HIGH-tech firm Micro Metalsmiths has unveiled a £500,000 state-of-the-art machinery facility.

The company, which has factories in Kirkbymoorside and Pickering, manufactures a range of products, including components for radar and parts for print machines, trains, planes and bottling plants, for markets across Europe, the USA, Japan, Taiwan and India.

The company’s chairman and managing director, Christopher Shaw, said it had created a dedicated, centralised machining facility capable of both manned and unmanned machining operations.

Mr Shaw said: “The present day market place requires even higher degrees of accuracy than could normally be achieved by the company’s previous generation of machine tools, which operated at maximum spindle speeds of 10,000rpm.”

He said it impacted directly on Micro Metalsmiths’s two core business streams – the supply of precision metal components produced from in-house investment castings, and the design and manufacture of microwave components for the aerospace and telecoms markets.

“We have cut the times for making tooling down by between 50 per cent and 75 per cent.

“We have cut casting machining cycles by more than half and long-run machining for microwave components by two- thirds,” said Mr Shaw.

He said accuracy had greatly improved from eight to three hours for complex microwave components and further potential reductions were expected in the future.

The company invited civic and business leaders from the district to its open day at its Pickering plant last week.

Among the guests was Coun Keith Knaggs, leader of Ryedale District Council, who said: “Micro Metalsmiths is undoubtedly one of the leading companies in its field in the country.

“With 150 people, it is a major employer and is the kind of company which we are keen to encourage to set up in Ryedale. It is a company which has been able to reach a global market, established its own apprenticeship scheme, and research and development. It is a wonderful success story for our area.”

Another visitor was Diane Wallis, Yorkshire and the Humber MEP who toured the factory and met staff.