Tucked away in a corner of Royston, a group of more than 100 highly-skilled engineers, manufacturers and general business-brains have been working tirelessly away to get their latest product ready to be shipped to customers across the globe.

Royston Crow: The Brüel & Kjær team at the V8900 launch event.The Brüel & Kjær team at the V8900 launch event. (Image: Archant)

Product manager Alex Williamson and his team at Brüel & Kjær unveiled the latest model – the V8900 – their most precise and technologically advanced Vibration Test System yet at a launch at the firm’s site in Jarman Way.

“It was a great launch event,” said Alex. “We had 50 sales and service personnel from all over the world visiting Royston to learn about the new V8900.”

The machine, known as a shaker, is a product of years of research and development and even if you’re not sure what a shaker is, chances are you’ll own something that has been tested in one.

They use vibrations to replicate conditions so electrical and mechanical products work under a range of circumstances.

So your mobile phone, your car and even the satellite going above your head in outer space would have been tested on this type of product.

Their speciality – the high-performance vibration and shock testing of particularly large devices is used by the automotive, aerospace and defence industries including NASA.

Impressively, 10 per cent of the company’s engineers are female, and many of their employees live in or close to Royston.

They also have staff from around the the world hailing from countries like Germany, India and Australia.

Alex, who lives in Melbourn and has been at the company since 2002, said the company has been Royston since the 1960s and used to be known as Ling Dynamic Systems or LDS before the takeover by Danish sound and vibration specialists Brüel & Kjær in 2008.

Despite all the changes, it’s clear from the buzz around the new product that their reputation is firmly in tact.

“Although we have a different name we are still here,” said Alex.

“And we want people to know that all of the design and manufacturing is carried out in our town – we think it’s pretty exciting that something used by NASA was made in Royston!”