Royal salute to new technology (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Royal salute to new technology

The Prince with one of the hydrogel dressingsPRINCE Andrew expressed his admiration for the technology developed by a Ramsbury firm which supplies special material for treating serious burns and wounds when he visited last Thursday.

He dropped in on First Water in Hilldrop Road, in his capacity as the UK's special representative for international trade and investment.

Despite the steady rain, the Prince was in a buoyant mood as he was welcomed by managing director Cliff Andrews and members of his staff.

He was shown around the research and development laboratory where he saw how the special hydrogels, which mimic gels already existing in human eyes and between the vertebrae, are prepared.

They are particularly valuable for treating wet wounds because they can be manufactured to be either sticky or non-adhesive so as not to damage healing tissue.

He was clearly delighted to see how products that are used by health services all over the world are largely manufactured in one small factory in a Wiltshire village.

Mr Andrews said afterwards: "We are delighted the Prince has visited us today and shown such keen interest in the work we are doing at the forefront of medical manufacturing."

Sadly, because of the weather, children from Ramsbury Primary School were unable to attend the visit.

Mr Andrews set up First Water after being involved with a firm that made electro-cardiograph equipment, and had to buy in the gel surfaces for its electrodes.

He saw the potential for the development of gel dressings and tasked Dr Hugh Monro with developing them.

Dr Monro showed the Prince his research and development lab, where experiments are still going on to develop more products for the world market.

Peter Walker, the company's head of sales and marketing, said the visit had gone extremely well.

He said: "The Prince spoke to a lot of people about what work they did in the firm. He asked a lot of questions and showed genuine interest in our work here. After being shown round the manufacturing suite, he went into the conversion area, where the liquid is turned into gel."

The Prince was also introduced to a number of other Wiltshire business people. They included Paul Lawrence, managing director of Chippenham-based Decisions Made Easy Limited.

The company offers sales analysis software to major retailers, mainly suppliers to the largest supermarkets around the world.

The Prince went on to inspect military hardware on a tour of MAN ERF UK's revamped headquarters at Blagrove, Swindon.

He congratulated workers for winning a prized contract to supply the Armed Forces with more than 5,000 recovery and support vehicles.

He said: "I know people on the front line are really looking forward to getting these vehicles which will replace ageing ones."

In the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks the government ordered special vehicles to help the emergency services.

Units were designed in Swindon to deal with chemical attacks and they were used in London after the July bomb attacks.

The Prince told workers: "I'm glad that the emergency services have these vehicles to respond to such an attack."