Our branch in the USA has just moved to their new offices. Their new address is:

24900 Pitkin Road, Suit 230, Spring. TX 77386.

Tel (001) 281 719 5116

Rubberatkins MD Nick Atkins was pleased to present South Aberdeenshire Swimming club a cheque for £1000.00 towards the cost of their new website. The presentation was made to Katherine Pickles who is the Chairperson for SAS and who was delighted to receive the support. Jill Webster, Provost of Aberdeenshire, also attended the presentation showing her support of the club.

Rubberatkins Quality Engineer Aki Ikaheimo will be running the in the Baxters Loch Ness Marathon in September. He is raising money for the SSPCA, please visit his page and kindly make a donation - its for a good cause!

Click here for details

Rubberatkins was happy to present Eric Sim with a well-earned retirement gift. Eric joined the company on 15th August 2002 as our Maintenance Electrician and officially retired in November. We are pleased that he has chosen to return to us on a part-time basis.

A few months ago we offered up some of our old redundant computers for employees to purchase for £10 which was to be donated to charity. We did manage to find buyers for all 9 off them and as a result raised £90.

Our chosen charity was the Archie Foundation, who does a lot of fantastic work at the Royal Aberdeen Children’s hospital. In addition to the £90 raised from the sale of the computers, Rubberatkins topped this up to £250 and today we received a thank you card in the post.

For more information on the Archie Foundation click here

On Monday 19th November 2012 building work started at our headquarters here in Aberdeen. We are pleased to announce that we are adding a further 1000m2 to our facility. This will provide us with extra manufacturing space, a brand new custom-designed R&D facility and double the size of our tooling area. This is a very exciting project and we will be posting regular updates on the building progress along with a photo diary.

Work will be completed by 29th March 2013, just in time for Rubberatkins to celebrate its 25th anniversary……

WEEK ONE

Ground preparation. Our existing test facility has been moved to make room for the new building. The foundations have been marked out and digging has begun.

WEEK TWO

The foundations have been laid and the supports for the steel structure have been cemented in place. The first layers of the main foundations have been laid and the top cementing should begin next week.

WEEK FOUR

The demolition has begun and the old tool store is being taken down. The gas mains have been laid and the external drainage has been started. Everything is now in place for the steel structure, once the old tool store has gone then preparations will start for the new building.

Rubberatkins is proud to be a sponsor of the Gordonian Rugby Club. The team currently is in 3rd place in the RBS Caledonia Regional Division 1 league and is one of North-East Scotland’s up and coming team.

This season Rubberatkins sponsored post protectors for the 1st and 2nd XU, with the new vertical Rubberatkins logo and of course, our support of the team. The photographs taken at Countesswells show the new protectors doing their job!

The Gordonian RFC run three teams are always looking out for new players (and spectators) so if you are interested in playing, getting fit or wishing to be a social member the club can be contacted through the website.

http://www.gordonianrfc.com

Matches are normally played on a Saturday afternoon, a full list of fixtures can be found on the Scottish Rugby website.

http://www.scottishrugby.org/community/index.php?option=com_joomleague&func=showResultsRank&p=

In May 2012 Rubberatkins were visited by a group of pupils from Bucksburn Academy in Aberdeen. The pupils had been working on a project at the school about wind turbines, which included building models of them as well as researching how they work. To aid in there project Rubberatkins invited the group along to see our newly operational wind turbine and to see inside the turbine itself and shown how it all worked. Rubberatkins hope that the pupils learnt a lot on their visit and would like to thank them for the wonderful thank you letter and picture.

Rubberatkins are delighted to be associated with Newtonhill Boys Club and have become proud shirt sponsors for the clubs youngest age group. The boys club are affiliated with Aberdeen & District Juvenile Football Association and play in 4 aside festivals across the region. The boys are all aged between 6 and 7 and this is their first taste of organised football. The 4 aside format was developed by the Scottish Football Association aimed at developing talent at such a young age. The festivals run from early April until January the following year and two teams have been entered for the season 2012/13. So far the boys have started really well and are improving all the time. Just look at the beaming faces on this photograph taken before a recent festival. Rubberatkins wish the boys every success in the future and who knows we may even see one or two playing in a Scotland Jersey in 20 years.

On Sunday 6th May, Banchory Boys Football Club Under 17’s were playing in the final of the Scottish Youth Football Association Challenge Cup. After a gruelling 90 minutes with the score at 1-1 the game headed into extra time. Unfortunately, their rivals, Bellfield Royals, scored after three minutes, and although Banchory won a penalty late on, they could not convert as it came crashing off the bar. Rubberatkins, kit sponsor of Banchory Boys Football Club U17’s, would like to congratulate the whole team and managers on getting to the final and wish them every success for the rest of the season.

