James Kent Group

James Kent’s history stretches back around 200 years to making glazes for the Potteries. By the late 1990s, the business was 95% reliant on pottery manufacturers within a 20-mile radius of its Fenton site and when that industry began to decline, it had to change direction fast.

Today, around 85% of what the 48-strong business makes is exported. Its glass is sprinkled onto red-hot steel to lubricate it as it is pushed through a die, then falls away cleanly as it cools.

It is used to encase nuclear waste, handled by robotic arms behind a metre of protective glass, and as a coating on wind and jet engine turbines.

These customers need glass made precisely to their specifications, but the company’s testing methods had not kept pace.

Simon Nash, Managing Director of the James Kent Group, said: “Traditionally, we used a flow trial system, which was physical testing. It gave you a snapshot of how the glass flowed, but only across a very narrow range of temperatures.”

For James Kent, growth depends on constantly moving into new, more technical markets, and that depends on data.

Customers were asking for ever more precise glass and the business needed a way to see exactly how its products behaved at high temperatures which meant investment was needed in a hotstage microscope to allow the business to observe and analyse material behaviour at high temperatures in real time.

Simon said: “It’s about keeping growth going by finding new industries to get into and expanding our technical capabilities. For that you need information, and once you have the information, you can control the glass.”

Tim Kirby, Lead Digital Transformation Specialist at Made Smarter West Midlands, first met the business around two years ago and when a project emerged in its R&D testing, he brought in WMG at the University of Warwick, one of its strategic partners.

WMG reviewed how the business worked and produced a digital roadmap which showed that automating the company’s high-temperature testing was the top priority.

The hotstage microscope heats a small sample of glass and records how it softens, melts, flows and cools in real time and in precise detail from 500°C to 1,500°C. It can also measure how runny the glass becomes and how much it expands as it heats, giving the team data it simply could not capture before.

Made Smarter West Midlands and WMG helped James Kent compare two microscopes, looking beyond the purchase price at long-term running costs. The system it chose comes with a five-year warranty on its kiln, while kilns on the alternative cost around £13,000 and needed replacing every three to six months.

With a £20,000 grant from Made Smarter West Midlands, James Kent invested around £59,000 in the new equipment.

Onur Eren, Principal Engineer at WMG, said: “The top priority for the business was bringing automation into their high temperature material testing process and since James Kent knew what it wanted, our role was to provide independent technical advice, making sure the business was investing in the right equipment.

“The new automation capability will make the process faster, cheaper and better quality, and the business will get far more out of its testing facility.”

Tim said: “The testing before was quite narrow. Now the business can understand which materials it can add to the glass to change properties such as strength and melting point.

“It will open up new markets and play a major part in their growth plans as well as create new jobs and upskill its current staff. As the business knows from its history, diversification is really important for any manufacturer today.”

Simon said: “We can now see exactly how the glass is performing. This will shorten R&D times and help us improve and stabilise our manufacturing techniques as we scale up from the lab to industrial production, so what we make on the factory floor matches exactly what we’ve developed.”

Xu Cao, Technical Director at James Kent, said: “We’re very much an R&D-driven company and we never stop improving. The new system gives us far more control and a lot more insight. We have to get the chemistry right, but we also have to understand how the glass reacts to temperature and this shows us exactly that.”

The business expects the microscope to cut product development times by up to 40% and reduce waste from inconsistent batches by 30 to 50%, while fewer furnace runs will also cut energy use. This will support its ambition to reach net zero by 2035.

The digital technology is already helping James Kent respond to a growing stream of enquiries, from new battery technologies and 3D printing to specialist glass for UK aerospace.

Simon said: “We get approached a lot, but we need the confidence that we can support those customers. Some of what people ask for is at the extremes of what’s technically possible. This helps us assess what we can deliver on an industrial scale.”

For the lab team, the change means a new way of working. Staff have been trained to use the microscope and to understand the data it produces, building digital skills across the business.

Xu also completed Made Smarter’s four-day leadership programme, which helps managers build their digital knowledge and pass it on to colleagues.

The business plans to recruit a further lab technician, R&D developers and production operatives, creating up to 11 new jobs by 2029.

Simon added: “The investment should make a profound difference. Technical glass for niche markets is at the core of the business and this means we can develop glass exactly to our customers’ requirements and prove that we’ve got the product they need.

“The expert guidance of Made Smarter West Midlands has been really beneficial not only in terms of the funding, but the expert guidance as well.”