15 Ryehill Court, Lodge Farm Industrial Estate, New Duston, Northampton, NN5 7EU, UK

"Opens bigger gates and
at much faster speeds.
No more waiting on that dangerous road."

"The Farmer's Favourite."

History

Back in 1990, an electrical engineer (who was installing automatic door systems for the disabled at the time) was approached by a friend to repair his automatic gate. He soon realised that all automatic gate systems operated using the same principle: which he thought was flawed.

This principle was to operate the gate using a variety of mechanisms from the hinge end of the gate, which obviously takes an awful lot of power & force. Imagine opening your front door from the hinge rather than the latch end.

He saw a gap in the market to develop his new idea to open gates from the latch end. If he could find a solution, it would mean that he could open far bigger gates faster with the very minimal amount of power compared to the rest of the market.

He eventually designed a system, which was an instant success in the rural & equestrian community. The system allowed him to open gates in excess of 28 feet in length, using simple safe 12 volts DC with the added benefit of successfully using solar energy. The system could be fitted to existing gates and actually opened far faster than all of the competition. This was very popular with his customers.

In 2003 Ultra Secure Ltd became the official distributor for the product in the North Midlands and quickly began to successfully market and install the systems in larger quantities than the original supplier.

We quickly latched onto the unique benefits of the system, as did our customers, however certain flaws in the system became evident, that resulted in the need for more customer service visits than we would have wished for.

The flaws that we identified are listed below:

• The circuit board had a poorly designed fuse protection system. Should the gate jam the board would sometimes blow; which was madness.
• In the event of a breakdown, the customer had no easy way to open the latch.
• The wheel had no manual over-ride in the event of a mechanical or electrical problem.
• The remote controls required delicate soldering operation, which resulted in a nightmare for simple additions.
• The chassis was originally designed for left, or right-handed users, thus giving manufacturing stocking problems.
• The circuit board relied heavily on external switches.
• The circuit board was located on the moving chassis, thus more prone to damage due to vibration.
• The biggest battery that could be fitted was 12v 17a. This wasn't a problem apart from solar application whilst using a lot of operation switching methods.

Just at this time, the manufacturers unfortunately went into liquidation. This was due in our opinion primarily to the list of flaws above & poor organization, rather than the product's basic design & operating principle.

The benefits of the system (listed below) were still very apparent to us, so Ultra Secure Ltd paid for the sole design and manufacturing rights to the design.

Benefits of the system:

• Could open larger gates than traditional systems.
• Could open gates faster than the traditional systems.
• Could successfully operate on solar power.
• Could work for hours through power failures.
• Could open gates to more than 180 degrees.
• Could operate wooden and steel gates.
• Could fit to any single gate.
• In the event of seasonal gate movement, especially wooden ones, the mechanism wasn't put under strain & damaged
• The system could work over all surfaces.
• The system could work with a rise & fall of 12 inches of ground deviance in the standard format: 18 inches with extended arms.
• The system could automate a gate using rising hinges.
• No mains electric required near the gate, even when using mains power.

During the next 18 months, Ultra Secure Ltd continued to manufacture a similar version of the original, but making sure that the biggest problem (pc board) had been revamped. Then over the following two years we totally redesigned the complete system ensuring that all the weaker points were reviewed and redesigned.

In January 2009 we proudly relaunched the new system with a focus of selling the system for self-fit (with its brand name of AgriWheel). We had made the following improvements

• New Board: this board had full fuse protection and automatic switching circuits, thus making external switches redundant.
• New Motor.
• New Remote Controls.
• New Chassis.
• New Latch: with key over-ride.
• New Wheel Mechanism: with key over-ride.
• New sleek rust proof strong lid.
• Board located in the secure vibration free location.
• Potential for any size battery.

The system is now available for customers to fit themselves, or through local gate automation companies.

We are also looking to sell the system abroad (especially focusing on the potential of remote solar applications) and currently have interested parties in all parts of the globe.

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