| SPONSORED BY OXLEY GROUP
PLC. www.oxleygroup.com
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27 Jun 08. Oxley Developments is a unique and remarkable Company; it first caught my eye when I worked for Defence Magazine in the eighties. It took a small segment in our annual Defence diary outlining its capabilities, which, even then appeared to be technically ahead of the opposition. Since then, again uniquely for a small to medium electronics Company, Oxley has survived the technology shocks on world stock markets and competition from much larger and better funded Plcs. Thus, when I started BATTLESPACE in 1998, I chose Oxley to be the first Company we featured in our Company Overview section. That visit in 1998 turned into a relationship between Oxley and BATTLESPACE which endures to this day. Thus, in our tenth year and the sixty sixth for Oxley, we visited in May for another look. Remarkably, very little has changed outwardly, but within, Oxley appears to have been able to successfully focus on developing some of their core technologies in order to expand into new markets and applications for defence systems.
The one recent black spot was the sudden and unexpected death of Dr Geoff Edwards in March who steered the Company as Managing Director for 15 years having joined Oxley as a Technical Manager in 1972. His successor, Peter Cotterill has grasped the nettle of change and as we will see from this feature, Oxley is well placed to meet the challenges of the next sixty years.
Another key figure, is Freddie Oxley’s widow Ann Oxley, now Life President of Oxley Group Ltd, who, after Freddie Oxley died in 1988 decided to take over the management of the Company and has staunchly steered Oxley from that day on, to the international company it is today. This includes a strong U.S. presence with Oxley Inc. established in 1976, operations in Australia and various technology partnerships around the world.
History of Oxley
It is worth looking at the history of Oxley to understand the uniqueness of the Company, its technology and its employees.
Oxley Developments was founded by Freddie Oxley (1909-1988) in 1939, who was, in his own words, ‘…a physicist by training; an engineer and inventor by vocation and a businessman by necessity’. He was born on August 16th 1909 in Antwerp, of English parents, related to the family of Florence Nightingale. It was the gift of a pocket torch by his German uncle which sparked his interest in things electrical. He published his first article aged 16 in the French wireless magazine L’Antenne. After his first real job with Celestion in Paris, he accepted a tempting offer from the Telegraph Condenser Company (TCC) in London where he rose to become Export Manager, speaking five languages fluently by his early twenties.
When World War II broke out, Freddie Oxley started his own company designing and manufacturing components for the communications industry. At the time of the German offensive in May 1940, he was instructed by the Ministry of Aircraft Production to arrange the supply of essential capacitors for the war effort. He located a supplier in Paris who had a stock of German-made ceramic capacitor parts used in the British radar network. Just before the fall of Paris in 1940, he was sent there by the Ministry on a special mission from Hendon, paid cash for the complete stock and carried it back to England, thus ensuring the supply of vital components for the British radar and military communications systems.
His London workshop and office were razed during the 1940 Blitz, and, as his work was of vital national importance, the Ministry of Aircraft Production instructed him to move to an area safe from German bombs. So he arrived in Ulverston in the Lake District where he established a factory in the Market Place – the building still stands today.
In the early fifties, having outgrown this premises, the Company moved to its current location at Priory Park, where he established a complete in-house capability for making components and assemblies.
He was an significant entrepreneur with a will to succeed and realised that he needed to develop a working team of creative minds who were actively encouraged to look at innovative ways in which to improve and adapt products. This attitude to innovation, quality and manufacturing excellence has always been at the heart of the Company's success.
In a life rich with innovation and creativity, Freddy Oxley eventually had over 150 patents to his name, the rest as they say is history.
BATTLESPACE 1998 VISIT
We roll the clock forward to 1998, my first visit to Ulverston. Freddy Oxley’s influence, although he had died ten years before was obvious in the ambiance present in the works and the obvious love and affection held for him by his widow Ann. Here we found the background technology to the small snippet placed in Defence Magazine in 1980!
