Bradford Engineering B.V. (Bradford) is a prominent European developer and manufacturer of satellite attitude and orbit control subsystems (AOCS), propulsion and thermal subsystems and components. The activities are organized in product lines; each of which ranks top positions (first or second) within the European supplier field.

The operational base of the company is located in the southwestern part of the Netherlands, near Roosendaal, about in the centre of the triangle Rotterdam, Breda and Antwerp. Thus, there is excellent connectivity and accessibility for customers and suppliers. A well-trained aerospace workforce is available in the area because of the location of the Netherlands Air Force Helicopter Maintenance Center in Woensdrecht at less than 5 km.

The Company’s annual revenue is derived from a mix of proprietary and non-proprietary products. Within each product line, there is a healthy mix of recurring business, one-off orders (to support specific scientific and commercial satellite platforms) and strategic developments in preparation of future markets and/or products.

While its customers are primarily major European aerospace industry leaders, Bradford also derives revenue from smaller, independent European and non-European customers. The operations are fully compliant with the latest industry quality standards such as EN 9100:2003, ESA ECSS-Q-70A, and local regulatory business rules.

In the past 15 years, the European space and satellite market has aimed to reduce its reliance on products controlled by the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), a set of United States government regulations. The major European integrators and the European Space Agency have placed significant emphasis on buying within the EU to avoid ITAR controlled products, even if that incurs a financial premium. Bradford has used this opportunity to advance towards a strong European supplier position and meanwhile create competitive positions amongst international suppliers in the field.

Bradford Engineering B.V. currently is a 100% Dutch SME Company. All shares are in the possession of the Dutch holding company Bradford Beheer B.V. The holding company and Bradford Engineering B.V. execute their registered business at De Wijper 26, 4726TG Heerle, The Netherlands. In 2001, the financial structure of the holding company Bradford Beheer B.V. was reinforced by a 28.5% external participation in shares by N.V. BOM (Brabant Development Agency), a reputed regional investment and participation agency.

The management has adequate internal funds for expansion, for investments in technology and developments, for maintaining company quality and for education.

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For the professional execution of projects as well as for the reliable delivery of products for the supported product lines, the company is equipped with the resources as shown below.

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Up to 1989, a strong position was created in the human space exploration programme for the development of payloads. Later, up to 2004, a world leadership position in the development and delivery of Glovebox systems resulted in contracts with ESA, NASA, RKA, and precursors of JAXA.

In 1994, the company recognised the inevitability for the development of own components in order to decrease the dependence on institutional markets. These new components (valves, heat exchangers, flow meters, pressure transducers, fans) were quickly embraced by the existing customer base and led to a further growth of the company which ownership was transferred to the second generation of the Voeten family.

In 1997, the company employed 29 people and had to expand its offices as well as production facilities. These new facilities were acquired in Heerle, near Roosendaal at about 20 km north of the old factory. Raoul Voeten became CEO of the company.

In 2001, the holding company of Bradford agreed with an investor agency on a 28.5% external participation in shares in the holding to enable Bradford to realise a growth and diversification plan. The growth scenario related to the space business mainly while the diversification plan also held a spin-off component.

In 2005, the efforts devoted to the incubation of spin-offs lead to a splitting. Two space technologies were placed in the separate company Bradford Instruments, for further development and preparation for market applications. This separation was necessary to make the technologies sellable whilst maintaining the space business as the core business.

In 2006, a final step in the implementation of an efficient and lean subsystem & component supplier organisation was made through a re-organisation, mainly affecting the “manned space” division of the company. A clear focus within the space business was the key to achieve a strategic supplier role in Europe. Nowadays, the products mainly find their way into satellite attitude and orbit control subsystems (AOCS), and propulsion and thermal systems. A substantial growth of the space business is being realised and a solid supplier role has been established whereby the company employs 50 people.

Since 2009, Bradford has engineering and production well controlled, is equipped and certified as a fully autonomous entity and is capable of large series production of space qualified hardware. Subsystem capabilities are recognised and responsibilities in all three fields of operation (AOCS, propulsion and thermal systems) are awarded to Bradford by ESA and prime contractors. Moreover, the components portfolio is strategically extended in close harmony with ESA and with national road mapping activities as well as prime contractor technology needs.

