AN Otley engineering firm has won a major order from Japanese car giants Nissan to supply specialist equipment to their Sunderland plant.

Craftsman Tools, of Pool Road, will make manual and hydraulic operated 'fixturing', specially made to hold components on a production line.

The order covers the manufacture of 60 cylinder head pallets which have been developed in a partnership between the Otley firm, the Japanese machine tool supplier and Nissan's own engineers.

Robert Johnson, Craftsman Tools managing director, said: "We are delighted that Nissan have placed several orders with us for our specialist fixturing.

"They confirm our determination to provide high specification workholding products at competitive prices."

An initial order by Nissan supplied two fixtures for their cam production line. They work with integral hydraulics which provide a pre-clamping facility before hydraulic clamping automatically takes place.

And the subsequent contracts mark another major success for Craftsman Tools which has developed its equipment to cover a wide range of uses including aerospace industries.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.