SUCCESS STORY #5: Wilson Benesch – From music passion to sustainable audio systems
A high-end audio designer made in Britain
“Wilson Benesch is a family-owned company based in Sheffield, England. With every new product, the company has strived to deliver groundbreaking design to the global community of passionate music lovers whose discerning interest demands the highest performance audio systems” introduced Craig Milnes, Design Director at Wilson Benesch.
Wilson Benesch is first and foremost a research & design-based company. Since its foundation in 1989, R&D has been anchored in the company’s DNA. Wilson Benesch has a proven track record of turning novel ideas into successful marketing and award winning products.
R1 HIFI Rack Best Industrial Design – Guangzhou International Audio Show
Torus Infrasonic Generator Subwoofer of Year – Rocky Mountain International HIFI Press Award
Innovation at Wilson Benesch
The cornerstone of Wilson Benesch growth has been its constant reinvestment in manufacturing. Today the company manufactures – under the same roof as the R&D – every component, sub assembly and final product. Such integration enables a unique acceleration of R&D. Indeed, an established engineering team delivers the highest quality comments to tight schedules, using the most up-to-date and state-of-the-art, Computer Aided Design & Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAD-CAM) systems. High precision, latest generation computer numerically controlled (CNC) metal machining plant is complimented by extensive advanced composite manufacturing facilities that have been incrementally developed over the past 25 years.
Furthermore, a highly trained engineering team is operating unique, purpose-built facilities for processing a wide variety of well-known composites technologies such as pre–impregnated (Pre-Preg), Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding (VRTM), Resin Infusion. Wilson Benesch also uses a top notch thermo-formed composite process, based on an exclusive hybrid polymer / carbon fabric combination.
Notably, Wilson Benesch has established strong collaborations in the 2D-materials domain, being the first to market several products incorporating carbon nanotubes and graphene. More recently, the company made sizeable capital investments in 3D-printing to enable inhouse manufacturing of carbon-fibre-loaded polymer componentry. Additionally, titanium-based structures developed in collaboration with the Advanced Materials Research Centre in Sheffield are now sub-contracted. In the frame of the SSUCHY project, Wilson Benesch has leveraged its broad-based capability and accelerated its transition from lab-based data to full scale component realization. Indeed, all the company hands-on experience was available to validate lab-scale model predictions within the shortest possible timeframes.
High performance Green Loudspeaker system
Why taking part in the SSUCHY Project?
Craig Milnes is convinced that “Collaborative projects are all about making one plus one equal three”. “The huge number of collaborative partners in SSUCHY are now showing outcomes that will enable a paradigm shift in materials science and ground-breaking product design. In so doing, SSUCHY will make a very significant contribution to the most important design challenge of our time: sustainability” he added.
According to Mr. Milnes, the French-based SSUCHY Project’s management team as well as Bristol University have overcome the huge challenge of bringing together some of the most creative capabilities of the European industry. Indeed, the consortium brings “blue-chip” large industries & SME’s together with world-class leading academics, scientists and engineers. All this to accelerate the development of materials science that will redefine tomorrow’s sustainable product design. Mr. Milnes also observed that SSUCHY is currently delivering on its ambitious promises. According to him, the successful outcomes and marketing milestones being met would have been impossible otherwise.
« It has been a privilege for Wilson Benesch to be part of this significant challenge and we are keen to meet the deadlines of delivering the Next Generation Products that have been made possible by the outcomes of SSUCHY. » commented Craig Milnes.
Despite many challenges following the Covid19 pandemic, Wilson Benesch is still on track to deliver the world’s first performance driven “Green Loudspeaker”. Moreover, all the basic research accomplished by SSUCHY’s academic partners has clearly opened a wide range of new and extremely exciting opportunities, which would have been inconceivable prior to SSUCHY’s work.
“In every sense, this is then, groundbreaking work that will provide a significant competitive advantage that will highlight Wilson Benesch as one of the leading innovators within the High-End Audio Market.“ concluded Craig Milnes.