We’re pleased to share that Darren has been shortlisted for the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2026 Automate UK Awards, recognising more than four decades of engineering, product development and problem-solving at Secomak.
Darren joined Secomak in 1983 and, over the following 43 years, has worked across virtually every area of engineering and development within the business. From machining and tooling to heaters, industrial equipment and military audio technology, his career has developed alongside Secomak’s own engineering history.
Today, as Technical and Development Manager, Darren continues to develop products, solve engineering challenges and pass his knowledge on to the next generation of engineers.
Below is our 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award entry, published in full.
Lifetime Achievement Award – 2026 Entry
The Darren Story: 43 Years, Four Patents and Plenty of Problem-Solving
My Secomak story began in 1983, after two short-lived jobs involving 5.30am starts, 7pm finishes and enough back-breaking work to nearly finish me off before my career had properly begun.
Over the next 43 years, Secomak and I grew together, developing equipment for the packaging, processing, oil and gas, and wider industrial sectors, alongside military loudspeakers and communication systems.
In late 1982, with “Come On Eileen” playing on the radio, I decided to put my love of mechanical development and Yamaha FS1E moped tuning to better use.
I joined the Youth Opportunities Scheme, learning machining, fabrication and electrical work. It was an apprenticeship waiting for a company to give you a chance. Secomak gave me mine.
My supervisor hated Monday starters, so I began on Tuesday 5 April 1983 at 10am. After two weeks in every department, I ended up back in the machine shop.
When CNC machines arrived, I was sent on a crash course in programming. You learnt the basics and fathomed out the rest yourself.
One job involved machining elliptical siren shutter blades. Each took hours on an off-centre fixture. The supplier said our controls could not produce the shape. I was not having that.
After five minutes’ thought, I treated the ellipse like a thread with a very large pitch: half a right-hand thread down, half a left-hand thread up, and Bob’s your uncle. Machining time fell from two hours to about one minute.
By 25, I was running the machine shop, designing tooling, repairing machinery and realigning CNCs after the occasional crash. As Secomak expanded, so did my role, bringing new technologies and challenges. I developed solutions for customers across packaging, processing and industrial automation.
I moved into heater production, taught myself element design, rebuilt a submarine loudspeaker from drawings, supported audio development, led quality and testing, became Quality Manager and, in 2018, Technical and Development Manager.
That brought me back to where I belonged: solving problems, developing products and moving Secomak forward. Since then, I have been named on four patents, each representing years of practical problem-solving and product development. There were plenty of other ideas too, although some were banked until the business needed something pulled out of the bag.
Just as important as the products has been passing that knowledge on. I have trained colleagues, supported apprentices and encouraged younger engineers to question, experiment and find their own solutions.
In 2026, I reached 43 years with Secomak. People say staying that long says something about the company. I think it says something about the person too. No business is perfect, so I chose to keep improving it.
As former CEO John Moore taught me: “Kaizen” – continuous small improvements.
Looking back, those improvements became something much bigger: a lifetime spent developing products, solving engineering challenges, supporting customers and helping the packaging, processing, automation and wider industrial sectors move forward.
That may have been Secomak’s greatest gift to me.
