Stuart continues to shape the future of Natgraph’s engineered drying and curing solutions
Stuart, one of Natgraph’s longest-serving Design Engineers, joined the company in August 1993 straight after completing a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Product Design and Manufacturing at Buckinghamshire College, then affiliated with Brunel University.
Starting his career as a CAD Technician, Stuart’s early work involved managing, organising and folding detailed design drawings for sheet metal fabrications. He was recruited by one of Natgraph’s founding members, Ken Furmidge, a pivotal figure in the company’s formation.
Ken played a foundational role in establishing Natgraph in 1979. His innovation began by repurposing a metal halide floodlight, originally developed during his time at Thorn Lighting, into an exposing lamp for screen printing. The very first piece of Natgraph equipment was designed on Ken’s kitchen table and delivered in the back of a Morris Minor estate car, a testament to the company’s entrepreneurial spirit.
Since those early days, Stuart has become a permanent and vital presence within the design department. Over the years, producing engineering drawings for countless components, including Natgraph’s signature heating and cooling modules and a wide array of supporting ancillary equipment.
More recently, Stuart has been instrumental in developing new PCB conformal coating modules, such as the LCD Conditioning Module and the Vacuum Conditioning Module (VCM), an innovative in-line solution designed to eliminate air bubbles in conformal coatings on printed circuit boards.
He has also contributed to the design of advanced air dryers, combining hot air and infrared technology, tailored for integration into live flexographic production lines for a global leader in printing and converting systems.
With over three decades of experience, Stuart continues to shape the future of Natgraph’s engineering excellence – one drawing at a time.
For information about our cost-effective, energy-saving industrial drying and curing solutions for web dryers designed for continuous roll-to-roll processing, automotive decorative trim/sensors/decals, plastic cards/security printing, print finishing, textile transfers, packaging, electronics/biosensors, graphics/overlay applications, email: info@natgraph.co.uk
