Unison’s Steve Haddrell becomes sales director of Nukon Lasers UK

Steve Haddrell, Key Account Manager at Unison Ltdthe inventors of all-electric tube manipulation - has been appointed as Sales Director of sister company, Nukon Lasers UK. In addition to fulfilling his new role, Steve will continue to support Unison’s tube bending machinery customers in the Midlands and South. Nukon Lasers UK became the exclusive UK and Ireland distributor for Nukon’s European-made fibre laser flat sheet metal and tube cutting machines in autumn 2021.

Beginning his career in laser as Supervisor with Nuneaton-based Subcon Laser Cutting Ltd in the late 1980s, Steve moved to 600 Group’s laser division in 1998, where he worked in machine tool sales & applications. He joined

Yamazaki Mazak UK’s optonics division as General Manager in 2004 and moved to Unison Ltd as Key Account Manager in 2009.

“It’s probably fair to say that I’ve accrued more than my fair share of laser-cutting expertise over the years,” he says. “I remember seeing laser-cut parts from some of the first commercial fibre laser machines in the late 1980s, when I was a foremanfabricator in Birmingham. I was awestruck by what those machines could achieve. Obviously, since then, laser cutting has advanced in leaps and bounds, with developments such as highpower fibre laser technology – like the 20 kW nLIGHT model we showcased at EuroBLECH 2022.”

Talking about Unison’s desire to expand into laser cutting technologies, Steve Haddrell adds: “For quite some time we had been looking to extend the Unison product range to include high quality fibre lasers, as we believed they would be a natural fit with our all-electric Unison Breeze tube bending machines. Short of building our own fibre laser machines in-house, however, the challenge was to find an established fibre laser product range that matched the uncompromising levels of reliability and build quality that Unison tube benders are renowned for.

“That wasn’t easy,” he continues. “But after considerable research and frequent reservations about machine quality or support, we finally met with European fibre laser manufacturer, Nukon. Quite apart from offering exceptionally wellmade and price-accessible fibre laser machines - and having a