Rubberatkins wind turbine is now fully operational. The project was completed on the 16th April after many weeks of construction. The project, led by Green Cat Renewables and Enercon, has taken 3 months from digging and laying foundations to the construction of the turbine and connection to the grid.

2012 will see the construction of a Wind Turbine on the Rubberatkins site to power the factory, offices and test facility. The ground was broken on construction on 11th January with completion expected by April 2012.

The Enercon E33 is capable of producing 330kW and will stand 67 metres tall. The implementation of this wind turbine will see Rubberatkins taking a big step towards 100% renewable energy usage.

Rubberatkins will be operational from their new purpose built office and factory facility from 3rd August 2009.

Great progress is being made on Rubberatkins new Manufacturing and R&D facility despite the cold winter and we are well on target for a July 24th Completion.

Rubberatkins announces 1st November an investment of around £3 million ($4.5Million USD) in state-of-the-art premises and the purchase of new equipment to increase its manufacturing and testing capabilities. The purpose-built property will provide the company with 12,500 sq ft of warehouse space and 5,500 sq ft of office space across two storeys and the firm will move into the building in the third quarter of 2009. Strong growth over the last few years has led Rubberatkins - designer and manufacturer of custom made elastomer components for the oil and gas industry - to outgrow its current space.

Nick Atkins, director of Rubberatkins says, “We have experienced significant growth aided by our investment in our research and development facilities. We launched a new range of products earlier in the year and also installed high-tech laboratory equipment to enhance our rubber compound development. We have purchased new production equipment to increase our manufacturing capacity, so as our operations have grown so too has our need for more space.”

“Our purpose built offices will be located in the Science and Technology Park in Bridge of Don and are twice the size of our current premises in Altens. We’ve had full control over the design of the new building to ensure it fully meets our needs and requirements and construction is expected to begin early in the new year. Research and development is a high priority for us as we strive to provide our clients with products that perform in extreme environments.”

“The new, larger workshop facilities will allow us to continue to provide our clients with robust and reliable rubber sealing solutions.”

Well not the real kind more like the stuff you see in movies. Yes, employees from Rubberatkins Ltd and their families enjoyed a fantastic day out at the Bedlam Paintball down at Edzell. The teams were split up into 2 squads (Red V’s Green).

Lets just say everyone one fired up for this, but to be honest it was the red team that prevailed by dismantling the green team within the first 4 game scenarios.

Roll on to our next adventure!

This month marks the 20th of trading for Rubberatkins. The Altens-based firm was established by directors Nick Atkins and Jill Webster with the aim of solving fundamental engineering problems using innovative rubber technology. Two decades on, Rubberatkins has expanded its operations internationally with the opening of a US base in Houston and company turnover continues to increase year on year.

Rubberatkins has recently made a significant investment in cutting-edge rubber machining technology, testing and measuring equipment. This allows it to further develop its range of products and customize elastomer materials according to parameters of individual applications.

Nick Atkins, director of Rubberatkins explains “Our investment in a CNC lathe and measurement equipment allows us to machine a range of sizes up to 16” diameter and using our new CMM machine we can verify the associated dimensions. By installing this range of equipment and using our extensive knowledge and expertise with elastomers, we have been able to reduce our reliance on 3rd party suppliers, expand our product offering and be able to provide prototypes in any material in fraction of the time.”

The company has entered another phase of product growth; at OTC 2008 it launched a new range of High Pressure Packer Cups. The HP Cup is a product designed to hold differential pressures up to 18.000 PSI at temperatures reaching 160°C. With significantly higher capabilities than any other products currently on the market, the HP Cup provides the operator with increased reliability and safety, reducing the risk of expensive failures.

The team at Rubberatkins designs and manufactures a wide range of custom components in every available elastomer (including NBR, HNBR, FKM, FFKM & TFE-P) as well as bonding rubber to metal components for the oil and gas industry.

Nick continues, “During 20 years in business we have witnessed a number of changes and to meet the diverse demands of the industry, we continue to develop materials for extreme environments. We understand that each job is different and that more clients are looking for solutions that best meets their needs. Our materials are tailored to cope with high temperatures, pressures H2S and compatibility with aggressive chemicals such as completion fluids.”

With offices in Aberdeen and Houston, Rubberatkins elastomer problem solving capabilities are considered industry leading within the down hole and surface sealing sectors.