Custom solutions keep on growing
An
EMS product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Jun 21, 2002
When EMS bought a small company in Poole, Dorset, it never anticipated such growth.
In the mid 1980s, Electro Mechanical Systems, now based in Aldermaston, set up business to supply small drives involving small motor and linear actuators to UK OEM companies.
As the 1980s drew to a close, it became more and more apparent that acting as an agent for well known European companies such as Faulhaber and Magnetic was not going to safeguard company viability into the 1990s and beyond.
As a result EMS directors resolved to see how they could add value to the products they sold as UK agents.
Already operating in niche markets, it was decided that adding custom components or even designing complete custom packages was the way forward.
Rather than start from scratch, it was decided to find a small engineering company with the skills to make the products envisaged, but also with on going business to self finance the operation until its own products could stand on their own.
The search ended with Herbert Lilley Instruments in 1990, manufacturer of remote handling hand tools for the nuclear fuel reprocessing industry, which EMS purchased to become EMS's Poole based manufacturing division.
Since then, the EMS board have invested heavily in new machinery at the Poole facility and have extended the number of factory units from one to five.
These units are all adjacent to each other and have taken the gross floor area from 250 to 1180m2.
At the same time, EMS refurbished the original unit and refurbished each additional unit as it was acquired, adopting the same high standard for its buildings as those at its Swiss based principals.
Staff numbered just seven in 1990; today there are 27, and six of the original seven are still employed.
This is thanks to greatly improved working conditions and employment packages, which are seen as necessary to attract and keep the people with the required engineering skills to meet the needs of EMS's customers.
The investment has seen the Poole manufacturing facility become an important part of the EMS marketing strategy.
Where originally it was primarily a remote handling operation, the Poole facility is now a custom design, bespoke manufacturing unit supplying to a broad range of industries from medical to leisure.
The company is now able to offer important value-added services to customers, no matter how simple or complex their application, with a well equipped CAD department, machine shop, gear cutting department, and assembly shop.
The ability to be very flexible has resulted in a rapid increase in the company's customer base and turnover.
Jeff Mead and his codirectors are keen to promote the flexibility of Poole as a resource for customers to draw on.
This is aimed at saving costs and attaining the products the customers want and not just having to accept what is available in a catalogue.
EMS know the value of their investment in people and machinery and are on hand to offer advice and technical assistance on any project from simple low volume specialist applications to annual volume demand.
Not what you're looking for? Search the site.
Contact EMS
Tel +44 118 9817 391
Other EMS stories
-
EMS distributes expanded Faulhaber encoder line
Faulhaber has expanded its encoder product line with the addition of its PA2-50 and PA2-100, distributed in the UK and Ireland by EMS. -
Micro stepper motors bring pictures into focus
Electro Mechanical Systems has supplied Precistep micro-stepper motors to Life Optics to allow it to develop a compact, reliable and light-weight head-mounted microscope. -
Viscotec devises drive solution for dosage units
Viscotec Pumpen and Faulhaber have devised a drive solution for dosage units on a system that comprises a fast DC drive and high-precision piezo rotary drive, mounted on a common spindle. -
EMS expands manufacturing facility
Electro Mechanical Systems (EMS) continues to develop and evolve the manufacturing arm of its business. -
Piezomotor releases ant-sized walking machine
Piezomotor's Piezo Legs one-piece walking machine is about the size of an ant but almost 1,000 times stronger.
