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Hadron Engineering Ltd – A proud heritage.
The origins of the Hadron SR (Static Roots) range of blowers go back to the formation of Wade Engineering on 29th December 1947. The acronym “Wade” derives from the name of the founders, Bryan Winslettand Costin Densham Engineering who used their wartime gratuities to fund the venture. Their first premises were in a wartime hut at Gatwick airport which had no proper sanitation and only pot bellied stoves to provide some warmth. The initial focus was on producing blowers for supercharging applications on both petrol engines and lorry diesels. Brand named “Ventor” they proved their worth on a number of famous racing and hill climb cars of the day – Dennis Poore’s Alpha Romeo and Ex Scuderia Ferrari/Tipo 8C-35,the Walker – Whitehead ERA R10B and many others. Later developments included Scavenge blowers, Variable compressors, Air motors and Temperature control units (early air conditioners). Other applications for the machines began to appear in industries such as water treatment, the pneumatic conveying of powdered and granular materials and many others until these eventually formed the mainstay of the business when superchargers fell out of fashion to be replaced by turbos. The company moved to more suitable premises in Brighton around 1955 where they were able to establish their own manufacturing facility rather than using sub-contractors. A take over by Howden Engineering Ltd saw the company name change to Howden Wade Ltd. Howden also aquired the rights to the Godfrey range of blowers from Sir George Godfrey & Partners. Meanwhile in 1978, Mike Adams set up a new company called Adams Ricardo Ltd having purchased the Ricardo range of blowers from Welworthy Ricardo Ltd. Designed by Sir Harry Ricardo, the range included 3 machines which were reciprocating compressors. They had 14 double acting pistons (7 at each end) and gave a virtually pulse free air discharge. The two stage version (LP at one end and HP at the other) coped with pressures up 2 Bar. The design was inherently quiet,requiring no silencers to achieve an overall noise level of 80 dBA, had a very high overall efficiency, was virtually vibration free and was very light weight since the pistons were constructed in Magnesium and the casings in aluminium – in other words it fulfilled every ones wish list except on price. High manufacturing costs eventually led to them losing out to the cheaper Roots type machines which were competing in the market place. Agreements were reached with both Howden Wade and Holmes Blowers, to package Roots type blowers on their behalf until eventually in 1990, Howden put the blower division up for sale and Adams Ricardo Ltd took the opportunity to purchase the manufacturing rights to both the Wade and Godfrey ranges. The company went from strength to strength and sold out to private investors in October 1998 who continued to trade under the same name but unfortunately it went into rapid decline under the new ownership and went into final administration in 2006. During this period, unhappy with the way things were going, two of the senior management left to set up Hadron Engineering Ltd in premises at Mitcheldean, Gloucestershire. Initially, they sold imported blowers under a dealership agreement but then took the opportunity of buying Adams Ricardo Ltd from the receiver and continue to supply the SR range of machines and spare parts whilst investigating and researching other exciting avenues in the field of high volume, low pressure air generators

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