It all began in 1973…
…when, in a rapidly emerging drives market, three men felt that the company they worked for wasn’t evolving or innovating fast enough and decided to do something about it. KTK, named after its
three founders, was born. The trio, Ken Briggs, Trevor Wheatley and Kevin Curran, established their own drives manufacturing company in the heart of Mid Wales.
Mid Wales may seem like an odd choice of location for an electrical engineering business, but Newtown in Powys, at that time, was actively encouraging businesses into the area, premises were
readily available and the support they were offered was invaluable to a small start-up business. It seems it was the right choice; the company has expanded many times over 50 years, but Control Techniques remains rooted in the heart of the Mid Wales countryside.
KTK’s vision was to provide a new innovative drive that would meet the needs of the market. The following year they did just that with the release of the KTK 415V DC thyristor drive which improved performance, reliability, and energy efficiency for motor control.
In 1985 the business upsized its premises and repositioned itself as Control Techniques, it had been enjoying fast and profitable growth and needed to expand to keep up with product demand. As it grew in Newtown, so did its network globally, having developed close relationships with customers on a global scale, the necessity to be able to service them locally was a big part of the business strategy. From its early beginnings, Control Techniques today has its Headquarters, manufacturing, and R&D facilities firmly planted in Newtown with 23 Drive Centres around the world and a partner network in 70 countries to service customer needs.
Control Techniques has since created a global name for itself as pioneers in the drives industry. Recognising market opportunities and introducing a series of world’s first products to the market played a key role in the success and rise of Control Techniques over the ensuing years.
In 1982 the world’s smallest drive was invented then in 1986, Mentor, the world’s first fully digital DC drive was launched. The development of Mentor to the present day has made Mentor, arguably the world’s favourite DC drive. In 1989 the world’s first practical flux vector AC drive came to the fore. The role of the Commander CD was to control the speed of AC electric motors which were used for a host of applications from pumping, mixing and conveying to driving small machine tools and fans. Then in 1995, the birth of Unidrive the world’s first truly universal AC drive – a single product for all applications. It enabled all motor control requirements to be catered for in a single, compact product; sensorless vector, open loop, flux vector closed loop and high-performance brushless AC servo. This brings us to 2022 with the recent release of the latest generation of Commander. A micro general-purpose drive, Commander S with its Marshal app, is the first drive to come with an app interface and onboard NFC (Near Field Communication) technology as a standard feature. The Marshal app has revolutionised the way to interface with the drive covering commissioning, monitoring, diagnostics, and support.
Control Techniques are proud of its heritage over the past 50 years, having grown from just three to 1,400 employees, thanks to continued investment, and heroes in innovation. None of this would be possible, without one of the most important ingredients, the people. The term drive obsessed comes as a result of seeing the drive and determination of the many employees that have passed through its doors with the knowledge, innovation, and engineering excellence that contribute to an ever-growing and thriving drives business.
Our recent history
2023 was our 50th year… To celebrate our 50th anniversary we released a short film which shows our past but also paves the way for a bright and exciting future. A story that shows our entrepreneurial spirit, and passion for challenging the status quo. Undoubtedly, innovation, design, knowledge, and expertise are at the core of everything we stand for. Be it past, present, or future, our determination to be the number one drive supplier remains strong.
Meet DM-50, a character who embodies our drives and innovation. Dynamic, and spirited, this character represents our belief that no challenge is too great to overcome. We are proud of our history and excited to see what the next 50 years will bring.
Click here to view our 50th anniversary short film
Control Techniques achievements would not have been possible without our customers, so a big thank you goes to all our customers for their continued support by utilising our products, in more and more innovative ways. The business is dedicated to continuing to strive for excellence in everything we do and pushing to build and install award-winning drives, that will propel our customers to great success.