They won't have to close the lifts at Blackpool Tower on wild and windy days once a Bradford firm has installed new equipment.

Renold Hydraulics & Variators, based in Thornbury, Bradford, has come up with equipment which will shortly be installed on the tower's lift wires to make them secure in high winds.

The equipment includes arms which stabilise the wire until the lift car arrives when a censor trips a switch which moves the arms out of its way.

The firm, which is the former Crofts engineering company, now employs 60 people whose aim is to expand as part of the global Renolds Plc.

The company has also been involved in providing specialist lift equipment at the London Underground and the London Stock Exchange.

The firm, whose roots stem back to 1887 when Crofts was founded by Frederick Lister Croft, has won a series of major orders of between £100,000 and £200,000 in the last few months for the power transmission work it does for firms around the world. This involves manufacturing variable speed gearboxes.

This includes the Carter gearbox whose system was invented by Maurice Carter whose Bradford firm became part of Crofts in 1954. The Carter box is making a comeback as other companies come to replace them after 20 to 30 years of operating the quality box and through heavier marketing.

The Carter box is used, for example, by a firm in Taiwan which makes foil for circuit boards - linking old with new technology.

The firm is also expanding its shoring and groundworks section which has been involved in supplying massive steel hydraulic support struts underground for an excavation at Birmingham Airport.

Renold is also pushing its sub-contract and fabrication section which, until recently, included providing vital parts for the Challenger Two tank.

Bernie Tyas, from the company, said: "We are also offering a package solution for companies which means that we come up with all the parts needed to complete an engineering job and make it easier for the customer to complete the work they have been contracted to do."

Mr Tyas added: "We are also promoting our service and repair service for companies already using our equipment and all these things will together provide us with more work."

The firm is also looking at ways of helping other companies become more environmentally-friendly by designing and developing a filtration system which helps remove fine particles from the coolant when grinding machines are operated.