HIGH-TECH gear to ensure fighter pilots can function in after-dark combat is being produced at a new £400,000 unit at an Ulverston factory, reports Jennie Dennett.

Oxley Developments cut the cord of its Thin Film engineering facility, which is playing a role in producing essential kit for the British and US forces in the Gulf.

Filters made by Oxley to stop infra-red light from cockpit displays interfering with night vision goggles have been fitted in Tornados and Navy Lynx helicopters.

Coatings have also been produced to stop head-up displays and instrument panels being obscured by bright sun.

The new facility is turning out microscopically-thin coatings that can manipulate light, altering its wavelength or enhancing or stopping reflections.

It is so-called thin film technology, which means millions of bits of information can be accurately passed down fibre-optic cables no thicker than a human hair.

This has also been good news for spectacle wearers since new non-reflective coatings have been introduced to stop sunlight bouncing off lenses.

Such coatings have been produced by Oxley for some time for military purposes, but until recently they were being manufactured to order by another firm.

But after that company was bought by a French operation, Oxley decided to invest in its own facility.

It was built in Furness partly thanks to a £280,000 grant from Furness Enterprise and the North West Development Agency, plus £40,000 from a GlaxoSmithKline jobs creation fund.

"The grant was a huge enabler and catalyst," said a grateful Geoff Edwards, Oxley's managing director.

"We wouldn't have done it without that, no company could have taken the risk without that grant support."

Harry Knowles, chief executive of Furness Enterprise, said the cash ensured the firm had invested locally rather than built the facility at a partner company in India.

"In the Furness area, we have seen horrendous job losses and continue to see it with lay-offs at Barrow ship yard," he said.

"Having companies like Oxley invest in the future and create jobs is absolutely crucial."

The new facility has created 16 new jobs and safeguarded a further 65 at Oxley, which employs around 240 people in Barrow and Ulverston and another 10 in the USA.

Professor Edward Parker, formerly of Salford University - which has had links with Oxley for 10 years - opened the facility before a crowd of staff and invited guests, including Ulverston mayor Norman Bishop-Rowe.

"Oxley Developments is a very apt title. From the start in 1942 and during the following 62 years, there have been developments all along the line," said the professor.

"It is really an inspiration to see that in Ulverston there is a firm which is innovative, which is turning concepts and ideas into realities."

The new development should help Oxley to expand into new medical and laser protection markets and push its annual turnover - which topped £14 million last year - to even greater heights.