With factories in Sheffield, Leeds and Co. Durham, William Cook can trace its history back over nearly 175 years. The group manufactures sophisticated components, assemblies and systems for a wide range of applications, has substantial research, development and design resources and includes global energy, transport and defence groups among its clients.
The group has just won a major £30 million contract with General Dynamics to supply parts for the Army’s future fleet of fighting vehicles. Cook Defence Systems will supply the track system for Ajax, which will be the most advanced armoured vehicle in the world when it comes into service in 2019. The 589 vehicles are being delivered by General Dynamics Land Systems-UK.
The contract, with General Dynamics European Land Systems, which is a subcontractor on the AJAX programme, will run until 2023. It is the second successful announcement for Cook Defence Systems in recent months. In November 2015, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon visited the company to announce a £70 million, four-year deal to support the Army’s existing armoured vehicles.
The decision to join the AMRC follows the University of Sheffield’s acquisition of Castings Technology International, which led last year to the creation of AMRC Castings.
William Cook Group chairman, Andrew Cook CBE, great great grandson of the founder and architect of the successful consolidation of the UK steel castings industry in the 1980s and 1990s, says the group is keen to make use of the additional research and development facilities the AMRC provides.
Prof Keith Ridgway CBE, executive dean of the AMRC, said: “In the recent past William Cook has invested substantially in research and technology that has allowed it to move into more challenging, higher value markets. By mobilising AMRC Castings’ expertise, we hope to help the group build on that achievement by further increasing its competitiveness and expanding into even more technically advanced areas.”
William Cook supplies extreme specification, heavy duty safety critical components to the energy sector, including wellhead and down-hole equipment for the oil and gas industry, and nuclear reactor and steam turbine components.
It is also global leader in the design and manufacture of track and running gear for armoured vehicles and the main supplier of armoured vehicle track to the British Army; it also supplies cast armour and structural parts for military platforms and components for military aircraft and missiles.
Other sectors supplied by the group include the rail industry, for which it has developed innovative designs of bogie frames and couplers.
AMRC Castings’ expertise and technologies span titanium and other reactive metals and alloys, as well as super-alloys, in addition to steel and other metals.
