ONE of the country’s most innovative technology companies showed The Prince of Wales how it is hoping to reinvent the future.
Kromek Group welcomed His Royal Highness Prince Charles to its Sedgefield factory as part of his tour of County Durham and Darlington on Tuesday.
The firm, based at NETPark, is a worldwide supplier of detection technology focusing on the medical, security screening and nuclear markets.
His Royal Highness was given a guided tour of the laboratories and production facilities to see the technological innovation taking place in the Sedgefield site. He oversaw Kromek’s latest project, a machine to form the basis of a global pandemic early warning system in detecting biological threats.
During the visit, The Prince of Wales unveiled a plaque to officially mark the commissioning of The Brinkman Cadmium Zinc Telluride Growth Facility of 154 furnaces.
Kromek is one of only four companies in the world that manufactures Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT), which is used to create radiation detectors and diagnostic imaging systems.
It has used its ground-breaking technology to set up a machine at Teesside International Airport which can detect Covid particles in the air ahead of a potential rollout to venues and hospitals.
Dr Arnab Basu, CEO of Kromek, said: “It was a privilege to host His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales on a visit to Kromek today.
“The visit is recognition of the hard work and dedication of the extraordinary team we have built at Kromek.
“The tour of our facility included all areas of our work: medical imaging; radiation detection and our emerging, bio-security capability. It also marked the official commissioning of the company’s Brinkman CZT Growth Facility of 154 furnaces, which provides the core of our detection technology for the advanced imaging segment.
“I was also delighted to be able to tell the Kromek story, and to share our advanced capability of pathogen detection, which can provide the intelligence to prevent another global pandemic.”
The Prince of Wales travelled to the region via British Royal Train on Tuesday morning, disembarking at Darlington railway station before travelling to Darlington Farmer’s Auction Mart.
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