Skip to content
Contact us

Spotlight: JJ Smith

Back to Spotlight Portfolio

JJ Smith Banner-1

JJ Smith is a woodwork machinery manufacturer and supplier, established in 1923. Its co-venture, Modular Building Automation, is also one of three leading suppliers of modular building equipment for the manufacture of timber panels for walls, floors, and roofs.

Programmes or services:  Innovation Consultancy, R&D Partnership Fund
Investment or funding: LYVA Labs’ £15K R&D Partnership Fund to solve design engineering challenges.
Support provided:

Building design requirements, introduction to external expert partners, design engineering, project support and facilitation.

 
Sector: Advanced manufacturing
Time of support: November 2023 - ongoing
Location: Knowsley
External partners: iDM Solutions Ltd., Hooper Quinn Ltd.

 

Summary

The R&D project LYVA Labs was asked to support focused on JJ Smith’s ambition to diversify into light gauge steel-based modular building equipment, aiming to automate a very manual assembly process for steel structured wall, floor, and roof panels. As an ambitious innovation for the industry, the project has faced significant challenges, stretching internal capability and resources.

A prototype machine has been built with significant internal investment but faced challenges with the assembly system accuracy, preventing first trials with early adopting customers.

LYVA Labs identified and involved specialist R&D partners to help prioritise the engineering areas to focus on and to develop new design solutions to help resolve the assembly issues. Work is ongoing to build and test the design solution, ready for the customer trials of the machine.

Could this type of support unlock opportunities for your business?