The diversification of Oxley products was impressive, as it appears to have been throughout the company history. Their markets then included telecommunications, aerospace and defence equipment, not very different to the Company’s present markets, however, they were very much an electronics component business, with aspirations to diversify into higher-level systems and military equipment design, development and manufacture.
In 1998 the main thrust of the business was specialist components, EMI suppression filter; Night Vision Goggle (NVG) Friendly cockpit components and specialist military tagging systems.
It was clear then, as we see from our recent visit, that Oxley had been very active in the development of NVG compatible lighting and had been a strategic supplier to the UK RAF for various aircraft upgrades.
We see from our latest visit that they have moved on significantly in this area and are now a significant technology supplier to aircraft manufacturers and governments across the world.
“Oxley started looking into NVG Friendly TM cockpit lighting systems twenty five years ago,” Dr Tim Bushell, Technical Director of Oxley Developments Company Ltd, told the Editor. “The first breakthrough came after the Falklands War where NVG use grew. Goggles supplied by the likes of Ferranti , ITT and Bell & Howell had one drawback, when they came into contact with the then standard cockpit lighting, they bloomed and the pilot lost all sightoutside the aircraft. The first modification made was to put sticky tape over the cockpit lighting. Given our speciality in LED technology, Oxley devised a number of processes to package LED lights, giving them not only structural integrity for fighter aircraft, but also adding specialist filters to make them NVG compatible.”
“Did you not see a finite market for these products at the time?”
“We believed at the start of this technology that there would be a sudden rush to fit NVG compatible cockpits which would then drift to a few hundred a year. But the First Gulf War in 1991 saw an increased Requirement for NVG systems, particularly for the U.S. Blackhawk helicopter fleet which we still supply today. The U.S. National Guard, USAF and Air Force Reserve F-16 fleets were the next large customer for conversion in the early nineties, followed by the RAF Tornado fleet. We now supply lighting to a large range of aircraft including F-16, Jaguar, Tornado, AV-8B, C-130J Hercules, C-17, BAE Hawk, Blackhawk and Mi-17 amongst others. Now ten years on, aircraft we modified then are coming back to us for new upgrades and modifications. The new NATO nations such as Poland, where we work closely with WZL, Czechoslovakia and Romania, all of whom have ageing Russian helicopter fleets, is a big growth market. Another big growth area is Police and Customs where we have recently upgraded several Police, Emergency Medical Service and Coast Guard Helicopters, including Dyfed & Powys Police Augusta 109 and the Icelandic Coast Guard Super Puma with NVG compatible lighting. The growing stretch on defence budgets and increased NVG usage in land and sea systems, means we have seen the market is actually growing not contracting.” Tim Bushell said.
In April 2003, Oxley Avionics won a key contract from the RAF to upgrade its fleet of Tornado aircraft with novel LED based visible and covert external lighting. The contract, won in the face of intense international competition, reinforced the position of Oxley as a technologically advanced, global player. The RAF has over two hundred Tornado aircraft of different variants, 141 GR4 and, 72 F3's which were fitted with the Oxley NVG Friendly exterior lighting system. The contract required kits to be supplied to the RAF for installation at base level.
Brian Thomson, International Sales Manager of Oxley Avionics said, "That contract marked a milestone in the development of NVG Friendly lighting systems. The award reinforced a trend towards specifying an LED solution rather than an optical filter system. Oxley has focused on developing fully JAA and FAA compliant solutions which require the highest standards of tolerance for a system which has to withstand wing tip temperatures in excess of 100 degrees centigrade when the aircraft is operating in combat conditions. Advances in technology have allowed us to use LEDs in the Aircraft environment. Embracing the MoD Smart Procurement Initiative, in design and component selection, we provided the RAF with the latest solution in this rapidly evolving field."
Oxley had already supplied the RAF with interior cockpit conversions for its Tornado fleet. In addition, one hundred high intensity strobe kits were supplied to the RAF for installation at base level during the Kosovo conflict.
