13789/2GAZETTE & HERALD: ALFORD Technologies based at Bumper's Farm, Chippenham, has received a Queen's Award for Enterprise, after inventing a revolutionary way to disarm deadly landmines.
The company won the prestigious accolade for The Vulcan, an ingenious device which fires a projectile at high speed into a landmine, ripping it apart without detonating the explosives.
The technology, developed by inventor Dr Sidney Alford, is now used in landmine-clearing operations in countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan.
Dr Alford attended a reception at Buckingham Palace last month, in preparation for the official prize-giving on Monday.
He said: "The Queen's Awards for Enterprise are the UK's most prestigious awards for business performance.
Only 39 awards were made in the innovation category this year.
"We are proud to be among these winners and believe that the
recognition it gives us for our work, especially in humanitarian bomb
disposal, signals our acceptance as a significant innovator in the world of explosive ordnance disposal."
Dr Alford, who is a chemist as well as an inventor, founded Alford Technologies in 1985.
He said: "We are a tiny company without huge research budgets but for nearly two decades we have
consistently managed to come up with innovative ideas and turn those into successful products in a tenth of the time that larger organisations would take."
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