For a company whose motto is 'Making the world a quieter place', Winchester-based IAC has a lot to shout about.
Established in 1949 in the US, but headquartered on the Winnall Industrial Estate since 1996, IAC is the world's largest provider of noise and acoustic control products, structures and test facilities. The company employs 194 people in the UK, with a further 126 in France and four regional offices in Europe. Turnover last year was £37m, but is expected to increase to £60m by 2005.
The company pioneers the development of new and imaginative solutions to an extraordinarily wide range of noise pollution and sound quality problems, from audiometric rooms for hearing tests - including 30 for Boots - through to soundproof rooms for factories, radio and television studios, automotive test facilities, road baffles, and even exhaust silencers for naval frigates.
But it is IAC's innovation in the aviation industry for which it is being considered for the Bond Pearce Innovation Award. It has entered two products: a multi-engine test facility at DARA in Fareham, and a mobile engine testing platform.
The second product entered for the award is a self-contained mobile engine testing system, or Universal Test Trailer (UTT). Developed initially for the Ministry of Defence, the UTT can test engines in remote locations. The system, which includes a soundproof cabin, can be adapted to suit many helicopter engine types, but the first production models are being supplied for the MoD's latest attack and transport helicopters now entering service.
Bond Pearce partner David D'Arcy Hughes said: "The judges felt that IAC was a hugely impressive and innovative company, which has developed two unique products in response to customer demand, both of which have vast potential.
"IAC is innovating all the time in all its markets, and despite the downturn in manufacturing, the company grew 61 per cent last year and is now the largest noise control product designer and manufacturer in Europe."
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