HIGH WYCOMBE engineering company, Instron, has reached a milestone in a $3 million contract to supply civil engineering testing machines to universities in Thailand.

The first machine, known as a 5MN, has been completed at a cost of $800,000.

It left the factory for delivery to Thailand on Tuesday.

The contract with the Thai government is for 14 machines.

They will be used to test components and structures used in the civil engineering industry.

The machine tests materials for a wide variety of conditions. For example, materials, such as, concrete beams are tested to see how tensile they are and how much they can be compressed.

The equipment contains a hydraulic actuator capable of exerting a load of up to 500 tons to test tension and compression.

The device is more than seven metres high and more than two metres wide.

Its weight, at more than 50 tons, makes it one of the biggest ever built at the High Wycombe site, in Coronation Road, Cressex, High Wycombe.

The machine was dismantled before being shipped to Thailand and then reassembled by engineers from High Wycombe. The team is being led by Sean Brown, the design engineer and project leader.

The first machine will be installed in the University of Bangkok.

Instron is a worldwide company with headquarters in America.

Its European headquarters are in High Wycombe.

Instron's testing machines are used in a wide variety of environments from micro-electronics and cars to oil rigs and bio-medical products.