What began as a private three-man company has grown significantly over the last 50 years to become one of Essex’s premier independent engineering firms.

Established in 1968 in Clacton-on-Sea, Tridan Engineering is a sub-contract manufacturer of high-precision components, shipping around 9,000 parts each month to customers around the world.

Able to manufacture everything from small components to workpieces up to 1.6m in size, in single units and in large batches, Tridan supplies a variety of industrial sectors, including aerospace, defence, medical, marine, high-end automotive, food manufacture and communications.

Meeting the tight turnround times associated with these industries is a major undertaking. In order to remain competitive and ensure that it had the in-house manufacturing capabilities to keep pace with demand, Tridan needed a ‘state of the art’ machine shop.

Its relationship with Yamazaki Mazak (www.mazakeu.co.uk), spanning nearly three decades, has played a crucial part in its success.

Managing director Paul Hawkins said (www.tridan.co.uk): “We bought our first Mazak machine back in 1990. It was a an AJV 35-80 twin-pallet machining centre — a beast of a machine. That is long gone now, but our relationship with Mazak remains.”

Tridan now has 14 Mazak machines for turning and milling applications; in the last two years alone, it has acquired two Variaxis i-500s, one of which features a Palletech automation system; a Variaxis i-600, a Variaxis i-700, a Quick Turn 300 and a Quick Turn 200 MSY.

Mr Hawkins said: “A big turning point for us as a business was in 2007, when we gained AS9100 accreditation.

“That allowed us to target the aerospace and defence sectors, which brought its own challenges — a pursuit for continuous improvement and extreme demands.

“Our factory floor today reflects our growth and the part we play in this supply chain.”