Tim Bushell said, "We worked closely with our customer, the RAF, to ensure that the UK Tornado fleet had the highest technology available for its complete NVG compatible lighting suite for both interior and exterior applications. The award of this contract adds a further dimension to our external lighting capability. Oxley has pioneered the concept, specification and supply of NVG Friendly TM external lighting over the years. It also ensures that the UK remains a world leader in this technology."
BATTLESPACE 2008 VISIT
In 2008 Oxley Group Ltd is turning over in excess £14 million. Continued growth experienced by the Company in both the UK and Branford, Connecticut has seen the workforce grow to 204 and 42 respectively.
Oxley Developments Company Limited, the UK trading company based in Ulverston has a Board of Peter Cotterill (Managing Director), Mark Pritchard (Finance & Commercial Director), Dr Tim Bushell (Technical Director) and Ben Wray (Operations Director). The company has recently appointed Andy Bednarek as Sales & Marketing Director, completing the Board structure.
Oxley Inc.
Oxley Inc. which started from a small office in California in 1976 as an Agency for Oxley Developments, moved to Connecticut in 1984. Oxley Inc. turns over $14m and manufactures a wide range of specialist defence aerospace LED lighting products for the US market. The Company US facility have grown to become a centre of excellence for the design, manufacture and integration of LED lighting systems for both major defence equipment manufacturers, including Boeing and Sikorsky, and the US Government.
Martin Sloan CEO of Oxley Inc told me that the business had expanded considerably in the last few years benefiting from increased DoD spend.
“Oxley Inc products are now established on a number of key U.S. defence systems including Blackhawk, E-6 Intruder and C-17. Outside aerospace, we are supplying a large number of IR lighting systems for vehicles and a new area is the U.S Navy initiative for Next Generation Visual Landing Aids (NVGLA) a requirement which will see the deck landing lights on all U.S. Navy ships standardised for NVG flying. We are also supplying products to manufacturers for the equipment used to combat roadside IEDs, for the U.S. Army. The growth in the US has led us to expand our facilities significantly over that past few years and we now operate from an 18,000 sq ft manufacturing facility”
Australia
For a small UK defence company Oxley has been surprisingly active in the global defence market. They recently established operations for their lighting systems and NVG components in South East Asia and Australasia.
Teaming with BAE SYSTEMS AUSTRALIA, Oxley developed a successful strategic technology transfer partnership in Australia for the modification, installation and support of the aircraft lighting systems in the region, a relationship that appears to be growing to support new and emerging requirements for their technology.
In 2005, Oxley was awarded a contract by Incat Australia Pty Ltd to design and supply a lighting system for the helicopter deck on board the US Military high speed vessel HSV X1 Joint Venture. The end user has since proved the system in extensive helicopter night landing trials and the technology has gone on to provide new standards for NVG compatible deck lighting.
The installation on HSV X1 Joint Venture shows why Oxley has been successful in the defence markets over many years and why the Company continues to grow into new markets. The programme was completed from concept through to commissioning, in conjunction with Incat within the challenging 6-month programme timescale. It involved the design of a complete flight deck lighting suite as well as the flight deck lighting control station. Oxley highlighted that the system demonstrated considerable safety improvements during NVG operations, in addition to savings in weight and reduced power consumption.
FUTURE GROWTH
I have seen a lot of changes and significant developments at Oxley since our 1998 visit. The Company now has a significant LED lighting capability that is moving the Company from a components supplier to an equipment designer and systems integration Company for aircraft as well as land based equipment and Naval lighting systems.
I saw how the Oxley ethos continued to develop new products that show how the Company innovates using its core technology and capabilities for new markets and applications. Products like: UAV LED lighting; electronic tagging for military engineering asset management; rugged LED shelter lighting systems; covert IR illumination equipment and a range of optical filters for almost every piece of military equipment with an NVG compatibility requirement.
Dr Tim Bushell took me through the various new product areas at Oxley. “Whilst continuing our growth in the supply of NVG systems for aircraft we have developed new initiatives in the key areas of naval lighting, UAVs, and land systems.”
