HISTORY: TRAXSYS
was originally formed during the late 1950s by Professor W. A. Penny and Mr.
J. Giles under the brand name "Penny & Giles Ltd", with the intention
of providing the aerospace and military sectors with design and manufacture
of specialist position sensors and data recording equipment.
The company prospered, forming subsidiary companies as new products and
markets emerged, and during the 1980s became listed on the London stock
exchange. The subsidiary company, Penny & Giles Computer Products Ltd was
formed in 1986, operating as a wholly owned part of Penny & Giles
International plc whose purpose was the design and manufacture of niche
market track balls and computer input devises for the medical, military and
industrial sectors.
In 2002 an approach was made by one of Penny & Giles
Computer Product's major customers with a view to acquisition and finally
resulting in new ownership by the American Esterline Technology Group of
predominantly US companies under the continued supervision of the UK
management team. A growing commitment to civil aerospace and medical markets
lead to full ISO9001-2000 quality listing along with major customer
approvals in all major counties and market sectors.
From October 2003 the old Penny & Giles name was replaced by TRAXSYS a new
brand name that better describes there growing products and services, while
at the same time underwriting a major milestone in there history and
transition to a truly global supplier of cursor control products. As market
leaders in the supply of high end track balls to all major market sectors
the TRAXSYS brand serves us as we respond and manage a further phase of
planned expansion supported by Esterline.
DEVELOPMENT: In recent years the emergence onto the market of
contactless technology has shown an alternative approach was possible. With
optical ball recognition being a common system used in office/home
applications, early tests by TRAXSYS to harness this for more demanding
environments proved its shortcomings when used in hostile applications.
Therefore the search continued to push the technology envelope using
alternative means. After many years of research and development and in
response to the market for a contactless track ball, TRAXSYS are now proud
to present a NEW style of pointing device using our Patented INDUCTIVE
TECHNOLOGY, branded under the name TRAXBALL™.
This solution offers the user a unit with no moving parts except the ball.
The user experience is identical to that of our conventional ‘mechanical’
units giving the high quality precision cursor movement synonymous with the
TRAXSYS range. Due to the lack of mechanical or optical interaction to
detect ball movement the NEW INDUCTIVE TECHNOLOGY is completely unaffected
by the introduction of exterior contamination such as high opacity liquids,
dust, gels etc. and will even work when completely full of sand. In essence
if the ball moves the cursor will too.
