What a fantastic year we’ve had at Eadon! There’s no denying that 2022 continued to throw commercially challenging conditions at all businesses – the tail end of the pandemic combined with geopolitical challenges and supply chain disruptions, followed by an energy crisis – so we are extremely happy to have seen significant growth over the past 12 months, both in terms of team numbers and our turnover.

Our projects this year have been varied and challenging – just as we like it! Some of the key highlights of the year have included:

• The unveiling of the Woolbeding glasshouse, a 143m2 kinetic structure at the heart of a new section of the National Trust garden. The moving glasshouse was designed by Heatherwick Studios, and Eadon worked with them to design the concept of the mechanical equipment used to open and close the sepals, providing initial option studies, concept reports and support for the build phase. Read more in our project overview.

Photo by Hufton+Crow

• We further developed REACH, our modular remote handling system, and one of the key phases of this year’s work was the development and testing of a robot arm.
• We have worked in collaboration with teams from Sellafield on a critical, long-term study offering support with research and optioneering for future solutions.
• We’ve undertaken 2 sprint projects this year with Sellafield’s Engineering Centre of Excellence (ECoE), the first looking at the Thorpe Receipt and Storage Tank, and the most recent one looking at solutions for remotely cutting holes in sealed waste containers. These are a great opportunity for collaboration and development for everyone involved.
• We exhibited at the NDA supply chain event in July – we were really proud of the stand that our team put together to showcase our nuclear equipment developments, and it was fantastic to get back to in-person events this year.

• Cody Dock’s rolling bridge in the heart of London has been a fun and unique challenge for us, helping to create an environment for a thriving creative community and allow access to nature and green spaces. The 13-tonne bridge is counterbalanced in such a way that it can be fully rotated by hand, a mechanical feat based on traditional canal lock technology.
• We’ve taken on 7 great new team members this year; 3 graduates, 2 engineers, a designer and an Operations Manager, and it’s fantastic to see the team develop and grow.

Looking forward to 2023 we intend to continue our work in growing the business into key industry sectors including nuclear decommissioning and fusion, kinetic structures and flood defence. We have a comprehensive training programme continuing this year for staff at every level and have plans to grow our team of engineers as well as putting in place some supporting roles. We have projects in the pipeline for further development of our nuclear technologies, as well as work on some large bridge constructions and naval defence challenges.

We’d like to give a big shout out to all our customers and suppliers who have made the past year a success for Eadon, as well as to our wonderful team, without whom the exciting work we’re lucky to be doing in solving all sorts of engineering challenges just wouldn’t be possible.

Merry Christmas and a happy new year from everyone at Eadon!