Feature

Balloon goes up on UK made threaded inserts

Sales at Bridgnorth-based threaded insert manufacturer Fitsco have been high this year but have now – quite literally – gone stratospheric.

05/07/2018 15:18:16

A recent application has seen Fitsco’s Screwfit brass inserts for plastics used as part of a project that takes a UK launched near-space craft clean through the troposphere and into the stratosphere, upwards of 40km, where air pressure is less than 1 percent of that at ground level and temperatures drop below -60°C. This is even higher than the 85,000’ which the once top-secret Lockheed SR71 Blackbird is stated to have flown at.

The balloon programme is the brainchild of former Sheffield University Engineering PhD students Alex Baker and Chris Rose who decided on a grand challenge for themselves - to see if they could take a picture of the Earth from the edge of space. Thus was their business Sent Into Space born, to become one of the UK’s most interesting and innovative technology-based businesses to have emerged over recent years. The company has already established a reputation as a global leader in making the use of near-space and its further exploration an almost daily occurrence.

Read the rest of the article in the July issue of DPA

Written By Sophia Bell

Sophia Bell is the Group Editor of DPA, Connectivity, and PBSI. She joined the team in 2020 as Assistant Editor after achieving a First-Class Honours BA in English Literature and Film Studies from the University of East Anglia. In her current role, she leads the editorial strategy, driving digital growth and ensuring each title continues to deliver trusted, relevant insight for engineering and manufacturing professionals.