Quality, continuity and experience

Cambridge Ultrasonics is a business established in 1987. We offer our customers innovative solution, quality, continuity and experience. In the fields of electronic engineering and physics we give a service that is at the cutting-edge of technology. Our staff are all highly trained in their areas of specialisation, with many years of experience. Most projects are handled by staff trained to PhD level and with many years in commercial research and development. The majority of our employees are recruited from Cambridge University.

Cambridge University links

We have strong links with Cambridge University and a number of the local technology-based companies. Our network of local and international contacts is used as a source of knowledge and gives us access to test facilities of international standard.

Our network of links relating to science and technology provides us with access to first-rate skills. In this respect we operate as one of the new breed of virtual companies that are increasingly common in the field of information technology.

International links

The company has worked with other European organisations in collaborative research and development projects, some of them sponsored by the European Commission. Many of our clients are based in the USA.

Services to the oil and gas industry

We are well-known for our consultancy services to the oil and gas industry. Our schlieren visualisation system and finite element modelling has been applied to help solve problems in: design of transducers for detecting corrosion in risers, optimising transducers for flow-meters, optimising transducers for down-hole communications.

Services to the nuclear industry

We have also provided services to the nuclear industry to assist with quality control of transducers used in high temperatures and trouble-shooting of in-house inspection systems.

Medical ultrasound

We have worked on many projects related to medical products, not all using ultrasound some clients want our combination of skills in electronic circuit development with software, mathematical skills and knowledge of physics. We have also helped in finding faults with medical phased array transducers using our schlieren visualization service.

Power ultrasound

We have completed several projects related to the applications of high power ultrasound and improving transducer assembly procedures and in designing novel power transducers.

Leading research in concrete inspection

In the field of concrete inspection Cambridge Ultrasonics has been leading research into developing new inspection systems.

We were asked to develop a novel pulse-echo system for concrete testing by a leading German research institute (Institut fur Massivbau, Technische Hochschule Darmstadt) - the project was promoted by the German Institute of Standards, the German Concrete Association and a consortium of German construction companies. Cambridge Ultrasonics has also run several UK national research projects on concrete inspection by ultrasound.

The company has been the lead partner in two major projects supported by the European Commission: one in the Brite/EuRam programme and another in Framework V Growth programme. We have also been involved in two other small projects.

Marketing skills

We first started offering a marketing service in 2000. This is based upon our own experiences in promoting products and services in niche markets. We now advise clients on marketing and sales and we have acted as agents in new business initiatives. By way of an example, we advised a start-up business offering a financial sercvice over the Internet on how best to enter the market. This involved contacting a variety of potential clients including banks and building societies and other organisations to assess the market potential. We developed market projections based upon the response and a risk analysis for the new business. We also devised preliminary branding material.

The people

It is people who make things happen and at Cambridge Ultrasonics we look for skills and experience. The majority of our staff have degrees, often higher degrees, and the key personnel have many years of experience.

First contacts are:

David Andrews (BSc, MSc - from Bristol University, PhD - from Cambridge University). David’s experience in industry includes working for British Petroleum and Oxford Instruments. He is responsibile for business development. David also actively promotes science with the public through lectures and events with schoolchildren in mind; he is a Science Ambassador to schools in the Cambridge area.

Merete Bergmann (BA - Uppsala University, Sweden) has a degree in Business Administration (1982). Merete’s experience is in business administration and sales. Her responsibilities include software development and marketing services.