10 | Aycliffe Today Business
TOMORROW’S
WORLD
MARTIN WALKER catches
up with a Newton Aycliffe
inventor who’s at the cutting
edge of innovation...
£100,000 was required to secure the necessary
certificates (he has them laminated, just for
safe keeping) from authorities all over Europe,
in the US and even Japan, to prohibit anyone
from mimicking his gizmo - an outlay which has
already covered its costs.
Deep in the corridors of one of the UK’s best
science centres, former Tallents Apprentice
Andy Turner spends his time thinking of
Tomorrow’s World.
German-based multi-national engineering firm
Abicor Binzel was quick to latch on and are now
producing them around the world, with Andy
getting a well-negotiated commission for every
one sold while sat in his NETPark office working
on the next big ideas.
The 43-year-old, who’s lived in Aycliffe all his life,
left Gestamp Tallent six years ago to nurture a
“back of a beer mat” idea that would go on to
earn him handsome royalties.
Now the aspiring inventor shares regular
discussions with Ebac founder John Elliott, who
is a sounding board, sharing his entrepreneurial
expertise to help him along the way.
Andy spent four years developing an invention
- initially made up from two laser pens bought
from eBay for £3.20 - which would enable
robotic welders to weld steel at the exact
distance required to do the perfect job without
error.
As with all good inventions, it sounds so simple.
What wasn’t simple, however, was the
protracted process to patent and licence
his product. A total investment of around
NETPark (North East Technology Park) is
Business Durham’s hub