Shropshire-based Islabikes, which was founded in 2006 to give children a better experience of cycling, is the first company in the country to tap into the Marches Centre of Manufacturing & Technology’s (www.mcmt.co.uk) recently launched Engineering Club.

It is using the training centre’s technology and prototyping service to bring its ‘Imagine Project’ to life; this will see bicycles rented to a customer, before being returned, refurbished and rented to another customer.

Matt Baynham, Islabikes’ (www.islabikes.com) implementation manager, said: “As a relatively small business, it is fantastic that we can use the MCMT’s Engineering Club to gain knowledge that will inform how we develop our manufacturing processes in the future.

"We simply pay a fee to use its equipment and work with its design specialist Adrian Howell on tooling and fixtures that will help us build parts for our new bicycles.

“Our engineers have used CNC mills and lathes to machine small parts, and we will shortly be using 3-D printers to help with prototyping. We are getting to understand what technology we might need to invest in to help us establish our own manufacturing process.

"If we didn’t have this resource, it could take us years to build up this knowledge, and we could spend a lot of money on the wrong tools and machinery.”