A NEW machine designed and built in Blackburn by an East Lancashire man is expected to accrue up to £7.5 million a year.

Meltech CRE, a thriving privately-owned group which designs and makes and delivers high-performance machinery and engineering solutions for the wire and cable, offshore and subsea, and metals processing industries, has invested more than £1 million in his its Strongform machine.

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It now hopes to sell between five and 10 of them every year – at £750,000 each.

The machine, used by companies working in the power generation and transmission, automatic, electrical and aluminium industries to make copper into the required shape, could more than double the firm’s turnover, which is currently about £5 million a year.

Managing director Peter Drever said: “The industry uses a lot of copper and this new machine makes it very easy to make copper into the shapes that are required.

“It’s a step forward technologically. If we hit our targets, this will be a significant boost to the company, which would also mean the further employment of highly-skilled workers.”

The company, which won the Training and Development category in 2013’s Lancashire Telegraph Business Awards for its work with staff and apprentices, is based in Bonsall Street, Mill Hill.

Over a three year period, engineering director Frank Strong took existing tech originally developed 40 years ago by the UK Atomic Energy Authority and enhanced it.

A new unique cantilever design was introduced to make the extrusion process more stable and able to withstand evening more demanding design parameters.

Extrusion is the process used to create objects of a fixed cross-sectional profile. A material is pushed or pulled through a die of the desired cross section.

Benefits of the new machine to the process include a higher quality end result, lower operating costs and higher production rates.

The Strongform machine, Mr Strong, who re-configured the existing technology, has already attracted attention from companies from around the world.

Target markets include the energy and automotive sectors, as well as the off-shore industry.

Two orders are already believed to be in the pipeline.

Blackburn’s Labour MP Jack Straw, who visited the company recently, said: “I have had the technology explained to me and it’s a fantastic machine.

“As I was saying to them, every week in Blackburn even after all these years I find a new gem.

“Meltech has been there for years but it’s amazing what’s going on in a small street in Mill Hill.”