Formed in 1977 by Harry Young and eventually joined by son and daughters, Hydram has flourished into a company with over 80 employees. It supplies a wide variety of sheet metal subcontract services to customers in diverse industries: electrical and electronic equipment; yellow goods;

automotive and aerospace components; food preparation and pharmaceutical equipment; and consumer products.

In addition, the company is in the process of developing its own range of stainless steel products, including tables, trolleys and storage systems for both the industrial and domestic markets.

By 1986, Hydram had installed its first Shape CNC punching machine. During the next few years, Hydram's investment in CNC machines continued and services expanded to include laser profiling and CNC folding and rolling.

This was matched by the expansion of its Radan CAD/CAM installation, which today includes draughting, 3D design, punching, profiling, nesting and DNC modules.

"We are increasingly making more use of Radan's 3D capabilities, either to confirm the accuracy of imported data or as a design tool in its own right, " says systems manager Andrew Jordan.

"The flow of work is entirely logical and much more effective than using stand-alone CAD and CNC programming systems, " Andrew adds.

www.hydram.co.uk