The automotive sector’s move towards electrification and the aerospace industry’s desire for lightweight parts have enabled Telford-based Advanced Chemical Etching (ACE) to boost its sales by 40%.

The company has won new orders worth over £2 million in the last 12 months from customers in the UK, Europe and the Far East, taking its turnover to £7.6 million.

ACE (www.ace-uk.net) is looking to build on its recent expansion by completing a £500,000 investment drive that has seen it install new inspection equipment and two pre- and post-cleaning machines — and create 12 new jobs.

This means that the firm can step up from manually processing 350 sheets of metal a day to processing over 1,000, giving it the capacity to meet its target of £10 million of sales by 2021.

Executive director Chris Ball said: “We have built a strong track record for producing high-quality precision components that are ideal for use in the electrification of vehicles and in helping to reduce weight across F1 cars, aircraft and in some intricate medical implants.

The last 12 months have exceeded all expectations, and we’re probably up an extra £1.5 million on where we thought we would be. New orders have come from clients in the UK, the European Union, Malaysia, Thailand and the Far East.

The reason they use ACE is simple — repeatable quality and short lead times.

“In addition to automating the pre- and post-cleaning operations, we have also installed an XRF machine in the laboratory, plus a 3-D microscope and a new co-ordinate measurement machine in the inspection department.”