New sealing division increases UK customer options
September 24th 2007

The launch of ERIKS Sealing Technology into the UK combines WYKO’s established seals business in the UK with the world wide experience of ERIKS.

WYKO’s established seals business, which includes the Seals division based in Halesowen, and Pioneer Weston in Warrington currently has a 4% UK market share but with the launch of ERIKS Sealing Technology it plans to have a 10% market share in 2010, which represents a turnover of around Ł25 million.

Pioneer Weston has operated as a specialist dynamic sealing designer and manufacturer and a company in its own right with a reputation for innovation and application engineering. With the launch of the new division the name Pioneer Weston will now be found predominantly on dynamic axle seals and mechanical seals.

Pioneer Weston's experience, know-how and expertise will be channelled into the development of its asset base in Warrington to create the ERIKS Sealing Technology Centre. ERIKS is investing Ł500,000 in simulation software and test and analysis equipment and is also investing in staff.

John Weston, managing director of ERIKS Sealing Technology says: “Our staffing levels have already increased from 40 people to 60 and will eventually level off around the 80 mark. The recruitment has brought in PhD’s, Material technologists, chemists, design specialists and testing technicians, as well as people who are already working in the field.”

The Technology Centre is an ISO TS 16949 accredited manufacturing site that offers both OEM and MRO customers access to the company’s R&D capability. No other distributor in Europe has access to such a facility. The centre has CAD capability and also develops its own compounds while there is a great emphasis on FEA (Finite Element Analysis) modelling with full data logging support. A large amount of investment is going into this material testing area where, by artificially ageing the material, customers can see how their seal would perform in the field in a given application.

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