, 000 a year. Specialising in buying-in, precision cutting and supplying foil, fabric and paper to book binders, the company realised it could use the same technology to replace metal items in aeroplanes.

With the help from MAS, Chris managed to secure a grant of £11, 000 from the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) to conduct a market feasibility study. Following the success of this study, Bindatex secured a contract worth £1m to work with a global manufacturer and European aircraft manufacturer, making components for the ground breaking ITER project, an international nuclear fusion research and engineering project.

As a result Bindatex have employed three more members of staff, invested in new machinery and is forecasting a boost in turnover by 500 per cent.

To read the full story and hear what Chris and MAS Advisor, Mark Sutherberry, had to say please follow the link: Manufacturer secures £1m after expanding into aerospace sector 

Movement technology specialist Movetech UK has underlined its commitment to advancing skilled engineers by recruiting another apprentice and putting its management team through leadership and management training.

New recruit Michael Smith, 22, had no formal engineering training before joining the Bolton company, though is a hands-on mechanic who has been engineering for years. He takes the total number of apprentices employed by Movetech UK to two.

At the same time, the company's senior management team has been undertaking leadership and management training through the government-backed Growth Accelerator programme, which aims to help high growth businesses reach their potential

"This is an exciting period for the company and we are going to need a fully-equipped team to fulfil our growth plans," said operations manager Russell Entwistle, who is currently part of an additional director development programme provided by Arrimar Ltd.

He added: "The advanced engineering apprenticeship is an ideal platform to train our turntable technicians because it give a formal structure and qualification whilst teaching the specifics of our unique equipment. Most projects we work on are bespoke, and we want to make sure our decades of expertise are passed down the generations.

"Getting an engineer in and expecting them to be able to understand how we work, and what service levels we expect, isn't easy. This way, our apprentices can get a broad knowledge of all aspects of engineering and a specific knowledge of our industry."

Movetech UK's other apprentice, Adam Gastall, joined in September 2010 and is working towards NVQ level 3 advanced engineering with Manchester's Skills Solutions.

Movetech UK has been providing movement solutions for more than half a century. The company produces equipment for a wide range of sectors such as major retailers, events and exhibition organisers, supermarket chains, leading industrial organisations, automotive manufacturers and distributors, TV and film companies, government agencies and test laboratories.