Company setup in 2012 by university friends Graham Fick and Phil Bates to deliver high performance motor controllers for pumps, laboratory equipment and a range of other applications.
After focusing predominantly on custom projects, Zikodrive launches the first of a standard range of controllers at the end of 2015. The ZDSP stepper motor controller and the ZDBL15 sensorless brushless DC motor controller become the first stock products for the company. Both perform well commercially, enabling customers to deliver improved performance in a range of applications.
Following a successful launch of the first incarnation of the Zikodrive range, Head of Design Graham Fick is recognised at the Motion Control Industry Awards by winning Engineer of the Year. Here he is below, celebrating his achievements with, amongst others, TV’s own Helen Fospero (no less)!
Work continues in 2018 on a range of custom projects with the team expanding further and plans put in place to move into manufacturing motor controllers in house to reduce lead times and provide a fully vertically integrated service to customers.
The company moves premises in order to setup a dedicated production line. The first setup is a relatively simple setup but enables the company to cut lead times significantly and offer enhanced value to customers. Partly as a result of the work done in setting this up, as well as winning several contracts from European customers, co-founder Phil Bates is recognised as Entrepreneur of the Year at the Halifax Courier Business Awards.
As with a lot of companies, 2020 proved a difficult year with the Covid pandemic having a major impact on the company’s plans. The company is heavily involved in supplying controllers to key industries in the fight against Covid to drive a range of dispensers, sanitisers and other related equipment. As a result of continuously rising demand, the company significantly expands the workforce, training programme and also sets up a new dedicated manufacturing facility in Halifax, West Yorkshire to improve quality and increase capacity.
Despite exceptional business challenges as a result of the ongoing impact of Covid and the wider semiconductor supply crisis, the company continued to develop strongly. Much work went into redesign of controllers around supply issues and the year proved to be a particularly difficult one to find components! However, considerable R&D work went into the development of ZikoOptimise and other important modules, as well as a whole host of work which would lay the foundations for the future product range. The company also invested heavily in improved quality management, gaining ISO-9001 certification for design and manufacturing of motor control electronics.
The company launched several new products in 2022, including the first of the MUL range. These new products enabled users to quickly change parameters on the fly, as well as improving custom design work by enabling customers to quickly adapt key features on existing controllers.
There are big plans afoot for 2023 so watch this space…
