The company has historically derived 80 per cent of its turnover from aerospace contracts, primarily the production of microwave transmission components, connector bodies, cable terminations and other instrumentation. Operations have involved 3- and 4-axis prismatic machining on Matsuura machining centres and multi-axis mill-turning on a variety of lathes.

Qualtronic’s managing director Adrian Harper sets great store by investing in the best quality plant, as he finds that customers will pay a premium for the high precision components that can be machined.

“Many subcontractors walk away from such close tolerance work and that is when we step in,” he said. “But if you win that type of contract, you don’t want to be worrying about the repeatability of your machine tools – chasing microns is difficult enough – so we always buy the best equipment available.”

Qualtronic now uses six Matsuura machining centres. The oldest, an MC500 VMC, was installed in 1985 and is still in full production, despite having been in continuous use, 18 hours a day. The machine has stopped for unscheduled maintenance only five times in 22 years.

The trend over the coming years at the Glenrothes subcontractor will be to replace 3-axis with 5-axis machining centres. The rationale is that a greater variety of higher-added-value work can be undertaken in fewer set-ups, which also improves component accuracy by reducing tolerance build-up. In addition, it means that fewer spindles are needed overall, minimising manual intervention and lowering labour costs.

Qualtronic moved locally to its current premises in May 2007, in so doing increasing factory space by a third to 20,000 sq ft. It has an enviable record for customer service, with 99.8 per cent of its 25 monthly deliveries correct and on time. It has the engineering expertise to help customers develop their designs to simplify manufacture, is strong in traditional shop floor skills and has a particularly stable workforce, three staff having been with the company for more than 20 years.