A COMPANY which designs robots is to receive a Royal visit after tripling the size of its headquarters to meet global demand.

Princess Anne will be visiting Labman in the small village of Seamer, outside Stokesley on October 10, to officially open its new 20,000 sq ft extension.

John Hesford, spokesman for Labman, said the new building was already filling up with orders.

“Our existing building at the moment is 10,000 sq ft and the new extension is 20,000 sq ft. It’s a large extension but it’s already filling up. There’s lots of orders coming in from big companies in America and also China, where there’s a big market starting to emerge for us.

“All of these orders require quite a bit of space to fill.”

The robotics and automation company specialises in creating robotic systems that don’t already exist.

With a wealth of new orders, including a large £2.5m formulation engine to build for Liverpool University’s Materials Innovation Factory in Liverpool, the increased floor space is already being earmarked for the ever-expanding projects that Labman is designing for clients across the world.

Another recent order, from a company based in China, was for a machine that would take the contents of one million vials and transplant them into smaller vials.

Labman invented a unique robot to do the job.

Engineers and designers are frequently called on to take a creative approach to engineering and as a result the working space is designed to encourage innovative thinking.

"As well as housing a large in-house machine shop, the new extension also features a squash court to complement the company’s existing go-karting track, pool tables and a full-sized climbing wall.

“The job requires creative thinking, so the facility we have here is quite unusual," said Mr Hesford.

"We have a climbing wall and go-karting track and now a squash court in it.

“We often receive requests for a system that does x and we go away and scratch our head and think how we can do that. Some of the solutions are incredibly complex and having these facilities often help them work things out in a different way. It’s quite a Wallace and Gromit place.”

Ian Riley, Labman’s technical director, added: “People are encouraged to think ambitiously and outside the box here. We’re pushing boundaries in what we build, so we ensure that working at Labman is never boring.”

The expansion of the building reflects the technology company’s ambitious recruitment goals from the North-East region.

Managing director Andrew Whitwell said: “Labman’s greatest asset is its people; we continually need more amazing engineers, both male and female to continue to create cutting edge systems.

“We are thrilled that Her Royal Highness, Princess Anne, who has been so supportive of engineering and gender equality in the sector, has agreed to open our new factory – it will be a great day.”