A4 Automation Ltd, formerly Phytron UK Ltd, was founded in early 2015 as the exclusive UK agent for the whole product portfolio from Phytron GmbH in Germany. This now permits new and complementary product lines to be considered by our UK customers and companies aspiring for the highest quality, performance and value for money. From the seeds of its inception in 1947 as an engineering laboratory, formed by Siegfried Auerhammer to analyse physical and scientific phenomena with their electronic equipment, to the present day Phytron evolves and grows with an affinity towards automation and associated scientific and instrumentation systems. In 1964, the ZSS and ZSH series of high precision and acoustically quiet stepper motors were introduced to the markets. In 1984, following the success of motors for extreme environments, the VSS and VSH stepper motors with gearing, literally filled a void for applications inside vacuum chambers that are still acknowledged as the most compact, ultra-reliable and the best money can buy solutions from anywhere in the world. Capable of surviving in liquid helium, ambients of +300°C and vacuums found in deep space, as well as being resistant up to 1MJ/kg of radiation. These series pathed the way to Space motor production, approved by many renowned bodies including ESA and NASA. Alongside the motor developments were innovations in the controls and controllers. The IXE 19" sub-rack mounted multi-axis motion and stepper drive self-contained systems were an instant hit in the early 80s, soon followed by many drive cards with cutting edge features to enhance performance and provide greater ease of use, such as the 1-Step-Drive for Siemens SIMATIC ET200S® and a high power stage for the Arduino. The latest is the phyMOTION® modular system that incorporates power supplies, drives, motion controller, plc I/O, sensors and field bus connectivity. Space motors and those for extreme environments remain 'feathers in the cap'. Rightly so because companies trusted the products not to fail and they did not. Whether it's a complicated assembly of motor, gearing and transducers for terrestrial use in polar regions, high temperature down-hole logging, or on the Giotto, Cassini and Mars' Rover Curiosity missions, amongst hundreds of other successful deployments, the products performed flawlessly.