KWSP, the high performance engineering business, has seen its revenues increase by more than 60% in 2015/16, building on a similar level of growth in the previous financial period. The firm’s accelerated growth confirms the demand within UK industry for a more ‘disruptive’ approach to engineering, along with a growing appreciation of the benefits of horizontal innovation. Both of these trends exploit emerging technologies to reduce cost and time within the manufacturing process.
Having taken on five new full-time engineers in the past twelve months, the company – which provides a range of cutting-edge manufacturing solutions to customers across the world – is confident about its continued success. Located next to Mercedes Petronas F1’s facility in Brackley, Northamptonshire, KWSP has a strong track record working in a range of sectors including motorsport, industrial inkjet and high performance sport. Historic and classic cars is another niche market where the business has seen significant growth over the past year.
Kieron Salter, managing director of KWSP, said: “We are leading the way in the widespread adoption of some exciting emerging technologies – shifting people’s perceptions of digital manufacturing, machine building and techniques such as 3D printing. People need to stop thinking about additive manufacturing (AM) as some kind of separate super technology, and to start thinking about it as a part of digital manufacturing, which starts with CAD.
“CAD data is a hugely under-rated digital asset. This is where engineers should focus investment as there is so much more that can be achieved with CAD data. AM is just one of a number of opportunities engineers can extract from rich data, such as portability, transferability, tooling, graphics rendering and local manufacturing. The clever bit is still in the people, engineering and design; the machine simply delivers the end product.”
Looking ahead to 2016/17, KWSP sees a bright future in the use of digital manufacturing and its ability to solve the challenges of product obsolescence, low volume manufacturing, mass customization and portability across a wide range of industries. As a result, it also predicts strong growth for its engineering consultancy services, particularly in the area of machine building and process automation. In terms of its AM capability, KWSP has invested over £350,000 in FDM Stratasys machines, scanning equipment and infrastructure.
Salter added: “Being in the heart of Motorsport Valley, we are privileged to work with some of the finest names in global motorsport. That spirit of innovation, speed and teamwork are part of our culture, which informs everything we do. Certainly, our strategy of horizontal innovation has enabled us transfer knowledge from one industry to another – and we see huge potential growth in this area.”