Browse by category
-
Capital Equipment (3,533)
- Capital Equipment (1)
- Compressors and Air Treatment (546)
- Electrical hardware (131)
- Electronics Manufacturing, Tools, Instruments (192)
- Machinery and Production Equipment (1,133)
- Manufacturing Machinery and Plant Equipment (478)
- Production line blowers and fans (74)
- Robotics, Handling and Storage (978)
- Consultancy and Services (927)
-
Control and Instrumentation (5,142)
- Cabling, Conduit, Signal Conditioning (818)
- CNC and Motion Controllers (190)
- Control and Instrumentation (3)
- HMIs/Operator Interfaces (297)
- Logic Controllers, Timers and Relays (96)
- Mid-range and Large PLCs (204)
- Plant- and Machine-Wide Communications (1,210)
- Plantwide control (1,354)
- Power Supplies, Uninterruptible Power (577)
- Smaller-Sized PLCs (393)
-
Drives, Motors and Controls (3,450)
- Drives, Motors and Controls (2)
- Industrial Drives/Controls (1,293)
- Industrial Motors (502)
- Linear Drives and Motors (121)
- Precision Motors and Gears (434)
- Stepper and Servo Drives, Motors, Controls (1,096)
-
Electrical and Electronic Equipment Design (4,327)
- Batteries, chargers and circuit protection (588)
- Connectors, Terminals, Busbars, Slip Rings (724)
- Electrical and Electronic Components (652)
- Electrical and Electronic Equipment Design (4)
- Electrical and Electronic Subassemblies (377)
- Enclosures and Equipment Cooling Fans (722)
- Knobs, Handles and Enclosure Hardware (430)
- PCs and Embedded Systems (830)
-
Engineering Design Software (6,388)
- 2D CAD software (203)
- 3D CAD software (1,199)
- CAM, CNC, production management software (583)
- Data, document management software (324)
- Electrical design software (168)
- Engineering Design Software (17)
- FEA and structural analysis software (377)
- File conversion software, data capture (358)
- Fluid, thermal, noise, vibration software (340)
- Materials design and moulding design software (153)
- Maths, charting, statistics, QA software (325)
- PLM and collaboration software (665)
- Process, instrumentation, automation software (269)
- Publishing and documentation software (234)
- Rendering, visualisation, styling software (208)
- Simulation, modelling, validation software (965)
-
Engineering Industry News, Resources (6,199)
- Electronic Resources for Engineers (273)
- Engineering Business News, Views (388)
- Engineering Conferences (438)
- Engineering Education, Resources, Standards (851)
- Engineering Exhibitions, Events (578)
- Engineering Guides, Newsletters (354)
- Engineering Industry Developments, Awards (635)
- Engineering Industry News, Resources (4)
- Engineering Industry Reports, Surveys (597)
- Engineering Recruitment, Employment (219)
- Engineering Seminars (421)
- Engineering Training Courses (458)
- Health and Safety Consultancy, Software (180)
- Health and Safety Events, Training, News (285)
- Health and Safety Legislation (403)
- Health and Safety Strategy, Risk Assessment (115)
- Machine Building (4,633)
-
Materials and Processing (3,041)
- Materials and components (2,272)
- Materials and Processing (5)
- Materials processing and testing (292)
- Rapid Prototyping (472)
-
Monitoring, Measurement and Quality (5,681)
- Data Acquisition Hardware and PC I/O Boards (491)
- Data acquisition Software and Communications (505)
- Data loggers (428)
- Electrical and Electronic Testing, PAT Equipment (645)
- Form/co-ordinate, optical, vision instruments (766)
- Gauges, Indicators and Instruments (449)
- Materials testing equipment (439)
- Monitoring, Measurement and Quality (1)
- Telecomms/network test equipment, software etc (159)
- Testing and Calibration Services and Information (522)
- Testing, analysing and monitoring equipment (1,276)
-
Powertrain Design (3,723)
- Bearings (986)
- Chains and belts (334)
- Gears, brakes, couplings and engines (1,482)
- Hydraulic Components (475)
- Lubricants (441)
- Powertrain Design (4)
-
Sensors (7,319)
- Accelerometers and Vibration Sensors (450)
- Barcode Sensors (103)
- Flowmeters and Flow Sensors (650)
- Gas, Chemical, Radiation, Magnetic Sensors (294)
- Humidity and Environmental Sensors (158)
- Level Sensors and Leak Detectors (539)
- Linear Position Sensors (417)
- Loadcells, Force Sensors, Torque Sensors (732)
- Pressure sensors (643)
- Proximity Sensors (715)
- Rotary Position, Tilt and Angular Sensors (565)
- Sensors (12)
- Temperature sensors (624)
- Vision and Colour Sensors (1,417)
- Small Mechanical Components, Joining, Tools (2,057)
- Valves, Pumps, Process Hardware (3,732)
