The organisation formally known as Hounsfield Test Equipment is still the UK's leading manufacturer of materials testing machines.

Renamed as Tinius Olsen Ltd, the UK site houses:
• Research and product development
• Equipment manufacture
• The International sales and technical support team

January 2004 saw UK based Hounsfield Test Equipment take the name of its US parent company Tinius Olsen. The change has simplified presentation of the company's impressive portfolio of products.

This one-brand approach enables the Tinius Olsen Group to satisfy a much wider range of testing requirements across all industrial sectors and in particular provide a consistent high standard of expertise in materials testing to global customers, many of whom have manufacturing facilities in multiple countries across the world.

Manufacturers supplying international markets will benefit from the improved feedback on standards and testing methods arising from close cooperation between Tinius Olsen engineers and technologists working with standards organizations in the USA and Europe, with single company approval by UKAS, A2LA and other related bodies world-wide makes Tinius Olsen calibration certificates and test reports valid in any country.

Hounsfield the engineering company was founded in 1904 by Leslie Hounsfield.

Who was Leslie Hounsfield?

Leslie was an outstanding engineer, an inventor with a genuine pioneering spirit always looking to embrace the very latest in technology and trying to use it to enhance people's lives.

What did he do?

As a young inventor Leslie made a living designing and producing pumps. However his first real major project came about when he considered the inefficiency and time wasted by his brother who was a Medical Doctor in General Practice. His brother, a locum at that time, traveled between patients either using a horse drawn taxi, or by bicycle.

Automobile technology was advancing but only available for the wealthy. Leslie felt an affordable car would radically improve the efficiency of local doctors and greatly improve the quality of care provided, so he set about designing and building what was probably the first real 'company car'.

The prototype was ready in 1913 but the outbreak of war meant it did not go into production until nine years later. It was called the Trojan and was an instant success; affordable and economical to run.