Company description
Welcome to Bradford Engineering B.V. Bradford Engineering B.V. is a one hundred percent Dutch company, specialised in engineering, design and development, production and test of spaceflight components and systems. Numerous of our products have flown in space and Bradford is one of the leading space engineering companies in The Netherlands.
Bradford Engineering B.V. was founded by Mr. Ed Voeten in 1984, as a new company in his home town of Putte, The Netherlands, for the manufacture of high-quality instrumentation for fast breeder nuclear power stations. He managed to house his enterprise at the premises of the former sock factory Bradford Socks on Bradfordstraat ("Bradford Street").
Since this sounded so fantastically international, Mr. Voeten decided to keep the Bradford name and to exchange the 'socks' bit by 'engineering'. Like very keen business man, he even took over the existing logo to ensure costs would be kept low. He did however unscrew it from the wall and turned it over 180 degrees! Should you hold the current Bradford logo upside down, you will recognize the socked feet of the original factory. Today, you can also identify the 'q' and 'p' of 'quality products' in the logo.
After the Chernobyl accident of 1986, the popularity of nuclear energy was diminishing and the young company had to look elsewhere for new markets. A business contact at the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs recommended discussing matters with the European Space Agency (ESA) in Noordwijk. Broadening our Horizons
It turned out to be a golden tip. Bradford managed to earn the trust of ESA by bringing a small but complex job to a happy conclusion. New orders followed until Bradford was asked to develop the USML-1 glovebox at the end of the 1980s. The first Bradford glovebox went into space on the US space shuttle in 1992.
The company profiled itself in 1994 with a distinct component subdivision where valves, pressure transducers, heat exchangers, flowmeters and fans for space as well as other products were developed. Again, Bradford seized the opportunity with both hands. This division is now responsible for more than half of the turnover and next to components, the subsystem work was the next logical step. To provide the best products, Bradford is cooperating with strong international partners in relation to more and more projects.
Bradford went in search of Earth-based applications for space technology to broaden the operational basis even further. One application was found in the sterilization of medical instruments. It was for this particular development that Bradford was awarded the Brabantse Innovation Award in May 2001. The commercialisation of this sterilization technology is being developed in partnership with a number of strategic partners. Bradford Instruments B.V. was established especially for this purpose.
CEO Raoul Voeten expects a lot from this new opportunity. He is forecasting that Bradford will develop more new applications; he can see other opportunities next to the medical sector (for example, defense projects). "The Dutch government is very happy for spin-offs to materialize from its investments in space programs", says Raoel Voeten. "We are working hard at it!"