UNITED States Navy vessels will soon benefit from the hard graft and technical expertise of a family company based in Keighley's Dalton Lane.

Acetarc welding and engineering company won a major contract to produce two huge foundry ladles for the Philadelphia-based US Naval Foundry and Propeller Centre.

Each of the steel ladles, which will both soon be sent to America, is designed to pour up to 60 metric tons of molten metal.

Steven Harker, one of the directors of Acetarc, said: "We got the order just before Christmas and we are proud to have won the contract.

"We'd been negotiating for the order for quite an extended period, partly because Government organisations do not move quickly and partly because we had to fight very hard for the contract. The customer wanted to make sure it went to the right people.

"We've been making these kinds of items for 50 years but don't often get the chance to make them this big."

Mr Harker, whose father and uncle founded Acetarc in 1967, said these were probably the largest ladles for foundry use manufactured in the UK for the last 20 to 25 years.

"Sixty-five US tons is a big beast for a foundry," he added. "These are going to be used to pour nickel aluminium bronze (NAB) into a mould to make propellers.

"We had to register ourselves with a couple of organisations and have various inspections but now we can supply to any NATO country.

"The contract was worth more than 450,000 US dollars. That's for the whole package which includes us having the ladles shipped over to the US."

Each ladle is 4.6 metres tall and weighs about 15 tons. Once in America they will be fitted with fire brick lining so they can cope with handling 1,300 degree centigrade molten metal.

The ladles will be controlled using a radio remote handset, enabling the operator to stand a safe distance away from the extreme heat involved.

They were both designed using the latest Computer Aided Design software.

Mr Harker said the ladles, which have been placed in the yard immediately outside Acetarc, had attracted interest from people passing the premises.

He said: "They are too big to test inside our factory so we've brought them outside.

"They've already been load tested using hydraulic jacks and we'll also check that their controls work.

"We've got visitors from the US Navy coming to see us and once we've repeated the tests for them the shipping process can start."

Mr Harker, who has been with Acetarc since 1980, added: "It's important that people still realise that we do manufacture things in this country and we do sell all over the world.

"Our own company exports to Europe and we sell plenty to the Americas, including a lot to Chile.

"If we can be competitive we will go wherever someone needs this equipment."

Acetarc employs 22 people and has been located in Dalton Lane since 1977.