50th Bro V2 18-11

1960s
Arthur’s drawing showing the
mechanism for the automatic feeding
of containers into a heat sealing
area of the machine. This design
was incorporated into the PA101
machine, Packaging Automation’s
first tray sealing machine.
With three growing children and a business to house the
family purchased a new home Green Hedges in Wilmslow
and moved in on 9th January 1955 complete with Cheadle
Light Engineering.
When Arthur’s mother died, the inheritance offered new
found financial security. At around this time a friend
of Arthur, Ken Miklestraus, happened to mention that
there was a need for a machine to heat seal a plastic
film onto a plastic tray. Arthur responded by saying
that doesn’t sound too difficult and he would build one.
Arthur sketched out and calculated how his machine
would work. It was an ingenious design all mechanical
and driven by one motor.
Arthur set about drawing his machine but progress was
slow. Drawing had never been Arthur’s strong point –
design yes drawing no. It was then that he spoke to
one of the draughtsmen at Simon Carves, Frank Marsh.
Frank volunteered to produce the drawings in his own
time. On completion of the drawings in late 1963,
Arthur offered Frank a job which he accepted.
The machine was built and christened the PA101 because
Arthur did not want to call it machine number one.
The machine was exhibited in October 1964 on the John
Waddington Ltd stand at The Food Packaging Show at
Alexandra Palace.
Arthur dreamt up the name Packaging Automation and
designed a company logo. The company was formed as
‘designers and manufacturers of special purpose
machinery’ on 16th May 1963 with two shareholders
Arthur Penn and Geoff Cooke.