UAV LED Lighting
“We are actively pursuing a number of key UAV lighting projects in the USA.” Martin Sloan said. “Original non-NVG fits are producing reliability problems as catapult-launched UAVs in particular cause breakages on launch of conventional lighting systems. In addition, growing use of UAVs on conventional airfield mean that these UAVs have to have NVG-compatible lighting to avoid any bloom damage for aircraft using these bases.”
In the U.K. and Europe, Oxley is involved a number of key UAV lighting upgrade Programmes and have recently secured an order to develop a suite of external lights for the BAE Systems HERTI UAV.
Marine lighting
Based on the Company’s past performance in aerospace lighting, I expect we will see Oxley as a significant provider of LED lighting for Naval lighting systems and specifically Naval Aviation lighting. Oxley with their detailed knowledge of NVG compatible lighting, coupled with the design and manufacture of rugged LED lighting systems puts them in a strong position in this market.
One area that again demonstrates the Company’s ability to innovate was the application of LEDs for the Royal Navy. Oxley were able to develop NVG Friendly TM LED based navigation lights to replace the existing incandescent bulbs. The certification of the LED solution, against the International Collision at Sea Regulations, is an area Oxley is particularly proud. Oxley has also supplied naval lighting systems on HMS Invincible and is working to provide systems on the CVF carriers.
Data tagging
Oxley e-tag contact memory buttons were selected by General Dynamics United Kingdom Ltd for the British Army’s BOWMAN communication system, the first major UK military equipment programme to have electronic identification integrated during the equipment manufacture.
Since then, over 400,000 e-tags, reader probes and software have been supplied to General Dynamics United Kingdom Ltd and their major sub-contractors for the U.K. BOWMAN and Dutch Marine Requirements. Oxley e-tags are fitted to all BOWMAN maintenance significant items, such as HF/VHF radios and Data Terminals and used to collect & store electronic information relating to maintenance schedules, maintenance history, parent & child fitment history and asset usage metrics. The Oxley e-tags provided an effective method of transferring electronic configuration data to through-life asset management systems.
Overcoming strong international competition, the Oxley e-tag was selected because of its advanced ‘intelligent’ tag features. Several key characteristics include unique electronic serial numbering, true password protection and advanced error detection and communication protocols that eliminate the risk of corruption during data transfer.
Tim Bushell said “The Oxley e-tag solution provides significant versatility during the fielded life of the BOWMAN equipment” he continued, “In addition the technology has further potential for other related applications within the General Dynamics United Kingdom Ltd business.”
Land systems
Building on the considerable experience of the Company in the development of Night Vision Goggle (NVG) compatible aircraft cockpits, Oxley exhibited its range of NVG-compatible vehicle and shelter lighting and a new range of LED shelter and tent lighting, OXLED™, at this year’s DVD. These systems are manufactured at the Ulverston and Branford Connecticut facilities.
Oxley has supplied a number of covert LED systems to enhance vehicle NVG operations and is currently supplying the U.K. and U.S. Armed forces.
In addition to LED exterior NVG-compatible lighting, Oxley showed an NVG compatible dashboard with NV floodlighting for instrument illumination, mounted on the Hobson Industries Land Rover with the OXLED™ Light in the cabin of the Land Rover.
Dr Tim Bushell said, “There are operational scenarios where vehicle lights must not be detected by an NVG-equipped enemy. IR secure covers are the solution, removing the near IR energy and providing a dim visible green output from the headlights or driving lights. Night Vision Goggles are a significant element in night operational capability, allowing drivers to see at night. Custom designed Night Vision Lighting systems add a further dimension to this capability, allowing drivers to see further, drive faster and with reduced risk of damaging the vehicle. By using Oxley filtering techniques to modify vehicles to be used in night time operations, driver safety is greatly improved. Incidents such as the drivers view through the goggle being obliterated by a warning light flaring are virtually eliminated.”
