Huxley Bertram Engineering Ltd

Huxley Bertram Engineering Ltd is a UK-based machine manufacturing company working for a wide range of industries including the pharmaceutical and medical device sector. Much work is confidential, being in the development phase for new products. It also manufactures its own branded tablet development presses.

Products & Services

Huxley Bertram uses its wide experience and contacts with leading scientists to provide world-beating machines, products and services. These include:

• Powder Compaction Simulators : A range of high accuracy presses are produced, benefitting from a development process of over 40 years. The machines, software and instrumentation are focused on the needs of the formulation scientist. The power to simulate high speed production comes from high pressure servo-hydraulic control. This also gives longevity and reliability.
• Containment solutions are available on Huxley Bertram Simulators to suit the most stringent requirements, but usability is prioritized with glove-less operation for compounds with an OEB up to 3. A range of transfer systems and cleaning options can be specified.
• Tablet Research Presses and tablet test fixtures: Slower and more economical presses are also provided to allow tableting development where high speeds are not required.
• Tableting instrumentation: An unrivalled range of measuring technologies is used to study the tableting process, from high pressure die wall sensors, to fast in-tablet temperature transducers, adhesion measuring punches, and many more.
• Tri-axial or “Hiestand” decompression fixtures: Compaction modelling is advanced by tri-axial decompression. This extends the range of materials that can be measured to include brittle active and passive ingredients. Cubic compacts or standard round tablets can be produced.
• Contract development services are provided for the compaction of a range of materials through collaborations with universities using Huxley Bertram equipment.
• Special Purpose Machines: Huxley Bertram can also provide bespoke mechanical solutions to meet specific client needs, ranging from mechanical aids and simple fixtures to full industrial automation. SP Projects can be conducted in discrete work packages (such as concept design, feasibility studies, detailed design, system build and service contracts) or as end-to-end turnkey projects that culminate in fully, automated industrial machines.

Technologies

The performance of Huxley Bertram solutions is enhanced by a number of proprietary and patented technologies and product features that include:

• High speed hydraulic control systems.
• Hiestand testing: specific fixtures to allow measurement of materials data without cracking due to uniaxial decompression and ejection
• Tri-axial decompression split dies
• Pressure Instrumented dies
• Adhesion measuring punches
• Temperature controlled tooling
• Hybrid multi-mode containment systems

Company History and Structure

Engineers Stewart Huxley and William Bertram founded the company that bears their names in 1979, basing themselves in a large garden shed in Girton, a rural village northwest of Cambridge, with a determination to provide mechanical engineering solutions to varied problems for any industry or relevant application.

In 1983, Huxley Bertram moved to Cottenham, closer to Cambridge, where it was based for 31 years until 2014, when it moved to its current base in the ‘new town’ of Waterbeach, north of Cambridge. Here, it has more than 2,300 m² of modern facilities, including manufacturing area, workshop and offices.

Huxley Bertram is jointly owned and managed by its two founding partners alongside five other Senior Engineering Directors; Mark Jenkins, John Bettey, Ralph Lucas and Stewart Huxley’s son, Lawrence, with Steve Hales as Business Director. This direct ownership and decision making allows the company to be highly innovative and agile in its responses to technological and market trends. Other significant senior figures include Martin Bennett as sales contact for Compaction Simulators for Europe and other areas and Jean Le Floch as sales contact for Compaction Simulators in the Americas.

Quality, Regulatory and Standards

Since May 2019, Huxley Bertram Engineering has been certificated as meeting the quality assurance gold standard ISO 9001. Its ISO 9001:2015 certification covers the design, manufacture, commissioning of its special purpose machines and automation equipment for a global client base across all markets.

Huxley Bertram further protects the quality of its products by ensuring that all machine building and testing functions are performed in-house.

Resources

Click on Compaction Simulation for information on Huxley Bertram compaction simulators
Click on Powder Compaction for further information on Huxley Bertram Powder Compaction Research machines