Helping to unravel the secrets of our universe

Aug 20 2008 by Andrew Mernin, The Journal

DEEP underground on Japan’s Honshu Island, hundreds of scientists from around the world are preparing for the start of one of the biggest experiments on the planet.

A giant magnet, a 300km track and an accelerator await as the men in white coats get ready to get the T2K project under way.

But at the heart of the vast experiment, which stretches from Tokai in the East to Kamioka in the West, is a piece of North East-built equipment.

Durham Sheet Metal Works, of South Shields, which first made its name servicing shipbuilding companies more than 50 years ago, has built a key component in the project which aims to tell us more about space.

The company has been commissioned by scientists at Liverpool University to build a £50,000 steel cage known as a “detector basket” which will be fitted with various instruments and encased in a 1,000-tonne magnet then buried underground.

The detector will be used as part of the multinational study into the properties of particles called neutrinos.

The experiment is similar to those set to be undertaken in Switzerland by the European Organization for Nuclear Research – known as CERN – in the world’s largest particle physics laboratory.

Scientists will accelerate a proton beam of neutrinos to an observatory 300km away in a bid to learn more about the make-up of the universe. At first glance, the contract would seem like an usual one for the South Tyneside firm – a family-owned business which has mainly produced fabrications for power generation and the oil gas sector since the gradual decline of North East shipbuilding.

However, the sheet metal firm has already proved its worth in the science sector.

Director David Gracie, whose father has run the business for the last 20 years, said: “We became an approved supplier to the Science & Technology Facilities Council in 2006 after going through the European Union tendering process. And Mr Gracie believes the company has what it takes to land further science contracts. We have already supplied them with goods in the past and they must have been impressed.”

The company expects to see its revenue climb by around 30% on this year to £2m.