A history of intelligent engineering

Richard Miles, a founder of the sub-contract water jet cutting company Creative WaterJet started his working career at Gee Graphite. Focusing his further education towards becoming a Systems Analyst, a work placement sent Richard in the direction of Colin Gee as a keen student. Following this time, Colin enticed Richard to join the team full-time as a trainee estimator.  

The early years at Gee Graphite gave great opportunities and included working closely with the team developing laminated gaskets for triple offset valve (TOSV) manufacturers, water jet cutting projects and in later years the introduction of the first four head abrasive and six head water only machines to the UK.

Ten years later, new challenges were sought and Richard moved to join the team at The WaterJet Group, later Thyssen Krupp. The company heavily focused in the defence and aerospace sectors and quickly grew to eleven machines and twenty employees. Following the amalgamation of the group to new premises, Richard felt it was the right time to move forward and establish his own business.

In 2008 Creative WaterJet opened its doors. At the dawn of a worldwide recession they offered something new to the market. Manufacturing components finished to the drawing requirement, water jet cut, bent, machined, painted which is all managed by the company so that the client has total confidence that the components could be delivered direct to the assembly line. CERN, SPX & HS2 all used Creative WaterJet’s services.

In 2010 Creative WaterJet brought machining capacity in-house to service the growing graphite laminates for the TOSV market.

Moving forward to 2023 the market leader for graphite laminates, Gee Graphite closed its doors one last time and leaving a void in the market. Creative WaterJet were onboarded by several valve manufacturers to solve the immediate requirements.

Other projects in 2023 included the design and development of our Hydreel and MFW generator frames, alongside 3D scanning/reverse engineering projects. By mid-2023, Richard made the decision to establish Richard Miles Ltd to focus on intelligent engineering projects, including the manufacture of TOSV laminates, to create clear definition between this and his previous venture Creative WaterJet.