Davin Optronics Davin Optronics is one of the larger members of the Photonics Cluster (UK) with about 100 employees and is based in Watford. It specialises in designing and manufacturing precision opto-electronics systems and components. Its markets include machine vision, ophthalmic medicine and defence. Director John Knowles said that the company joined after coming across the Midlands Cluster idea three years ago while working with Aston University: 'We were doing a lot of work with members of the Midlands cluster such as Indigo and it became apparent that there was a lot of work going on outside the Midlands. We have been involved in a joint development project involving fibre Bragg gratings which are used for measuring stresses and strains. The money given to set up the cluster included funds for projects and we applied for and received funding for this venture. The project was going quite slowly until it received this boost of funding and now we see this as being a product we will be telling in a few years time. We have also been involved in trade missions including a visit to Stockholm. It was very interesting to see how the cluster had developed around a university there too. We have also collaborated in exhibitions. The advantage of the cluster is that it acts as a portal for information. I feed information into it and it is collated and fed back to all the members. You meet a lot of people who are potential partners and potential customers. You also see a lot of interesting technology when you attend their presentations. It certainly makes it a lot easier to get information because [the cluster] collates information. There is certainly a great productivity gain.' Knowles said some of the information channelled through the cluster can include major business opportunities. 'If a company in the US is looking for a partner then that information is passed on through the cluster. We get the chance to make presentations of what we are doing and also to see presentations from other companies, venture capital providers and government. I regard membership as extremely good value and it would cost us a lot more to do the same things ourselves. We are looking forward to using the instrumentation centre. We believe that there will be a business benefit, but in our market things do tend to take a long time.'