Oxley showed me how their NVG lighting suite enhanced the driving capabilities in conditions of heavy overcast and in low reflectivity terrain. With IR driving lights fitted, vehicles have the advantage of driving at normal daylight speeds, whilst using Night Vision Goggles at night. The lights produce a carefully tailored beam shape which has been designed to illuminate a precise area in front of the vehicle while maximising the performance of the goggle.
The new OXLED™ system is a low profile LED lighting range consisting of a number of separate low-powered/high-output LED lights that can be varied in colour or strength to suit the required conditions. The system, already fielded on a next generation US mobile hospital system is being integrated into a range of UK field hospitals equipment.
Dr Bushell said, “The new Ruggedized OXLED™ lighting developed for military tentage can be rolled up in the tent during transportation and fielded in minutes on arrival without any worry about breakage of bulbs or fitments. In addition logistics problems are minimised as spares are not required and broken glass is not an issue.”
FACTORY TOUR
After the initial briefing, Peter Cotterill then took me on a tour of the Ulverston facility to see the results of the recent £500,000 investment in new facilities, equipment and technology.
“We are continuing with the Freddie Oxley ethos of continual product innovation, development and manufacturing. What you will see today is the first phase of moving Oxley Developments Company Ltd onto one site at Ulverston, incorporating all our manufacturing and R&D in one place and bringing in the facilities from Barrow.”
“Are you supplying these specialist components direct to the defence majors such as BAE Systems?”[Editor]
“Yes, we are moving more to supporting the major defence contractors. At present we tend to supply our specialist NVG lighting products direct to major OEMs; while our more traditional components business is either supplied direct or through component houses such as Farnell, RS or Avnet. However, we are often asked to modify or change an existing product and we are one of few component manufactures left able to offer our customers design changes in order to meet specialist requirements or applications.
Oxley has recently purchased two Japanese Star Micronics machine tools, one of which cuts down the manufacturing time of a standard component from nine hours to twenty minutes!
“These new machines enable our components to be machined in one process which not only speeds up manufacture but also increases productivity, reliability and quality. We are carrying out a similar exercise at Oxley Inc, which has expanded its manufacturing capacity in recent years. Coupled to the expansion and renewal of equipment, Oxley is also developing customer relations with major suppliers developing joint R&D initiatives and ensuring we comply with all the quality standards. We now have all the required ISO 9000, AS9100 and ISO 14000 in place to provide our customers with a world class capability. ”
Peter Cotterill then took me to the recently installed specialist optical coating facility which enables Oxley to carry out all its specialist optical coating in-house.
“Thales were a major competitor in this area until they pulled out, closing their Taunton factory. This has enabled Oxley to pick up new business from Thales and we recently won a new order to supply NVG systems for the latest generation of the Saab Gripen aircraft.”
Coupled to the refurbishment of the manufacturing facility, Peter Cotterill showed me the new refurbished offices on the second floor showing breathtaking views of the Lake District.
“This office and factory refurbishment has brought new life to the factory and we have strong staff retention as well as twelve vacancies for new staff. We are also totally revamping our web site to allow for rapid product sourcing.” Cotterill concluded.
THE NEXT SIXTY YEARS
“What of the future?” I asked Peter Cotterill
“We see a consistent growth in our core products for the foreseeable future and see a doubling in output over the next five years. We are continuing to upgrade our products through R&D, product innovation and new manufacturing techniques. In 2007 we started working with the Manchester Manufacturing Advisory Service to develop new and improved lean manufacturing techniques. When Phase 2 of our expansion is completed we will have fulfilled Freddie Oxley’s dream of having all our U.K. capabilities under one roof in Ulverston, some achievement which started from one room in Ulverston in 1941!”
As I left looking forward to my next anniversary visit in 2018 to this innovative technology powerhouse situated amongst the breathtaking Lake District scenery, I wondered if the present Government realised the huge contribution given to the U.K., by such pioneers as Freddie Oxley. I doubt it!
References: Robert Frederick Oxley, A Scientific Businessman, Published by Oxley Developments Ltd, 1990. (They even publish their own books!)
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