How it started
History
The company was founded by Sir David McMurtry and John Deer in 1973. McMurtry had needed to measure fuel pipes on a prototype jet engine: at the time, coordinate-measuring machine sensors featured rigid styli, which required manual positioning on the surface and which yielded poor repeatability when measuring delicate components. To meet this need, McMurtry invented a touch-trigger probe device, which he then patented. The probe featured an elegant 'kinematic' location for a spring-loaded stylus, providing a highly repeatable seated position for the stylus combined with the compliance needed to measure such components.
Renishaw floated on the Unlisted Securities Market in 1983, and gained a full listing on the London Stock Exchange in November 1984. In 2006, the Company bought 'itp', a German manufacturer of precision styli. In early 2009, the global recession reached Renishaw, resulting in a large proportion of the workforce being placed "at risk".
In 2010, Renishaw bought a stake (and subsequently took complete control) of Measuring Devices Ltd, a company providing a range of services in the field of surveying equipment. In 2011, Renishaw purchased the 400,000 sq ft Bosch plant in Miskin, Wales.
From Wikipedia’s article on Renishaw plc, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2