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Sam Hyde: TTP creates new products and new technologies for our clients
across the healthcare, communications, consumer and industrial space
James McCrone: TTP had created this novel micropump and we were looking for new applications of this;
new products that we could take this into
Looking at the medical space, where there is a demand for more portable products
perhaps products that you can clip on your belt rather than having to wear over your shoulder
or products that enable you to get out of hospital and to carry on your daily life rather than staying in a bed in hospital
We identified an American company that we took the technology to and very soon started work with
to engineer Disc Pump into a portable medical therapy device
Stuart Hatfield: Disc Pump is formed broadly of three main components
The valve is the one which requires the most assembly
It involves a stack of etched layers which are assembled and then aligned and then welded together
The second component is the actuator, so that's the piezo and steel disc which provides the drive force for the pump
And then the third component is a simple moulded base
The pump is then assembled by essentially gluing the valve into the base
and then gluing the actuator onto a membrane and welding it onto the cavity
Sam Hyde: Physics is a vital part of our business
We are pushing the boundaries of what technology can achieve and that requires a deep understanding of the limitations of physics
but also what it can do, and it's important that we understand that so that we can deploy it in developing new products
James McCrone: You often see people with devices that they've developed, where they've made one or ten
and they feel that they've done most of the work
Actually, they may have had most of the inspiration but most of the work is still left to do
It's about converting from that one to ten level, to being able to produce the tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands
And that's where I think TTP actually is quite unique
because we have both the ability to have these creative ideas in the first place and to create genuinely new technology
but also the ability to go through those later stages and turn it into a commercially realised, value generating product
To see it coming off the production line is fantastic
At TPP we're a company full of scientists and engineers and I think most scientists and engineers
are in it because they enjoy making things and seeing things happen
and I think there's nothing more satisfying, really, than taking a technology that you've helped to create and develop
and actually seeing it being manufactured in volume
and beyond that to seeing it being used in a product that affects people's lives in a positive way
Sam Hyde: Traditionally, manufacturing of high-volume products would translate to the Far East
But with highly automated manufacturing, such as we use for Disc Pump
it's possible to retain manufacturing in the UK and retain the skills and the value inside the UK market
And we're very keen to manufacture our own ideas in the UK
The UK has world class universities and world class graduates, particularly in physics, but across the range of scientists
and being able to harness their skills in a commercial environment, resulting in products like Disc Pump, is hugely valuable