Renishaw Hosts Royal Visitor For Double Celebration

Demonstration of REVO Measuring an Aero-Engine ComponentHis Royal Highness also made a special 40th anniversary presentation to its co-founders Sir David McMurtry and John Deer. During his visit Prince Edward received demonstrations of Renishaw’s advanced engineering technologies, saw progress on a new 145,000 sq ft building, met some of Renishaw’s 111 apprentices, and was also presented with a very special 3D printed titanium gift.

His Royal Highness presented the company with a Queen’s Award for Enterprise 2013 in the Innovations category for its revolutionary REVO® five-axis multi-sensor probing system. The system is used on co-ordinate measuring machines (CMMs) to significantly improve accuracy and throughput when inspecting complex parts including aero-engine blades, automotive cylinder blocks and many types of gears.

Ahead of the formal presentation HRH The Earl of Wessex was welcomed to Renishaw’s New Mills headquarters site in Gloucestershire by Sir David McMurtry, Chairman and Chief Executive, and John Deer, Deputy Chairman, who formed the company in April 1973. His Royal Highness was given a short tour of the company’s product demonstration area by Sir David and the company’s Assistant Chief Executive Ben Taylor, where he was shown one of the first ever touch trigger probes for CMMs, manufactured in John Deer’s house in Chepstow, Wales, where the company was first registered.

The Earl of Wessex was also shown active demonstrations of REVO rapidly measuring complex components for aero-engines, highlighting the system’s unique ability to simultaneously control the motion of three machine and two head axes whilst collecting data from the machined part using its range of 2D, 3D and surface roughness measurement probes.

During the tour His Royal Highness was also shown Renishaw’s products for the dental industry, including replacement teeth structures made using a 3D printing process, probe systems for CNC machine tools, calibration products for monitoring machine positioning performance, position feedback encoders, and research developments for neurosurgical procedures.

Sir David also introduced The Earl of Wessex to five young employees who are currently training as apprentices, or have recently completed an apprenticeship with Renishaw. The company, which employed its first apprentice in 1979, currently has a record 111 apprentices in training, having recruited over 40 young people onto the scheme in 2013. His Royal Highness spent time discovering the structure of the scheme, plus the employees’ individual career aims and aspirations.

Last year Renishaw received planning permission for a 230,000 sq ft building, which will house new demonstration and training facilities, enable the relocation of the company’s Spectroscopy product line, and provide space for projected future growth in R&D resource and corporate support functions. The Earl of Wessex viewed progress on a first-phase development of 145,000 sq ft which commenced in May and which is scheduled for first occupancy during Spring 2014.

Sir David then led The Earl of Wessex to the company’s staff restaurant where they were joined by a large gathering of Renishaw employees representing the business division responsible for the development and manufacture of the REVO system, plus senior managers from across Renishaw’s fifteen UK operational sites.

After welcoming His Royal Highness and Dame Janet Trotter, Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Gloucestershire, Sir David paid tribute to many people across the Renishaw Group who had contributed to the success of REVO, describing it as “one of the most challenging projects that we have ever undertaken.” He also said that despite being launched eight years ago that “there is still nothing in the market today to match its exceptional technological innovation and performance.”

Dame Janet then announced the Queen’s Award and praised Renishaw as a business that “punches above its weight locally, nationally and internationally.” She described the company’s sixteen Queen’s Awards in its 40 year history as “an outstanding record” and also praised Sir David’s inspiring leadership. After reading the formal award citation Dame Janet then invited The Earl of Wessex to present the Award, in the form of a crystal bowl, to Dave Wallace, Director and General Manager of the CMM Products Division.

Responding on behalf of Renishaw, Ben Taylor thanked Dame Janet for her kind words and also The Earl of Wessex for honouring the company with his presence. He also reiterated Sir David’s comments stating that the award for REVO “reflects a great sustained team effort over many years” and that the product “is fast becoming the inspection system of choice for many of the world’s leading automotive and aerospace manufacturing companies.”

Mr Taylor then took the opportunity to focus on Renishaw’s 40th anniversary and the contribution of its co-founders: “When David McMurtry and John Deer formed Renishaw Electrical Limited on April 4th 1973, could they possibly have imagined that 40 years later they would still be leading a company that has developed into one of the UK’s most respected engineering businesses, and indeed a company that is recognised by manufacturers around the world for its innovative, high quality products?”

He also paid tribute to John Deer who he described as “the unsung hero in the Renishaw story”, highlighting John’s work in establishing the first overseas sales networks and his leadership of the company’s manufacturing function. It was however John’s focus on skills development that Mr Taylor described as being possibly his greatest contribution: “He initiated our highly regarded apprenticeship scheme in 1979 and then in the early 1980s also initiated our undergraduate development programmes. Over the years both have these provided us with large numbers of talented engineers, many of whom now occupy senior roles in the business.”

In summary Mr Taylor said of the co-founders, “We all feel extremely proud of what Sir David and John have achieved over the past 40 years. They are modest men that have created a highly successful global company whilst keeping to their founding principles, and that is something of which they should both feel very proud.”

After presenting the co-founders with special 3D printed metal commemorative plaques, The Earl of Wessex was himself presented with a special gift by Morgan Lloyd, a 17 year-old first year apprentice who lives close to Renishaw’s new facility in South Wales.

Introducing the gift Ben Taylor explained to His Royal Highness that Renishaw is the UK’s only manufacturer of an additive manufacturing (‘3D printing’) machine that prints metal parts. He said that in combining “the past with the present” the company had printed a titanium replica of Renishaw’s 1802 Mill building which was then mounted on a pine base made from wood cut from an original beam in the building. “We hope that the replica will remind you of our special day in Gloucestershire,” concluded Mr Taylor.

The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise are the UK’s most prestigious awards for business performance, which recognise and reward outstanding achievement by UK companies.