
THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW
Highlighting best practice
36 | BKW INSTRUMENTS
a loyal customer base, one that knows
they can rely on our support, however
challenging their requirements may be.
Research and development
Four years ago, our business contact
at Salford city council introduced us
to two gentlemen from HMRC. They
explained the R&D corporation tax
relief available to us. This meeting
substantially changed our approach
and investment into further research.
As a result, we have rapidly expanded
our scientific and technological
product development, and, last year,
opened a new engineering innovation
department. In 2018, we recruited a
further two mechanical engineering
graduates to supplement the
existingteam.
In one example of the team’s work,
we utilised our expertise in the
containment of hazardous chemicals
alongside our expertise in working
with tunnel drilling machines. With this
combination of experience, we were
then able to produce a new solution
for subsea pressure measurement
for oil exploration and drilling. The
new product was highly reliable
and provided the kind of critical
environmental containment that is
essential in today’s oil exploration
sector. We are currently working on
other subsea applications and projects
that will function at depths of up to
3,000 metres.
Not all the teams’ projects are quite as
high profile, but, nonetheless, they do
consistently perform to client needs.
We often only have days to solve a
customer’s technical problem, design
a solution and then manufacture the
finished product in our factory. This
R&D initiative is a great example of
co-operation between government
and industry. It has helped to secure
our status as a successful and dynamic
home-grown engineering business.
QuickBuild
There are many companies throughout
the EU that can supply instrumentation
products off the shelf to their
customers. Generally, however, where
they all fall short is possessing the
ability to quickly tailor a product to
an application, or solve a challenging
measurement problem in a timely
manner. It is in most cases typical to
wait at least three to five weeks for
an appropriately engineered solution.
At BKW, we have been working to
produce a new trading platform called
QuickBuild that can reduce the design,
manufacture, calibration and supply
time from three to five weeks to just a
few days.
Machining special
solutions quickly
New production equipment
for QuickBuild
BKW’s
expertise and
resources
mean we can
say ‘yes’ to
solving even
the most
challenging of
applications
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