Strengthened development partnership with Crane Electronics

Crane Electronics has appointed 42 Technology for a major new product development programme.

This new programme builds on an existing successful partnership that has already helped bring to market an innovative new technology to test and calibrate torque wrenches.

The tJRS Opta system was previously designed and developed in partnership between 42 Technology and Crane Electronics (Crane) as the industry’s only fully automated threaded system that enables torque wrenches to be quickly and efficiently tested using the most realistic simulations of real-life applications. Typically applications include automotive, aerospace manufacturing and maintenance.

This next phase of work will see 42 Technology developing concepts and technologies for a potential range of next generation products that will then be evaluated and developed by Crane’s in-house engineering team.

42 Technology’s skills in developing innovative concepts and helping Crane Electronics to secure commercially-valuable IP in our core markets have been critical in developing the tJRS Opta and helping to build our international profile and sales. Our aim is to mirror that success and to significantly accelerate our product development cycle by combining Crane’s in-house engineering skills with the consultancy’s specialist expertise and experience of multiple technologies.

We were first appointed by Crane Electronics almost ten years ago to help reduce the cost and weight of the company’s existing friction brake-based system to test and calibrate torque wrenches.

Following that initial successful project, the work was quickly extended to include development of new concepts for a system using threaded fastener technology. This alternative approach is known as a more accurate technology to simulate real-life joint conditions for wrench calibration but setting up the tests and resetting the system afterwards have traditionally been very time consuming.

Our engineering specialists were brought in by Crane to help resolve this, to generate new product ideas and to develop a theoretical model of the lead concept that was then brought to market.

The resulting multiple patented tJRS Opta system is fully automated for fast set up and test: joint conditions can be changed via a software interface and are stored in a database, rather than requiring mechanical reconfiguration, and the joint can be quickly reset at the end of the test. In contrast with friction-brake systems that require costly and regular servicing to maintain optimal performance, Crane’s tJRS Opta has been specifically designed for use in the most demanding industrial environments and has specially-coated, lubricated components for longer life.