We have decided to expand our already extensive ability to test thermocouple cables in our dedicated lab with the addition of test equipment from Isotech capable of reaching minus 196 degrees C.  We will be using liquid nitrogen as the test media with a dedicated Semi Standard probe as the reference.  This means we can now test thermocouples from minus 196 degrees C to plus 1200 degrees C, offering our clients one of the most comprehensively tested products any where in the world.

We are pleased to announce that OMA braiders won the bid to supply two new 16-carrier braiders for metal braiding. These machines will complement our existing metal braiders whilst adding new technology to the process and allowing higher throughputs than current equipment.

PVC, PFA and Glass Fibre cables were sent to be tested for fire resistance to IEC 60332-1-2 all types passed. SK now offers IEC60332-1-2 as standard on all cables and are deemed "fire retardant".

Introduction of our 3rd Bunching/Stranding line allowing more throughput and improved quality of larger cross-section stranded wires.

We are pleased to announce that Mark Burrill has joined us as our Business Development Manager. Mark has many years of experience within the thermocouple industry and has excellent product knowledge. Mark will assist the Managing Director in all aspects of the continuous development and improvement of the business. 

Although we didn't win the Queen's Award for Innovation this year we are pleased that our design was shortlisted. This by itself is quite an achievement and the feedback received was helpful and constructive.  Congratulations to all those that did win and we wish them every success in the future.

We have completed the build of our new test lab, which allows us to calibrate 4x as much material as our old lab, combined with the reduced uncertainty measurements and fully climate-controlled environment allows us to improve both delivery times and the quality of our products.

The SK Wiring Logo is now an officially registered trade mark of SK Wiring Products Ltd. The SK mark represents the quality of the product as well as the quality of service, backed by a high degree of product knowledge. If you see the SK mark then you can buy the product with confidence.

On the 2nd of January we will be welcoming Nathan Denman to the team, Nathan will assist the production team with all ancillary work required to improve the flow of goods through the factory. SK Wiring will be moving to 24-hour production through January and February, this will ensure that the delivery dates of our client's request are met. 

SK Wiring Products Evolution III braider has now entered production, with a marked speed increase over our Evolution II braider. The new machine design has achieved 5x the standard braider speed, which means we can do in a day, what used to take a week.

The Evolution II braiders, which run at 3.5x standard braider speed, will be upgraded to Evolution III status in the New Year. Our clever engineering team has also identified areas of the Evolution III braider that could be modified to increase the speed even further. Look out for further announcements next year as we start work on the 4th evolution of our braider design.

All the new test equipment is now here, the new test lab room has been ordered and we expect to be operational in our new lab early in the new year. Great news for all our customers. New information added to the website in the Technical Information section and the Products section.

We have been playing around with the boiling point of water, just for fun really and the results may surprise you follow the link or click on the Technical Information page. On the 14^th of October, we will be welcoming Will Robertson to the team; Will brings with him a host of experiences from different working environments and we are looking forward to his input in our workplace.

We have now started the project to increase our Thermocouple testing facility's capacity. As well as increasing the capacity of our test lab we are taking the opportunity to reduce our Uncertainty Measurements to provide calibrations of even higher accuracy than at present. Not only will we be buying new state-of-the-art calibration equipment, but we will be building a new test lab with ambient temperature control to within one degree and control of the humidity within the test room.

The facility will also be screened for electromagnetic interference to prevent any possible contamination of the test result. As we will be using dry block calibrators we have no need for a pressure-controlled environment at this moment in time, but the lab will be built with this future upgrade in mind.

John Pickles has decided that it’s time to move on for a new challenge in life; I’m sure you will join us in wishing him well in his future career. 

We have finally completed our Queens Award for Innovation application. Applications for this year had to be submitted by the 30^th September. Thank you to all our stakeholders for the encouragement to stand above the crowd, and their belief that our application will be of merit. Our drive to constantly improve has on this occasion resulted in a braider design that could prove to be truly revolutionary.

4 years of research and development have led us to this moment and we are proud to be able to say that we can run braiders 3.5X faster than they were ever designed to run, with obvious benefits to our customer base. Fingers crossed that our achievement is worthy of this prestigious award.

On the 24^th September, we underwent the assessment for the Investors In People Award, and we are pleased to announce that we have been successful in achieving the standard.

We feel that this is a vindication of our efforts to create a strong team that strives for continuous improvement in everything that we do. Continuous improvement within a manufacturing environment is not simply about buying or designing new and better equipment, but about all aspects of the business, including the management function.

Some of the comments from the assessor were very positive: "the staff team is stable and loyal and individual staff show a great deal of pride and enjoyment in working for the company", "when staff need to operate specific machinery they are likely to be trained up by more experienced operators; This approach is effective in making sure staff are competent and confident in their roles". Other staff comments included "It feels like there is no such thing as a stupid question here" and "I don’t feel like the odd one out for wanting to do a good job".

The report also highlighted some areas that we need to work on and everyone at SK is committed to making those improvements.