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Market
Bradford aims to expand its European position as system and components supplier. Main areas of interest are AOCS, propulsion and thermal systems. Strong emphasis on recurring products and dedicated developments in partnership with primes are envisioned as a good tool for realization of this ambition. In the longer term, Bradford aims to become a strong European based equipment supplier acting on the worldwide space market.

Strategy
Maintain a leading supplier role in aerospace and make clear decisions on risk reduction strategies to achieve the best delivery reliability. Bradford aims to diversify its activities into appending fields of interest.

Employment
Long-term continuity and profitable business is a sound basis for high-quality production and good return on investment. In this respect, well-skilled and motivated personnel are seen as key factors for a sound employment base.

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Testing
- Thermal (vacuum) facilities
- Leak and pressure testing
- Balancing (ISO 1940, G < 0.1)
- Micro-disturbance testing (NSD < 210-7 N/√Hz)
- Flow and pressure calibration, referenced to primary standards
- Various automated systems using Labview® interfacing
- Precision cleaning facility (MIL-1246B, Class 10)

Equipment
- Machines and tooling centres with CAM-links
- CAD workstations
  ● Autodesk Inventor 11
  ● Dassault Systems CATIA V5
- Electrical Design Stations
  ● ORCAD V10
  ● ULTICAP / ULTIBOARD
- Analysis & Simulation
  ● Structural: MSC Nastran 2005.5.0
  ● Fracture: ESACRACK
  ● Thermal: ESATAN-FHTS
  ● CFD: FLUENT, DSMC
  ● Simulation: Matlab-Simulink
- Electronics laboratory
- Clean room Class 100K and 10K, equipped with Class 100 flow benches

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Thanks to its philosophy of quality and flexibility, together with its highly trained and experienced staff, Bradford developed into a competitive contractor and has firmly established itself in the aerospace market.

Bradford has the expertise to conduct projects from the study phase to the design, manufacturing, and verification of the actual flight standard product. The aerospace products of Bradford are divided in four product lines in space engineering:
- Attitude and Orbit Control Subsystems and Components;
- Chemical Propulsion Components;
- Cold Gas and Ion Propulsion Feed Systems;
- Avionics, Thermal and Instruments.

Attitude and Orbit Control Subsystems (AOCS)
Bradford has acquired the reaction wheel activities formerly carried out by Astrium Ltd. Cooperation with companies and institutes like TNO have resulted in innovative space components, such as sun sensors and solid propellant cold gas generators. The sun sensor group includes products, such as Co-Sine Sun Sensors, Coarse Sun Sensors, and Fine Sun Sensors. These products find their application in modern and innovative platforms such as Galileo, Globalstar2, Spacebus, Eurostar, and AlphaBus.

Chemical Propulsion Components (CPC)
Bradford focuses its developments on strategic components, mainly tailored to propulsion feed systems. These feed systems encompass all components in-between propellant tank and thruster branch. The following components are currently produced: Gauging Sensors, Pressure Transducers, Ultrasonic Flow Meters, Two- and Three-Way Valves, Flow Control Valves, Thruster Control Valves, (slow acting) Latch Valves etc. These components find their application in platforms such as Galileo, Globalstar2, Spacebus, Eurostar, and AlphaBus.
The continuous amendment of strategic and non-ITAR components to the Bradford product portfolio yields towards the integration of complete propulsion feed systems in the future. Together with the cold gas propulsion and feed system product line, all necessary qualifications are available and maintained.

Cold Gas and Ion Propulsion Feed Systems (CGS)
A specific product line is defined for cold gas and (ion) propulsion feed systems. Bradford primarily makes use of its divers range of components available for propulsion and thermal systems and continues to qualify specific cold gas and ion propulsion feed system components in order to differentiate itself on the world market. Bradford has definitely made the step towards being the European leading subsystem supplier in this field.

Avionics, Thermal & Instruments (ATI)
The avionics, thermal and instruments group focuses on avionics equipment in the broadest sense of the word. Typically, the equipment developed for the ATV as well as various subsystems for the ISS and the AlphaBus high power platform is residing in this group. The main instrument activities are tailored to the design and manufacturing of space laboratories and instruments for micro-gravity research or high-end terrestrial scientific applications. This group supports the glove boxes and associated technology that has been developed for the manned space exploration programmes. Bradford is recognised as the world leading authority in the field of glove boxes for microgravity research. For the continued support in ISS operations, Bradford and ESA have set up a Glovebox Technology Centre at ESTEC, which provides customer and scientific support for the glove box facilities that are deployed in the ISS.

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