Renishaw plc

The Company was founded by Sir David McMurtry and John Deer in 1973.[2] McMurtry had needed to measure fuel pipes on a prototype jet engine: at the time, coordinate-measuring machine sensors featured rigid styli, which required manual positioning on the surface and which yielded poor repeatability when measuring delicate components. To meet this need, McMurtry invented a touch-trigger probe device, which he then patented. The probe featured an elegant 'kinematic' location for a spring-loaded stylus, providing a highly repeatable seated position for the stylus combined with the compliance needed to measure such components.[2]

Renishaw was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in November 1984.[3] In 2006 the Company bought 'itp', a German manufacturer of precision styli.[4] In early 2009 the global recession reached Renishaw, resulting in a large proportion of the workforce being placed "at risk".[5]

Since 2009, Renishaw has seen a turnaround in business, with orders doubling within a year,[6] and the company stating that it had "recovered strongly since the worldwide recession".[7] In 2010 Renishaw bought a stake (and subsequently took complete control) of Measuring Devices Ltd, a company providing a range of services in the field of surveying equipment.[8] In 2011 Renishaw purchased the 400,000 sq ft Bosch plant in Miskin, Wales.[9]

Renishaw specialises in industrial metrology and spectroscopy and sells its products in the major markets around the world. The company's strategy has been to grow organically sustained by patented innovations. The company's product portfolio has since expanded into touch probes for CNC machine tools, calibration systems that optimise the performance of CNC machinery, linear encoder systems, rotary encoder systems, additive manufacturing machines, dental CAD/CAM systems, Raman spectroscopy and medical devices for functional neurosurgery applications.[10]

Renishaw's main offices are situated in an old mill from the industrial revolution, with several new buildings on a 26-acre (110,000 m²) site. It is a nature oriented site, with dozens of birds (including ducks and swans) and a large lake. The site is also close to the village of Charfield, slightly west of the market town of Wotton-Under-Edge. The company has a machine shop located at Stonehouse, Gloucestershire, and an assembly facility at Woodchester, both near Stroud. There are further assembly facilities in Dublin (Ireland) and Pune (India). Renishaw also has research facilities located in Wotton-under-Edge, Edinburgh and Ljubljana.[11]

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