Money-saving experts - Garry Lofthouse ( centre ) with fellow Applied Integration directors Graham King ( left ) and Lee Raywood .
TWIN
PEAKS
How Applied Integration saves companies millions by creating ‘ digital twins ’.
F rom top secret defence contracts to car production lines and airport scanners , Stokesley-based Applied Integration has been involved in some fascinating projects .
Founded in 2005 , the leading automation technology company has the potential to save businesses millions of pounds by simulating and testing machinery or production lines by producing a “ digital twin ” of the design using the latest software , before a penny has been spent on the actual build .
In 2020 , the Applied Integration team grew from 33 to 50 after it won a substantial project with BAE Systems .
Garry Lofthouse , director of Applied Integration and one of the original four co-founders , explains how the company has gone from working predominantly in the oil and gas sector to developing systems for defence .
The company also started up a new division in 2017 , Applied Scientific Technology , which focuses on smart manufacturing such as robotics and automated vehicles .
Garry says : “ As a team of four , we developed safety shutdown systems for oil rigs .
“ These are the equivalent of your airbag in your car , where 99.9 per cent of the time you don ’ t want it to activate , but when it needs to react it does .
“ If anything untoward happened on a rig , our system would kick in and shut the platform down in a safe manner to protect people .”
Over two to three years of working in this area , Applied Integration built a good reputation in the industry before being approached by a US defence giant to work on a large UK defence contract .
The American-based company , which has sites throughout the world , builds Stealth aircraft that can ’ t be detected .
Garry reveals : “ In 2007 , they asked if we could develop a project with them , but it was top secret .
“ Me and one of my fellow directors met the team in London and found out it was to build a platform management system for Astute-class submarines – the largest , most advanced and most powerful attack submarines ever operated by the Royal Navy .
“ We tendered for a project in collaboration with them and ended up winning .”
At that time , the company had five staff , but the contract win saw them
74 | Tees Business