British manufacturer Oliver Valves has invested £700,000 in a new research and development facility at its headquarters in Knutsford, UK.
The 5,300 sq ft building is dedicated entirely to product development and improvement, with 10 R&D engineers permanently based at the facility.
It is equipped with a range of state-of-the-art, custom-built test rigs which simulate the conditions faced by valves once in situ and monitor their performance – a critical stage in developing valves, which must deliver 100 per cent reliability once in situ.
These include four environmental chambers, a fully automated cycle rig that can safely and accurately carry out level II Performance Verification Tests (PR2) without human intervention and a hyperbaric testing facility that simulates water depths of up to 12,000ft. A 10-tonne gantry crane has also been installed.
The move follows a year of record results for the company which saw sales grow to £65.5 million for the financial year ended 30 September 2012.
All three companies in the Oliver Valves group – Oliver Valves, Oliver Valvetek and Oliver Twinsafe – are served by the new facility. Michael Oliver OBE DL, founder and chairman of Oliver Valves, said: “The rapid growth we have achieved to this point is thanks to the R&D investment, leading to new product introductions, that we have made in the past and the edge this has given us over our competitors internationally.
