An engineering company in Nottingham is bucking the trend of declining British manufacturing by expanding its operation in designing and building custom-manufactured automation systems.
An engineering company in Nottingham is bucking the trend of declining British manufacturing by expanding its operation. industrial automation has recently moved to new premises to facilitate its continued growth. IAL has moved to a larger 26,000ft2 factory, still within Nottingham.

The business has grown by providing companies around the world with custom-manufactured automation systems.

In essence, innovative engineers within the company specialise in solving production-line problems for manufacturers and producers.

The decision to stay within Nottingham was largely a fore-gone conclusion, due to the skill and expertise of the existing staff - built up since the company’s start.

One of the main reasons that is often cited for the decline in British manufacturing is industry’s inability to compete with overseas competition, where labour costs are much lower.

IAL’s solutions can bring considerable labour savings - improving productivity.

Many applications relate to precision placing, often to within fractions of a millimetre, where human handling would be unreliable and impractical.

Some recent examples include an orange peeling line machine and an upside-down palletiser, the only one of its kind in the world.

The company has also recently signed a deal to become the sole UK distributor of Denso robots - state of the art equipment capable of accurately putting a pin in place to a fraction of a millimetre, up to 40 times a minute.

Managing Director, Doctor Martyn Paradise said, ‘With unfavourable exchange rates and stiff overseas competition, UK industry needs to grasp every advantage it can.

IT and automated systems can help lower production costs, improve productivity and reduce reject rates.

Our systems can help enhance the human operatives’ abilities, freeing them to do other tasks.’