Telford-based Advanced Chemical Etching (ACE), a specialist in the precision chemical etching of metal components, has invested another £100,000 to increase its capacity and target new opportunities in the electronics and precision engineering sectors.

The company, which employs 60 people at its facility on the Hortonwood Industrial Estate, will shortly take delivery of an additional post-cleaning machine that will enable it to deliver more than 2,000 etched sheets every day — a major increase from the 350 it could produce in 2018.

Its expertise is in demand from customers looking to manufacture precision components — to exacting tolerances — that can withstand harsh environments.

It is already working with customers that are making parts for use in consumer electronics, oil filtration systems, car dashboards, mobile phones and marine applications.

ACE’s managing director, Ian Whateley (www.ace-uk.net), said: “We spent £500,000 earlier this year on upgrading our facility in Telford and have now pressed the button on further investment to help us continue to win new work.

"The pre- and post-cleaning machines that we installed have made us so much quicker, and we have added new automatic loaders to our lines to assist the move to ‘lights out’ manufacturing in some areas.

"This allows us to compete with UK and international rivals and to scale up volumes quickly when required.”

Executive director Chris Ball said: “We’ve won a number of new orders over the last 12 months, from customers in the UK, Europe and the Far East.

"This has helped us offset falling volumes on existing projects in the automotive sector, and the decision to invest again has been taken to ensure that we have the capacity in place to react to more positive times, when uncertainty has diminished.”